Pretoria – The South African music industry is in for exciting times, as the Department of Trade and Industry (dti) has announced developments that will help local talent to shine.
The dti has completed work on a strategy to develop the local music industry as part of its Industrial Policy Action Plan (IPAP) to promote the local landscape.
“The music strategy has been completed with all consultations processes closed,” dti Deputy Director-General (DDG) for consumer and corporate regulation, Zodwa Ntuli, said on Wednesday.
The strategy proposes a number of interventions, including improving access to finance by industry players, supporting manufacturing and access to technology, facilitating market access to domestic and international markets as well as skills development.
According to Ntuli, the findings of the Copyright Review Commission show that the distribution of royalties to artists goes abroad.
“When you look at how much in terms of royalties get to be paid, the statistics are showing that over 70% is actually being paid to the outside companies,” said Ntuli.
This was because of the ownership structure, given that a number of recording companies in South Africa are outside companies.
All these interventions, she said, will be coordinated by government involving the Department of Arts and Culture as well as finance institutions of government.
“The export potential of this sector and the creative industry at large is huge with increasing demands in the US and Europe, but our markets continue to be dominated by imports,” she said.
She said that the creative industry contributes to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“In terms of the study that we conducted, we actually find that if you look at our GDP figures, the creative industry contributes about 4% of our GDP, but what we are saying is that there is a potential for it go above that.
“If you look at countries like the US and countries in Europe, they are at about 11%, both on the side of the contribution to GDP but as well as the creation of employment. This is also because they have put in place systems that have formalised the industry so it’s much more structured.
“If we as government focus on supporting this industry and putting the right mechanisms in place to incentivise growth in the industry, then we have a potential to even improve and increase the job creation that is there,” she told SAnews.
Incentives for the industry
The dti has an array of incentives that companies can access that are intended to assist companies.
The film industry, which falls within the creative industry, has the film and TV incentive scheme, which came into being in 2004, to stimulate economic growth and participation in the industry.
According to the IPAP 2014/15, between April 2013 and December 2013, 66 film and TV productions were supported by the dti, with an estimated total investment of R1.8 billion.
“We are saying that there would be an incentivisation of that [music] industry, so that they can access the support to actually develop their own businesses to create more jobs for South Africans and to [grow] the industry for South Africa as well,” Ntuli said.
“The minister [Rob Davies] has committed that we will ensure that there is an incentive scheme that will directly support the various sectors of the creative industry.” - SAnews.gov.za
