Johannesburg - The music download website and blog Fakaza is in the news again as irate musicians call them out for alleged piracy.
T-Lee Moiloa, director of Bridge Entertainment, an event management, brand activations and talent agency, is making a public call to the advertising and marketing industry to boycott the site.
Fakaza’s alleged illegal downloads are undermining the livelihoods of musicians.
“This illicit activity is being supported by some of the biggest brands in the country who are advertising on Fakaza, brands who purport to be supporters of local musicians and the arts and entertainment industry, and this must come to an end,” said Moiloa.
He said the industry is one of the least supported industries by both government and corporate sector, but despite the lack of support, artists go out of their way to make world class music and keep the industry alive.
“There are numerous legal cases against Fakaza, and while we go down the legal route of having music taken off their site, the country needs to rally behind not financially supporting this illegal activity. I’m very pleased that after a conversation with a brand that advertises on Fakaza, they have agreed to terminate their contract and no longer advertising on that platform,” he added.
Artists like AKA and DJ Tira have spoken out against the website asking fans to not download their music illegally. Some artists, like DJ Maphorisa, have expressed on social media that they are not affected by the website as their fans have to buy data in order to get the music on the website.
The site most recently leaked both Nasty C and Cassper Nyovest’s latest albums before they were released.
Earlier this year, Samro reported that piracy was costing artists severely.
“Online piracy is the newest enemy in the battle to preserve copyright protection. There are different types of sharing and downloading music online.
“Peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing networks operate when internet users download the network’s file sharing programme to their computers. Users can then search for, download, and share music, digitised in an MP3 format, on the hard drives of other people who have downloaded the same file sharing programme… users access music without paying for the song, a violation of copyright.”
The Star