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Forget Bananas, Music Can Hit the Right Note

By Lewis Machipisa

With the right development strategies in place, Haiti's dread-locked Wycliff Jean, Senegal's Youssou N'Dour, Mali's vastly talented Salif Keita and Benin's voodoo queen Angelique Kidjo, could easily sing some of the developing countries poverty blues way.

Jamaica's Beenie Man "Bimma" (BMW) could help us speed away from ravaging poverty; while Nigeria's Femi Kuti's "Bang Bang" can put Africa's priorities "in de correct order".

Blessed with an abundance of talent in music and culture the least developed countries, (LDCs), most of which are African, could easily strum away misery and translate their talent into the dollars badly need to jumpstart their economies.

But most government hit an off-key note when it comes to recognising what other regions have long found out - that the music industry can provide new production and trading opportunities.

According to the Youth Forum Music Industry Development Initiative for LDCs (MIDI), the music industry today is a larger component of the global trading systems than the coffee, tea and banana industries combined.

The initiative says recorded music is a 50-billion dollar industry, far exceeding traditional primary products. Coffee and cotton, for example, earn the LDCs less than a third of that figure.

Despite these strong cultural assets, poor countries lack the domestic expertise and business skills to bring recorded music products to global markets. According to Serman Chavula, executive director of the Copyright Society of Malawi, the music industry has a great potential in Southern Africa Development Community.

"But what we lack are proper and effective methods of production and distribution so that music can assume its rightful place a major contributor to our economies," said Chavula.
In the United States, the core copyright industries contribute 260 billion dollars to the economy and generates 60 billion dollars in foreign exchange earnings.

African music represents 10 to 15 percent of worldwide sales. "Unfortunately, this sale does not bring any benefits to the artistes of origin as most works are produced and commercialised in Europe and the USA where music piracy industry has a huge market," says Hortencio Langa, general secretary of Mozambique Music Association.

While hard data is only slowly emerging, entertainment contributes immensely to the tourism income of Jamaica, renowned for its music, particularly reggae.

"But earnings abroad from entertainers are also considerable by back-of-the-envelope calculations of entertainers who have been able to attract the big labels,'' says Ralph Henry, development economist from Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.

"In spite of this, Caribbean music is still largely at the fringe of the mainstream in the North Atlantic, as vital as that market is for the income growth of Caribbean entertainers," he said.

The Caribbean is today well known for Reggae, Calypso, Soca, Salsa and Zouk. The region's music gained international attention when Jamaican icon Bob Marley, took reggae from the shores of the island to music centers in Europe and North America.

Henry once asked one of the top professionals in Jamaica's main industrial promotion agency what would have happened if the late Marley had approached her office in say 1965 seeking a market development grant comparable to the fiscal incentives provided to foreign investors.
"She confirmed my suspicion: he would have been sent packing," said Henry.

In the Caribbean, as in other developing countries, musicians are not seen as capable of generating considerable foreign exchange earnings.
"The inclusion of entertainment as part of the industrial policy initiatives of the promotional agencies is something that is an after-thought,'' laments Henry.

According to Fionan O'Muircheartaigh, chief economic advisor of Enterprise Ireland, cultural industries have grown faster than all other areas of economic activity. Within the cultural sector, the share of music has grown by 50 percent.

"I believe that the development of the music and cultural resources should be part of the strategy of LDCs,'' says O'Muircheartaigh.
The Irish have been dancing to this beat for some time now. Since the 1960s, Irish performers have had significant commercial success with music ranging from that made by the traditional Chieftains to folk and the Clancey Brothers to more contemporary artistes such as Bob Geldof, U2, Enya, The Cranberries and the phenomenal Westlife

But without protection of their intellectual property, there is little that can be done to stimulate artistic effort and ensure rewards for artistes.
Because it is based on creative expression and related intangible assets, intellectual property plays a critical role in determining its performance. Musician Van Morrison aptly put it when he said "Music is spiritual. The music business is not."

In most developing countries, the industry remains under-researched with insufficient information or reliable data on its economic performance, and in many countries, policy makers are still reluctant to accord it the status given more traditional industries. Brazil and India are notable exceptions.

Arguably, many developing countries can quickly reap the benefits that cultural industries offer. The raw material, such as talent to create new music, is readily available and entry costs, at least in the case of music, are not as prohibitive as in many industries.

"Music is a good that is produced ultimately as part of our expressing ourselves, irrespective of market conditions," said Henry. "Music is about exaltation beyond the confines of any market place."