Discussion: Musicians need actual income from online gigs

This came up during a Facebook Live discussion on 26 April, titled the Impact of COVID-19 on African Entertainment. Namibian musician Taylor Jaye was present, as were Kenya's Nameless and DJs Stylez and Chris Stylus. Also taking part from Kenya was Performers Rights Society of Kenya chairperson Ephantus Safari. Others who participated in the discussion were musicians J Martins (Nigeria), Vinka (Uganda), Kriticos (Zambia/Tanzania) and DJ Adams (Rwanda). The discussion was moderated by Kenyan radio presenter Joseph Oyoo, who is popularly known as Gidi Gidi. 

It emerged that African artists are currently working on building their online platforms to be reliable sources of income, as they think it's highly unlikely they will hold public performances anytime soon.

"Whether your country lifts a lockdown or not, people from the rest of the countries are not allowed to travel," Taylor Jaye said. "So concerts cannot be brought in if travel is not allowed. For many concerts in Namibia, artists are flying in and if borders are not opened then we are not going to be holding any concerts. I think all countries need at least four to five months to try and balance themselves back."

The panellists agreed that although African musicians are livestreaming their events, many of them are casual performances that do not yield income. DJ Stylez said there was a critical need to improve livestream-related royalty payments and to update licensing requirements and agreements. He said DJs were having a hard time using third-party content on Facebook and YouTube, with some DJs' performances being taken down in the middle of a set.

"Facebook announced how they are going to monetise and are creating a platform for concerts and events," he said. "That tells you that even if we get over COVID-19, there is going to be a push for online concerts. For DJs, we are already mixing live. What we have to figure out is how to create monetisation for that."

Kriticos, who is based in Belgium, said artists could help enhance brand awareness, and encouraged corporates to partner with artists to utilise their fan bases as potential consumers.

Oyoo asked Safari about the measures that had been set in place to enable Kenyan artists to overcome the economic effects of the pandemic. 

"We are still hoping that the government can grant us a relief fund for artists because we only have one avenue for collecting and that's the broadcasters," Safari said. "We are lobbying for them to pay for their licences because they are working. The Communication Authority of Kenya has already written to the broadcasters and given them until 30 April to renew their licence. We are looking at collecting 400 million Kenyan shillings [$3.7m], which we can distribute to artists and it will be a boost to the industry."

The panellists also agreed that musicians should use this moment to be productive and develop their careers through new projects.

"This wasn't planned so it should be a time to rebrand and restrategise," Nameless said. "This period has forced us to be innovative and to think differently because many artists were used to one source of income. We now need to think of other sources of revenue."

Vinka said: "I'm doing vocal training from home. We are keeping in touch with our fans on all social media platforms. I recently joined TikTok to make videos that can keep my fans on my page. I am working on my second album and I do have an online concert scheduled for next weekend."

Taylor Jaye also raised the issue of needing to diffuse the spread of fake information, and educate the general public about the seriousness of COVID-19 and its role in preventing the spread of the virus.

"People think it's not real. I have a few friends in Nigeria who have been saying that most Nigerians don't believe this thing is real and they are continuing with their normal routine. We are seeing the numbers spiking because of that," she said.