Local Musicians Deserve Better Pay

Monitor Editor | Monday August 3, 2015 16:06

The music industry has had its own challenges in the past, and it still has challenges, mainly because it is a growing industry, with very little support and training. Of late reports from different media houses, show a shift, where locals outdo their South African counterparts at music events. This is indeed a positive milestone for local musicians.

One local musicians who recently gave international counterparts a run for their money in a locally organised event is Lizibo. The talented young artist, who takes his craft very seriously, impressed revellers at “I Am Legend Concert” that featured popular South African accapela group, The Soil, recently. 

This trend of local talent out-performing international acts, that by the way get paid much more, is on the rise. The recent soccer spectacular, Barclays Kabelano Charity Cup, was the same story, where South African band Mafikizolo, failed to grab the attention of the audience, while Charma Gal, Vee, and other local performers wowed the crowd. This past weekend, rapper ATI, gave night crawlers value for their money as he out staged, South African songbird, Kelly Khumalo. This is a welcome development, which should be applauded.

Another positive is that the quality of local music has improved tremendously, and as such local musicians, give international acts, stiff competition at concerts/festivals. More and more local musicians are beginning to show growth, in their work, which should give them bargaining power when it comes to unfair treatment of being paid peanuts as compared to their international counterparts.

Promoters usually give excuses that they are forced to include international acts because they are crowd pullers, but of late, local musicians have been proving them wrong, by out-performing the highly paid international acts.

The growing trend should also be an example to other local artists who still put little effort into their music, and release products that are of low quality. 

While local entertainers deserve a pat on the back for their hard work, and the immense improvement they have shown, they also need to come together and force promoters to recognise their true worth. It is disheartening to see the very same people who continue to exceed expectations of night crawlers, being the ones who get paid peanuts, while international acts, get a larger slice of the pie, only to disappoint revellers. Some of these highly paid international acts, on top of giving below par performances, will only perform one or two songs. It does not help to starve our own hard working entertainers, while enriching international acts, who sometimes fail to give performances worthy of their inflated charges.