Phil Chard’s Workshop on How Artists Can Use Digital Media

As part of the ongoing Music Industry Incubator Workshop series, Phil Chard from Point Black Entertainment spoke to a group of artists from Bulawayo in a full-day workshop to help them develop and harness their digital skills. The workshop covered topics such as brand building, developing audience personas, how to reach them, developing newsletters and understanding the structures of contracts. The workshop was attended by a wide swathe of artists and creatives who all had glowing reviews for the information shared.

Our Bulawayo Songwriting Workshop With Daecolm

Zimbabwe-born and now Los Angeles-based Grammy-nominated musician Daecolm flew into Bulawayo to be part of The Music Industry Incubator Workshop to speak on Songwriting.

Daecolm is currently riding high after enjoying one of his most successful years as an artist that saw him moving from London to LA, releasing a slew of big singles, and working on Chris Brown’s Grammy-nominated album Breezy. Most recently he co-wrote another song for Chris Brown titled It’s Giving Christmas which is holding strong on the holiday charts overseas. 

The Grammy nominee sat down with a group of Bulawayo artists for a free songwriting workshop where Daecolm shared a great deal of insights from his illustrious career. The charismatic vocalist and writer shared information on song structure, maintaining your identity, branding and promotion with the artists. 

The free workshop was facilitated by Harare-based label Point Black Entertainment as part of The Music Industry Incubator program that they are running with Unplugged Zimbabwe.

Press Coverage

• The Chronicle

• Gem Nation

The Music Industry Incubator Harare Workshop Recap

On December 17, 2022, Point Black Entertainment and Unplugged Zimbabwe held the first in-person edition of The Music Industry Incubator. The all-day workshop was attended by both established music industry professionals and up-and-coming artists and managers. The day featured a conversation and Q&A session with prominent artist manager Jack Mashala from South Africa.

Then attendees had the opportunity to learn first-hand from DJ Tamuka about how he produces some of the biggest hits in the country with a live demonstration of his process.

We then closed out the day with a session with Spirit Fingerz - one of Zimbabwe’s most sought-after musical directors and producers. His sessions touched on how best artists can build a morale live shoe and how to arrange their music accordingly.

The day’s sessions ended with all attendees being provided with power banks to ensure they can stay online and be productive during load shedding.

The workshop was hosted by veteran MC and radio personality Butterphly who kept attendees both entertained and informed with her insights and wit.

Spirit Fingerz on How Best to Structure a Live Performance

Spirit Fingerz is one of Zimbabwe’s most celebrated and talented producers, musical directors, an accomplished performer and session musician who plays a number of instruments. He has worked with some of Zimbabwe’s most accomplished artists such as Tamy Moyo, Janet Manyowa, Ammara Brown, Takura, Nutty O and more.

Jack Mashala on Artist Management and Brand Building

As part of The Music Industry Incubator workshop series, we invited artist manager Jack Mashala (Mas Musiq) to fly in from South Africa to have a 1 on 1 conversation with Phil Chard on how best to build a brand, what managers should be aware of and what artists can do to work with their management to build a revenue generating brand.

Full audio from our chat is below:

DJ Tamuka on Production and Mixing

As part of The Music Industry Incubator Workshop series, we had DJ Tamuka - one of Zimbabwe’s most accomplished and successful producers and composers come to speak to our artists on the intricacies of his process and how best to prepare a song. He then gave a live session on how he made one of Jay Prayzah’s biggest hits to date titled Dangerous.

Listen to an extended clip from the workshop below:

What To Know About Festivals with Walter Wanyanya

As a leading Music Festival Director in Southern Africa, Walter Wanyanya has been privileged to witness the rise of some truly exceptional artists who have gone on to become internationally booked and respected across the world. Most notably he worked with the late Dr Oliver Mtukudzi. 

In his masterclass, he discussed the following;

• Artists must possess undeniable talent and a unique artistic vision that sets them apart from the rest. 

• Practice and performances will hone their craft through continuous practice and experimentation is crucial.

• Building a fanbase is crucial. Engaging with fans through social media, live performances, and meaningful interactions helps foster a loyal following. 

