Entertainment / Local
Piracy hits Khuxman's album sales
16 Jan 2013 at 04:07hrs | Views
Khuxman has blamed the low sales of his latest album, Vumela Sangoma, on piracy.
Khuxman released the album in December amid hope for success after the popularity of the title track which took the local music scene by storm. However, the sales of the album have been below expectations, following a trend of low record sales set by most album releases from Bulawayo over the last decade.
In an interview, Khuxman said sales of the album had been disappointing so far, although the situation had looked promising at the beginning.
"The sales for the album have not been as good I had expected. Following the success of Vumela Sangoma as a single I had expected that the album would receive better reception but that has not been the case. Initially, people bought the album in their numbers but those very same fans started giving copies to their friends for duplication and the sales have taken a plunge since then," he said.
Khuxman said although some of the album songs had been played extensively by local DJs at clubs, he could not pin the blame for low album sales on them as they had got their copies through the correct channels.
"I know DJs have played songs from the album a lot but I really cannot point the finger at them for the low album sales because when the album was released most of them got promotional copies. In most of their shows they have been using those copies so I have no complaints," he said.
Khuxman said he had decided to turn the situation to his favour by allowing the pirated material to circulate as an advertising tool so he could reap the benefits through live shows.
"There doesn't seem to be a ready made solution to piracy at the moment so the only thing to do is to try and benefit from it. I cannot stop the people from getting their hands on the music but I can use it to my advantage by doing a lot of live shows. If the songs are that popular with the people that they want to buy them illegally, I am sure they would like to see me perform them live," he said.
The issue of piracy seems not to have been fully addressed by the move last May by Zimbabwe's biggest recording companies, Gramma Records, Zimbabwe Music Corporation (ZMC) and Ngaavongwe Records to slash the prices of original music CDs and videos.
The three reduced the price of both CDs and Videos to $1 from $7 in the hope of countering the problem posed by music pirates.
Khuxman released the album in December amid hope for success after the popularity of the title track which took the local music scene by storm. However, the sales of the album have been below expectations, following a trend of low record sales set by most album releases from Bulawayo over the last decade.
In an interview, Khuxman said sales of the album had been disappointing so far, although the situation had looked promising at the beginning.
"The sales for the album have not been as good I had expected. Following the success of Vumela Sangoma as a single I had expected that the album would receive better reception but that has not been the case. Initially, people bought the album in their numbers but those very same fans started giving copies to their friends for duplication and the sales have taken a plunge since then," he said.
Khuxman said although some of the album songs had been played extensively by local DJs at clubs, he could not pin the blame for low album sales on them as they had got their copies through the correct channels.
Khuxman said he had decided to turn the situation to his favour by allowing the pirated material to circulate as an advertising tool so he could reap the benefits through live shows.
"There doesn't seem to be a ready made solution to piracy at the moment so the only thing to do is to try and benefit from it. I cannot stop the people from getting their hands on the music but I can use it to my advantage by doing a lot of live shows. If the songs are that popular with the people that they want to buy them illegally, I am sure they would like to see me perform them live," he said.
The issue of piracy seems not to have been fully addressed by the move last May by Zimbabwe's biggest recording companies, Gramma Records, Zimbabwe Music Corporation (ZMC) and Ngaavongwe Records to slash the prices of original music CDs and videos.
The three reduced the price of both CDs and Videos to $1 from $7 in the hope of countering the problem posed by music pirates.
Source - TC
