South African Music Week promotes local beats, streaming increases

SOUTH Africa wants to export its musical talent. That was the aim of the inaugural South African Music Week (SAMW) that took place this week.

Musicians will also have to find new revenue streams amid a pandemic that curbed live events and as consumers migrate to more to streaming services. This week, the Clicks Group announced the closure of national CD and music store chain Musica.

Organised as an international collaboration between South Africa and Canada, the event featured three days of lectures, workshops and performances by leading South African performers. The event took place online and was organised in partnership with the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture.

The line-up included performances by Automatic, Sean Trimz, Mahlathini, and Afronaut.

SAMW founder and chief executive Michael Moeti said the event was inspired by Canadian Music Week, an annual event held in Toronto which he attended in 2019 as part of a South African delegation. “The primary objective of SAMW is to bring to you an open opportunity for emerging talent.”

A highlight of the event was the launch of the South African Music Access Guide, a document that provides industry insight and contacts for international producers and companies to source and promote local talent. A supplementary document for South Africans looking to perform in Canada was also released.

“We are promoting two-way trade with our foreign partners,” Moeti said. “It gives you the contacts of the industry across the value chain. This is the resource that they will need to have access to. It gives you information and infographics, information about promoters, publishers, distributors, and streaming companies.

“This tool will be distributed globally to attract partners to South Africa and help grow our industry. Our initiative is to promote a reciprocal engagement with any country we do business with.”

Moeti added a future priority of the event would be to spotlight a new country and market every year, similar to the approach of Canada Music Week.

Music heavyweights such as DJ Black Coffee also appeared at the event, promoting South African music under the banner “Africa is not a jungle”. “For me, it’s a concept that talks beyond just the words,” he said. “It talks about how we are not inferior anymore, how we want to get to a space where we know who we are and create our own destiny. To create our industry as Africans.

“I look back at how house music was seen and built as. For it to become as strong as it is, it has taken a lot of work. Back in the day, for a show to be so big, you would need a big headliner from outside.

“We are our own show and we are a buffering place for other guys to come in. In a year or two, you will see more and more unknown artists coming. We are a platform for the continent. We’re not trying to be arrogant or downplay anyone, but we are who we are.”

Music business consultant Jonathan Shaw said selling music on the continent presented several barriers.

“Within the SADC (Southern African Development Community), one of the major challenges one has to get over is translation,” he said. “There are strategic differences between how we might perceive things with the rest of the continent, and that only comes with experiences. A regional localisation is needed.”

Shaw said: “One of the next challenges is the internet. In South Africa, we’ve only really begun to see this over the last decade. We’ve only had fibre access within the last five years that has been meaningful. It was always a case of being on the back foot.”

Shaw cited statistics compiled by professional service company PWC. In their 2019 – 2023 outlook for South Africa, the company showed there was a steady decline in physical sales of music.

On Thursday, the Clicks group announced it would be closing down all of its 59 remaining Musica stores by the end of May. The group cited the growth of online streaming of music and other entertainment which resulted in a decline of physical format sales, accelerated by the Covid-19 national lockdown.

“Although, there are certain aspects to the industry that have benefited from the global pandemic,” Shaw said.

According to PWC, revenue from music streaming is expected to reach R815 million by 2023 after increasing 57% year-on-year leading up to 2018. Despite the live music industry having been decimated this year thanks to Covid-19, revenue from overall music recordings will surpass R3 billion during this year.