• Artists need to focus on creating great quality music that stands out from the crowd and resonates with a global audience. 

• Artists must constantly work on their stage presence and live performances. Captivating audiences with powerful and energetic shows leaves a lasting impression and creates demand for their presence at major festivals worldwide.

• Artists should actively seek out networking opportunities and establish relationships with industry professionals, booking agents, and promoters to expand their reach. 

• During our conversation, Walter mentioned the booking form that he used when promoters were looking to book Dr. Oliver Mtukudzi for a show. YOu can download that below

Understanding Copyright Law With Aurelia J Schultz

This week The Music Industry Incubator hosts Aurelia J. Schultz who is an international copyright expert with 15 years of experience in African Copyright. 

She earned her BA in Religious Studies from Carroll College and her Juris Doctorate from Vanderbilt University Law School in Nashville. She began her legal career at Creative Commons where she was the first Africa Regional Coordinator. Most recently, she served as Counsel for Policy and International Affairs at the U.S. Copyright Office. She has trained artists, industry professionals and government officials around the world and enjoys collaborating with others to improve our global creative industries.

What is A Music Copyright?

A copyright is the legal mechanism that gives you a property right indoor creation. It changes you from a creator into an owner and that's important because property rights are alienable, which means that you can buy them and sell them, lease them, and rent them and trade them.

Summary

• 00:51 Intro to Copyright

• 2:14 What is mechanical right

• 8:40 What is WIPO

• 10:15 Importance of treaties and how they affect you

• 16:00 As an artist who is collaborating how is copyright ownership determined

• 19:20 Who owns the sound recordings

• 24:00 How long does Copyright last

• 26:55 How to enforce your copyright

• 29:49 How to enforce your copyright

• 31:50 Protecting your copyright

• 35:00 How your copyright works across territories

• 40:15 How attribution works

• 45:01 How to protect your work

• 46:26 What do Public Domain and Fair Use mean

• 50:50 Copyrighting a sound using sheet music

Additional Information

Zimbabwe currently uses the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act of 2004 (Chapter 26:05). This law uses specialized language that is harmonized globally to explain who gets what rights in which types of creative works. This specialized language makes it easier for you to get paid when your songs are used or played in other countries, but the downside is that the specialized language can be challenging to learn. Once you understand it, though, you’ll be in really good shape to make music your career and not just your passion.

The most important thing to understand about copyright is that the original creators of works and their heirs are protected by basic rights. They are called “authors” under the law and hold the exclusive right to use or authorize others to use their work. There are certain uses where a copyright owner cannot control the use of their work. These are called “exceptions and limitations” under the law; you may see us mention these from time to time. 

Copyright protection extends only to the expressions and not to ideas, feels, grooves, etc. This means that for a copyright to exist, the song has to actually exist in some form. This is why we said documenting the process of creating a song is so important. 

What an average listener thinks of as “a song,” the copyright law thinks of as a combination of several different works. Each work can be created and owned by a different person or even different groups of people

In music there are 3 separate rights;

1. The Composition

1. This consists of the underlying music, lyrics and melody. These are owned by the composers and/or the publisher.

2. The Sound Recording

1. This is the recording of the composition. The copyright to the sound recording is owned by the person who paid for the recording to happen. This is usually a record label but can be the recording artist or another funder. Under the Zimbabwean Copyright Act, the person funding the recording can pay with money or “money’s worth,” which means bartering and other exchanges can count. When you hear someone say they “own their own masters,” they mean they own their sound recording rights.

3. The Performance

1. This is a particular rendition of a musical work by a particular performer or group of performers. The performer or performers have rights in their particular performance. The law guarantees performers payment for the commercial use of their recordings. By law, this money is paid to the sound recording owner and the sound recording owner is responsible for paying the performer. If you are a performer and not the sound recording owner, you should negotiate with the sound recording owner and include your royalty percentage in your contract. (Note that there are also “performance rights” in compositions and sound recordings when the composition or sound recording is performed in public, which are different from performers’ rights in their performances.)

