The SABC’s 90 percent local quota will only work if there’s more new music being played, writes Buhle Mbonambi.
In 2014, rapper AKA went to Nigeria and when he came back he couldn’t stop talking about how great it was for Nigerian artists.
“They are paid in dollars, enjoy high rotation of their music and do not get to play second fiddle in their own country,” he told Metro FM DJ, Tbo Touch.
It’s a statement that is still with me nearly two years later. I had always wondered why Nigerian artists were so successful, why many of them were millionaires and that wasn’t the case for South African artists.
What was it that Nigeria was doing right that allowed their artists to not die paupers, as was the case for South Africa. It was only until I heard AKA on Metro FM that it all made sense.
Nigeria put its artists first and as a result had created a culture that Nigerians would support their artists before any foreign musicians.
It’s the same with their film industry, Nollywood. Nollywood is the biggest film industry on the continent and, while most of the films, until recently, weren’t of a high quality, they still enjoy success that South African films dream of.
Nigeria’s music, film and entertainment industry is a well oiled machine and, as a result, sees many South African personalities trying to break into that market.
So when the SABC’s chief operating officer, Hlaudi Motsoeneng, announced that the public broadcaster’s 18 stations would now be playing 90 percent South African music on air, it made me think that we were finally doing what Nigeria did. Finally putting South African artists first.
Earlier this year, the issue of the percentage of local music being played on the public broadcaster’s radio stations came under the spotlight when jazz musician and producer, Don Laka posted on Facebook that he had only received a little over R3 000 from the South African Music Rights Organisation (Samro).
What alarmed many was that from the R200 million worth of royalties collected by the SABC, only R2m of that amount was remaining in South Africa. “We are taking money away from our economy and the SABC is the biggest criminal,” he told various newspapers in March.
The new quota is a dream for many SA musicians. While they enjoy some airplay, there was always more American and British music on public radio on high rotation.
In his interview with SM Magazine, rapper Cassper Nyovest said how ridiculous it was that we heard US songs on our radio stations as soon as they were released but it took longer for South African music to be heard on radio.
“Getting my music on radio was a struggle. There’s this monopoly of DJs and compilers being friends and it’s this tight circle that you can’t infiltrate.”
It was only after his music was popular online that radio noticed.
When hip hop artist, Kwesta, wrote an open letter to SABC commercial radio station, 5fm two years ago, people accused him of being “entitled” for asking the station why they were not playing more South African music.
The letter was basically a request for 5fm to playlist more South African music, specifically hip hop and kwaito which appeal to a younger audience who make up the core listenership of 5fm. He accused the compilers of not being in tune with what the youth were listening to.
So it is about time that we heard more South African music on our radio stations. Most artists I have interviewed were tired of playing second fiddle to American and British artists in their own country.
They were tired of having their music not played as often as foreign music and tired of the royalties being lost to the UK and US, leaving them to fight over the scraps.
Three weeks of hearing only South African music on radio has been a difficult adjustment for many people. Some listeners have complained on social media platforms saying that the radio stations are playing the same music on high rotation, so much so that they have decided to listen to other, non-SABC radio stations.
What I take mostly out of this, is that we need to create a culture of South Africans appreciating local music, and the only way that the industry will grow is when we support it. It may take a drastic decision by the SABC for this to happen, but in years to come I think we will look back at this moment and realise just how good this was for the South African music industry.
Nigeria’s music industry is humming and local artists, like acclaimed DJ Spinall, above, are the centre of its focus. The SABC's 90 percent local content quota may be a controversial decision now, but in a few years, writes the author, the South African music market should be flourishing.
Sunday Tribune