Thebe Mabanga
The South African music industry is littered with a lot of ills and has a long history of neglecting artists and compromising artistic integrity to make a quick buck.
This has begun to change slowly with the emergence of small, independent record labels. With new approaches to development and a wealth of experience, their artists are, these days, being taken seriously.
“The main reason for the emergence of independents is that major record labels never really had a commitment to local artists,” says Harvey Roberts, co- director of Bula music. “They report to foreign parent companies whose main concern is the big international acts.”
Roberts is the former MD of CCP records – one of the major labels – who teamed up with industry veteran Peter Tladi and communications guru Clive Hardwick to form Bula.
Bula has acts like Boom Shaka, who have a well-documented struggle with previous record labels. They also enticed Wendy Mseleku to leave Sony Music to join them. They now have nine artists. “The success of this label is mainly due to our dynamic marketing team,” notes Roberts, referring to a quartet of twentysomethings who brought with them a love for music and a willingness to learn.
“We are also helped by the fact that each of our artists is unique. Thus there is no internal competition,” he says.
A worrying aspect among South African artists, especially black artists, is the lack of knowledge of issues such as intellectual property rights and contracts. This prompted Americans Gloria and Chris Mitchell to found Red TomaHawk Music.
Their education focuses on aspects from publishing to producing. This foundation has occupied most of the two years they have been operating They now have just less than 20 artists covering contemporary gospel, traditional music and, of course, kwaito. Most of these artists have released material which is distributed mainly through community stations and the SABC’s African language stations. The acts have been taken to Tables of Distinction, a record pool in Washington DC which services 75 nightclubs in the vicinity. Locally, they have received good reviews from programme managers and music compilers at stations like Voice of Soweto and Inkwenwkezi FM (Radio Ndebele).
An important feature of small outfits is the camaraderie that exists between members. Ghetto Ruff records is driven by this ethos.
“We have never recruited an act,” says owner Lance Stehr, outlining how the label grew around Prophets of Da City. They now have 10 acts and have plans to open an office in London next April.
Perhaps some day the South African music industry may be collectively controlled by the independents, helping local acts to conquer the international stage.