When thinking of these rights, think of a set of blueprints for your house. You can create one set of blueprints for a house (the composition) but those blueprints can be used several times over by different builders (performers) to create their own houses (the sound recording). The most commonly used example is that of Dolly Parton’s smash hit “I Will Always Love You”. Dolly composed and recorded this song, then released it in 1973. Kevin Costner fell in love with Linda Rondstadt’s 1975 version and suggested it to Whitney Houston in the 1990s. Whitney Houston’s version became a massive hit. All three of these recordings used Dolly’s composition, and Dolly earns revenue as a composer for all of them. She also earns revenue as a performing artist for her 1973 version. 

Music Publishing

If you are involved in the creation of a song as a songwriter, composer, producer, or beatmaker then you are entitled to revenue whenever that composition is exploited. 

Some examples of revenue you are entitled to

1. Streaming

2. Downloads

3. Covers

4. Radio Play

5. Public Performance

6. Sampling

7. Sync Deals

“Music publishing is the owning and exploiting of songs in the form of musical copyrights.”

– Randall Wixen, The Plain and Simple Guide to Music Publishing.

If you have written an original song, and you have not signed away the rights to those songs via a publishing deal then you own that composition. You have the right to exploit the publishing rights of your music however you see fit. You will also be entitled to collect performance royalties when your songs are played on the radio or in venues (even if you are not the person performing the song). To collect these sources of revenue you need to register with both a publisher like Sheer or SongTrust and also with a CMO

Ownership

If you’re a songwriter who has not signed away any of your publishing rights then you are both the songwriter and the publisher. This is called a self-administered songwriter. You are owed both shares (for the songwriter and for the publisher) of any royalties that your songs generate. However, you cannot just release music and watch publishing revenue trickle into your account, you actively have to collect it. That is why it is imperative that you sign up with a CMO and also consider signing a publishing deal so the publisher can do the heavy lifting to collect your revenue on your behalf.

Point Black & Unplugged Zimbabwe have partnered to launch The Music Industry Incubator

For Immediate Release

Email: info@musicindindustryincubator.com

Website: www.musicindindustryincubator.com

Unplugged Zimbabwe - one of the country’s largest event promoters have partnered with digital agency and label services company Point Black Africa on The Music Industry Incubator.

The Music Industry Incubator project consists of a series of online workshops open to all artists. The workshops are currently being held on Tuesday and Thursday evenings on Twitter Spaces. The workshops will run until September 2022. 

The next phase of the project will see 20 artists being chosen to take part in 1 on 1 mentorship sessions with accomplished industry professionals. All artists will also gain free access to resources and documents that will help increase their knowledge and ability to increase their revenue as an artist. 

“The project was designed to address the following issues that we come across regularly in our organisations. Upon completion we would like The Music Industry Incubator to  address the following;

1. Educate Artists on the entertainment and arts industries in sub-Saharan Africa

2. Provide artists with a comprehensive resource of free information that they can easily use to increase their earning potential

3. Provide solutions to artists who are suffering from a drastic loss in revenue due to the Covid-19 pandemic

4. Provide artists with mentoring from industry professionals that will allow them to increase their network.” Said the organisers in a joint statement.

To date, the project has already delivered workshops with speakers such as Mzwandile Sibanda, Mr Kamera, Mutsai Musa, Carol Nkosi, Munya Chanetsa and RayDizz with more discussions to follow from both African and American Music Business Professionals.

Their website also hosts a number of free downloadable resources and explainers of why every artist should have them. Free resources include SPlit Sheets, Notification of Works templates, metadata tools and legal agreements. 

To sign up for the program, interested artists can visit The Music Industry Website here www.musicindindustryincubator.com

Follow the conversation on Twitter

@PointBlackAfrica
@UnpluggedZim

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Coping With The Effects of The Pandemic with Game "Zeus" Bantsi

This week we had artist, event promoter and content creator Game “Zeus” Bantsi to talk to us about his creative journey and how artists can come out of the pandemic with their best foot forward while also putting safeguards in place to ensure their careers are not completely derailed by unforeseen circumstances

“It really breaks my heart that we have all these assets sitting in these institutions [banks] but it is not really accessible to us as creatives and other vulnerable communities”

Notes

1. Understand the business of music

2. Think of your career and yourself as a business

3. Getting business loans as an artist is difficult. Your collateral assets are your Intellectual Property

4. Understand how your brand can generate revenue and refine that process

5. Learn as much across as many skillsets as possible 

Summary

• 7:50 How he overcome Botswana’s small population to cross over regionally 

• 12:50 How Zeus used his education to further his career

• 16:50 Understanding the business of music

• 22:05 Can an artist access a business loan?

