Poor market dents arts sector

THE entertainment industry continues to be dogged by a plethora of problems including a poor market and lack of funding as local artistes continue to stage free shows and promotional events in Bulawayo.

 Although the new ministry of Sports, Arts and Culture came as a sigh of relief to arts players in the country, the ministry, it seems, has still not done anything to resuscitate the ailing industry with its efforts being currently directed to sports development.

In the past couple of months Bulawayo24 entertainment has been keenly following arts events in Bulawayo hence can exclusively reveal that most shows and launches are either for free or poorly attended as entertainment consumers continue to dwindle in numbers due to the comatose economy.

While Bulawayo artistes have done all they can to launch new albums, release new singles, launch new films and release theatre pieces, the market place has not done them justice by paying back in the process reducing showbiz into a mere hobby.

Unlike in other countries where the arts industry is a sector on its own, the arts industry in the country has been hamstrung by a myriad of issues including lack of a sustainable entertainment market, lack of funding, and poor quality arts products.

For instance Zimbabwe whose population is estimated at 13 million is considerably small in terms of providing a sustainable market of entertainment consumers compared to India whose population is roughly 1.2billion and Nigeria whose population is 169 million. In Zimbabwe, consumers do not have buying power and their pressure to buy is further elevated by the smaller consumer showbiz market.

Lack of funding also continues to bedevil artistes with most of them pursuing what they call "zero budget projects". In most cases artistes are forced to rely on self-funding just to build their portfolios in the industry without getting any profits in return, a scenario which has been blamed for poor quality artistic products.

New media has also arguably exacerbated piracy with traditional forms of music storage such as compact discs being hardly bought by consumers as most of them prefer downloading free music online.
 
Most artistes now capitalize on live shows but most of them are poorly attended leaving promoters battling to pay even club owners or venue providers.