WHOSE WORKS AND WHAT KINDS OF REWARDS

Abstract

This article examines copyright issues in South Africa and shows certain historical continuities in musicians' problems with ownership and control. It argues that in organizing relationships and ownership two distinct systems coexist in the South African music industry, which are here called the patronage model, on the one hand, and the contract model of the global music industry, on the other. The historical continuities arise from the fact that the music producers operating at the junction of the two systems have been and remain in a position to concentrate ownership and control to themselves, at the expense of the music creators. There is a comparable concentration of ownership in the global music industry, in which the biggest industry actors continue to benefit vis-à-vis the small ones. Much of the ongoing debate on the ‘crisis’ of the music industry reflects the interests of the major actors and revolves around the question of how to secure rewards for music producers from the digital distribution and consumption of music. This article insists that there are crucial issues of ownership that arise prior to distribution and consumption; that is, in the relations and processes of production. These lead to a question of how to improve ownership and control of copyrights and other related rights of the composers and musicians vis-à-vis music producers and publishers. A second question concerns the creation of a reward structure that prevents concentration of ownership and control to any position or functionary in the music industry.