• 28:50 How Zeus kept his career going during the pandemic

• 38:12 Keeping the culture alive

• 50:50 The importance of learning multiple tools for the creative business

Streams of Income with Mutsai Musa

Mutsai Musa has been running the creative incubator, Quiet Riot Media for 15 years. Quiet Riot Media has consulted for both international artists and large entertainment companies on intellectual property and copyright management, paying attention to protecting income streams and generating long-term revenue for creative projects. Recent clients include Apple Music Africa, Universal Music Publishing Group Africa, Sony Music Africa, Interscope Records (USA), Platoon Africa, LVRN Records (USA).

In our chat with Mutsai, we discussed the various ways Zimbabwean artists can earn revenue as artists and what they can do to increase their earning potential. 

Summary

Summary of Earning Channels

1. Mechanical Royalties (Sales) 

2. Publishing Royalties

3. Merchandise

4. Live Show Income

Workshop Summary

4:35 How artists can be considered for Digital Service Provider Playlists

• Playlisting is the new radio and is a key part of getting your music discovered

• Your distributor plays a key part in getting playlisting

• Use UGC social media content platforms to promote your work

• Make sure your song is on radio

10:04 How to pitch yourself and your music 

• Have an EPK and marketing plan ready before you release a song

• That EPK should clearly state your DNA as an artist in 1 page

• WHO you are. WHERE you are going. WHAT information and data about you is available.

13:25 How to pitch yourself to festivals 

14:11 The types of revenue available to artists

• Maximise show revenue when it is available

• Look into publishing as early as possible

23:11 How revenue is generated

26:06 The importance of working with others and building a team

“Working alone is not beneficial. Would you rather have 100% of $10 or 50% of $100”

• Learn the fundamentals of the business

34:10 How to approach brand endorsements

• To get a brand endorsement you have to add value to the brand in question

• Brand endorsements are not a viable source of long-term revenue because brands are in business to sell products and not support artists

37:32 How to prepare your brand to become one that earns revenue

• Make yourself and your music easy to find. (Search Engine Optimisation)

• Website, Biography and press pics

• Market and promote yourself

41:30 The questions you need to ask a potential partner before you work with them

• Who have you worked with before?

• What do you know about the following;

  • Distribution

  • Publishing

  • Sync Licensing

  • Marketing

  • Artist Management

43:40 How to prepare marketing and promotion budgets 

49:50 TikTok presents the biggest opportunity for artists

For reference here is the video from VOX that tracks the importance of TikTok

Editorial Note

At the 70-minute mark, an audience member and Mutsai made mention of Zimbabwean collection societies. Though they advised that no revenue is being generated locally and signing up for ZIMURA is not advisable, we would suggest that as an artist you DO sign up to ZIMURA for local collections and regional CMOs like SAMRO and CAPASSO for international collections. It is important that artists are active members of ZIMURA to ensure they have a voice in improving their operations. 

This workshop was supported by the United States Mission to The African Union.

The African Festival Circuit with Carol Ndosi

Carol Ndosi is an entrepreneur who runs The Nyama Choma Festival, one of East Africa’s largest festivals. It draws the continent’s most prominent musical talent once a quarter to a one-of-a-kind food and music extravaganza. It has been running for 11 years and remains the main attraction on Dar-es-Salaam’s social calendar. Outside of the festival Carol also runs AltaVista a one-stop-shop events company, and she is also well-known for her work in youth, social justice and gender advocacy in Tanzania and the rest of the continent.

In our discussion, Carol and the team from Unplugged (Ellinah and Chiedza) talk about the challenges Festival organisers encounter, what artists can do to get themselves booked for festivals, the mistakes they make and where they can make functional changes to increase their ability to perform and tour.

