While the global music industry is haemorrhaging and shrinking at alarming rates, South Africa’s music industry is booming — thanks in no small part to the phenomenal performance of locally produced music.
On the whole South Africa’s recorded music market grew by 22% last year in the number of units sold, while countries with the biggest markets such as Japan, Germany, France, Australia and the United Kingdom all suffered negative growth.
Free music, available for download on the internet, is widely seen as the key reason for declining music sales internationally.
The United States was the only top 10 market that grew in 2005, achieving a 2,6% growth rate.
Sales figures from South Africa’s local recording industry body Risa, show that South Africa is bucking the international trend, with sales growing from R535-million in 2000 to just less than R1-billion last year.
The growth is driven by local sales that have nearly tripled in the five-year period between 2000 and 2005, from R135-million to R383-million. In 2005, 52% — a whopping 11,7-million units — of all music sold in South Africa was locally produced .
International music sales in South Africa for the same period have shown a steady decrease in revenue and the number of units sold — 10,8-million international music products were sold for a total revenue of R592-million.
In 2000, more than 13-million units of international music were sold, in comparison to just more than six million local music products.
Shiraz Moola, who orders all local music stock for the Reliable Music Warehouse chainstore, says there are a lot more diverse, professional sounding local products on the market.
He says South Africans can’t seem to get enough of local sounds, be it Afropop or a township vibe.
He says the biggest selling local releases in the stores have been Zulu folk music artist Shwi, gospel artist Hlengiwe, house artist Bojo Mojo and Afro-pop stars Ringo and Ntando.
Rob Cowling, general manager for the fast-growing independent label Sheer Records, attributes the strong performance of local music to increased quality, more variety and the birth of niche market independent (indie) labels, which pay more attention to marketing their products than the majors do.
“A lot of artists in South Africa are taking matters into their own hands,” says Cowling. “They are starting indie labels that focus a lot more on their products.”
Sony/BMG label manager Lance McCormack agrees with the importance of indie labels, which he says help develop young artists.
McCormack points to the success of Freshlyground, who started their own label and have now negotiated a partnership with Sony/BMG to distribute their music.
He says he expects to see one or two South African artists making it big overseas in the next few years without having to relocate.
One local artist who is doing very well internationally is Simphiwe Dana, whose debut album Zandisile is flying off shelves in Europe after being picked up by Skip Records.
Skip Records’s Bernd Skibbe says the success of Dana’s album in Europe is the result of a well-coordinated campaign that involved blanket marketing and a successful European tour.
Skibbe worked hand in hand with Wolfgang Konig, who has set up an agency to promote South African music in Europe called SouthPool.
Skibbe says they spent a year getting everything in place for Dana’s tour to make sure that the album was given its best shot.
This started at the beginning of 2006 with a teaser campaign to whet the appetites of European media, and jazz and world music radio stations.
“Then things happened,” says Skibbe. “We had the radio play and chart positions even before she came over and gave such wonderful performances.”
Koning says the marketing worked because the album is selling well and Dana has been on the European world music charts for four months, as well as the European jazz charts for three months.
Skibbe says niche markets are the only markets globally that are not losing significant revenue.
“The German market decreased by 40% in the past five years, which is a dramatic drop, but the niche markets are growing,” says Skibbe.
Gerald Seligman from the World Music Expo (Womex) agrees. He says the only way to effectively market South African music overseas is through these niche markets.
“The future of music is in the independents, bless the independents, because they are doing interesting things with passion,” says Selingham.
He adds that there are many music fans around the world who are tired of being fed the same types of music over and over again. “They are screaming show me something new, show me something different’,” he says.
Andrew Missingham, a musician and producer who now works as a creative consultant, is a firm believer in the niche market and how it can cater for music fans who feel neglected.
“The niche is key,” says Missingham. “Alternatives are appearing and people are choosing them.”
For this reason, he says, established business practices by the major labels are dying out and being replaced by vibrant business models that use the internet and real communities for marketing.
“Marketing is just convincing,” says Missingham. “It’s about convincing you that this product is something you want.”
He says the old broadcast model, where the media tell music fans what is hot and what is not, is being replaced by broadcast models that use real communities, from blogs, podcasts and social networking websites, to promote a product.
“People who write for blogs are more trusted than people who write for newspapers because they are doing it for passion,” says Missingham. “We are in transition at the moment and viable business models have not been proven yet.”
In with the old
Although local music is outselling international music in terms of units, international music is still bringing in more revenue because a number of South Africans still purchase older music formats such as cassettes and VHS.
Of the 3,8-million cassette sales in 2005, 89% were local products, while 92% of the 46 000 music videos sold were local.
Only 44% of all CDs sold were local and only 39% of DVDs were local. — Lloyd Gedye