Summary Of Important Takeaways

12:40 Festivals that are not directly linked to media platforms (radio and tv etc) cannot guarantee the support a festival organised by a radio station can. It is common practice in Africa for media platforms to organise a festival or event and not offer to pay an artist in cash but instead offer increased placements via advertisements, interviews or music playlisting leading up to the event. This is done on the premise that the increased exposure will lead to more opportunities that are equal to, or even surpass what an artist would be paid normally. When developing your strategy and your budget, this is an important consideration to make as you decide which types of events you would like to perform at and how you will support yourself and your band or DJ.

• 14:20 Radio is still used as a very big indicator of an artist’s popularity and viability when events are scouting for artists. YouTube trends and social media are also used (18:01)

• 16:22 Scout for festivals whose customer base matches your fanbase 

• 18:50 Before you get bored make sure your booking information is clearly visible on your social media pages. Make sure you have 1 email address and a booking number (ideally not your personal number). Event organisers need to make sure they are paying the right person. 

• Ideally, you should have the following documents

  • Technical Rider

  • Hospitality Rider

  • Points for what the contract should include

Please make sure you subscribe to our newsletter as we will be sharing a detailed article on how to create a tech rider next week. 

• 30:15 If possible record your live performances and upload them to social media so potential bookers get an idea of what you live performance is like.

• Understand that any contract you sign is legally binding, so read anything you are sent thoroughly before signing. Do not rely solely on verbal agreements 

We will be having discussions like this every Tuesday and Thursday at 7 pm Central African Time on Twitter Spaces. Make sure to follow Unplugged Zimbabwe and Point Black to never miss these chats.

Book your seat for our next discussion here. 

Music Publishing With Munya Chanetsa

Munya Chanetsa is a well-known music executive and founder of M.O.T.I with more than 10 years of A&R and licensing experience. He has worked with mobile operators, CAPASSO and Sony Music Publishing amongst others. He has also been a featured presenter on music copyright at leading forums and conferences in South Africa, Angola, Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria and Zimbabwe.

In this workshop, we cover the basics of publishing, how important it is for all songwriters and what avenues they can use to exploit their publishing to earn revenue. 

Summary

Workshop Summary

1:15 The role of a publisher 

• Facilitate collaborations

• Place/exploit existing songs

• Sync mood music to movies, games, apps etc

6:30 What is a music library

8:40 How terms for Sync Licenses are used practically

9:01 Self Publishing versus signing with a publisher 

Pros of self-publishing

• You retain 100% of your rights

• 100% of the revenue

Cons of self-publishing

• More administrative work

• No help with A&R

• Have to sell yourself to collaborators

14:30 The Collective Management Organisations available to Zimbabwean artists and how licensing worst

17:25 What artists need to get a licensing deal

23:10 Getting your paperwork in order and courting publishers

29:10 How copyright works with sampling

38:02 The value of Synchronisation Deals and branding in publishing 

41:00 Munya’s MOTI tool

Performing as A DJ with RayDizz

RayDizz is one of Zimbabwe's leading DJs and performers who has graced the stages of The Ministry of Sound, Marquee Las Vegas, Big Brother Africa, Vic Falls Carnival, HIFA and opened up for some of Africa's biggest stars.

In this conversation he shares his advice on how young DJs can get started in the industry, build a brand, what equipment to use and where to legally source music. 

Summary

4:45 How To prepare for a set

11:40 What are tone and pitch plays when DJ’ing

12:35 What equipment a new DJ needs

• Controllers versus CDJs

16:18 Reinvesting in equipment and the need to budget 

21:20 The importance of management and booking agents

23:50 The viability of collaborations 

27:20 RayDizz advice for upcoming DJs

37:05 How to get on a show promoter’s radar

40:40 The importance of YouTube as a teaching and promotional tool

39:55 The use of Record Pools and other legal purchasing platforms

Music Production With Mr Kamera

The first of The Music Industry Incubator workshops kicked off on June 9 with Zimbabwean-born superstar producer Mr Kamera. In our chat, we covered a lot of topics that would be incredibly helpful to Zimbabwean musicians of all kinds. An edited of the conversation can be played and downloaded below. We also have detailed timestamped notes and resources that cover the issues we discussed. Please note that all information and quotes from Mr Kamera will be in quotation marks and italicized “like this”. This is to help make it easier for you to see differentiate the advice between us and Mr Kamera.

Summary

• 4:30 Kamera of the importance of creating music every day so you have a variety of options for Artists when they come calling for collaborations

• 5:14 How Kamera approaches collaborating with other producers and session musicians to add various elements to a song.

  • It is important to note that a producer has the ability to call in other musicians to add to the composition or song. Throughout the chat we make mention of this and also the final role the producer plays.

  • When a musician is called in by an artist or producer to play an instrument, they are referred to a Session Musician. Under Zimbabwean Copyright Law a Session Musician will produce a Commissioned Work

  • Under Zimbabwean law, the person commissioning and paying for a work is granted initial copyright ownership in the work. Under section 14(4)(e) commissioned sound recordings belong to the commissioning party. Additionally, works created in the scope of employment belong to the employer under section 14(5).

  • 8:39 What Tools does Kamera use to produce.
    “A MacBook Pro Laptop, Good quality headphones, Fruity Loops Studio 9”

  • 11:09 How Kamera went from working with local artists to international collaborations.
    “Faith, consistently working and networking strategically. “

• 14:00 How to facilitate international collaborations.
  “Being persistent with staying in contact with the artists you meet and sending them new music regularly”

• 15:45 Kamera speaks about the administrative assistance he gets from his publishing company and how they are instrumental with facilitating collaborations

• 17:35 The importance of Publishing and its role in a musical composition.

• Collecting royalties on a producer's compositions and how a publishing company will help them exploit their work.

• Kamera also speaks of how his publisher played a role in securing song placements on Netflix’ Blood and Water series.

• 22:40 The importance of Split Sheets.

  • A split sheet is a document that details who composed a work and what percentage they are entitled to. A split sheet should be created for each and every song you write or perform on and should be signed by all parties before a song is released.

  • To download a free example of a split sheet please click the button below:

In this part of the conversation, Mr Kamera briefly mentions the role of Music Supervisors. A Music Supervisor is someone whose responsibility is to find and clear the rights for the music you hear accompanying a scene in a TV Show or Movie. They are always on the hunt for new music that fits the scene in the motion picture. Clearing music requires a lot of paperwork so a Music Supervisor will almost always choose a song that is easier to clear over a song that is a better fits. This means that all your music needs to have signed split sheets and should be submitted to your publisher as well as your distributor in good time so you have An ISRC (International Standard Recording Code) and The ISWC (International Standard Musical Work Code) ready if they come knocking.

• 26:25 How compositional royalties work. From registration, to assigning administration of works to a publisher, and Blackbox revenue

• 29:10 The importance of getting song placements as a source of revenue.

  • Mr Kamera speaks again about how networking and remaining consistent with his work allowed him to get a placement with a Japanese Pop Band that was his most lucrative pay day to date.

• 35:57 What Kamera looks out for when collaborating

• 38:58 What the Zimbabwean Industry can do to reach a wider audience.

• “It’s important to find the people who are willing to invest in your art. Look to Africa's musicals hubs like South Africa, Nigeria, and Tanzania. Zimbabwe is not a musical hub. An actor from Detroit has to move to LA to break out. It’s the same in music. Network with musical professionals in those hubs. South Africa and Nigeria have major label offices are there.  Those are the people you need to speak to”

• 47:10 How Kamera stay motivated to keep producing.
  “The bigger artists I work with like Patoranking and Ice Prince are always in the studio. We will leave the club and go straight to the studio and make 5 songs in a day and then 5 songs the next day.”

• 53:20 Understanding the differences between a commissioned work and songs you retain your rights on, what to charge for production.

• 57:20 Kamera explains the difference between generating revenue from the compositional and master recordings of songs

• 1:01:40 Understanding the intricacies of the Zimbabwean Music Business. Importance of registering for PROs and engaging the ministry of arts and culture.

We will be having discussions like this every Tuesday and Thursday at 7 pm Central African Time on Twitter Spaces. Make sure to follow Unplugged Zimbabwe and Point Black to never miss these chats.