The Sunday Mail
Written by Sharon Kavhu
Zim dancehall artistes and producers are crying foul over a bogus international television station that is playing their videos without paying any royalties.
Royalty is the money given to the producer or the artiste who holds the copyright to an artistic work.
The bogus station, CT Live Beats!, shows on free-to-air decoders and among its numerous programmes, there is ‘‘Zim Dancehall’’, a programme that plays Zim dancehall musical videos.
The programme is showcased twice a week.
Some of the videos being frequently played are “Takuchinja Tsumo”, “Danmore”, “True Love”, “Song for Mama”, “Sahwira” from King Shady, “Ndozvandomudira” from Soul Jah Love, “Rudo”, “Ndinovhaira” from Lady Squanda, Shinso featuring Yoz with “Handisati Ndadhakwa”.
Surprisingly none of these artistes is benefiting from the station and yet over 75 percent of the music played is local content.
Information gathered shows that CT Live Beats! is a station based in the United Kingdom and has several agents in Zimbabwe.
Some of its programmes are being sponsored by a local bread-manufacturing company as evidenced by their commercials.
Clarence Kudzai Patsika, one of the local video makers who is popularly known as Dr Clarence, said the station is being unfair and committing a serious offence.
“I don’t know about CT Live Beats! and have never given them any of my works. I only went with my productions to Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation where they play my videos and pay royalties,” he said.
“I am still making a follow-up to establish where these guys are operating from and come to agree terms before I sue them because playing my videos without my knowledge is a serious offence.”
He said the fact that his videos were being played on the station is evidence that they can compete on the international scene and thus deserved to be paid royalties.
The local video maker said he will approach Zimura for legal advice as soon as possible.
In a separate interview, Killer T’s manager Brian Marukira (DJ Bimma) said he was still in the process of compiling his artistes’ videos on a DVD.
“I am actually surprised at how these people are operating because I have not released Killer T’s videos to any TV station including ZTV. We are still compiling to decide the best videos to send to the stations,” he said.
“Maybe my artiste or someone could have given these guys the videos, but the chances are very low.”
In a phone interview, one of the agents of the station in the country dismissed the allegations saying the station was a platform to promote local Zim dancehall videos on international levels.
The agent refused to mention his name for what he termed professional reasons.
He was contacted through a number that is displayed during the programme, where CT Live Beats! email address is also showed.
“I am not a broadcaster but I am an agent, our TV station is based in England and we have seen it as an opportunity to promote local content.
“We even play other local genre such as urban grooves,” said the agent.
However, the question which remains unclear is, why are they not informing these local artistes if the TV is a platform of promoting local music?
Information shows that every artiste or producer whose works have been showed on the CT Live Beats! was not informed about the music promotion platform, they only saw their videos on the screens.
Some artistes suggest that the CT Live Beats! agents are downloading these local videos on social sites and use them over and over again.
Other dancehall artistes have no idea about the existence of the station altogether.
For instance, King Shady, Mad Levels, School of Thots and Bodyslam, all do not know the existence of the channel.
“As far as I am concerned my musical videos are only being showed at ZTV because that’s where I submitted them.
“I have not seen the so-called CT Live Beats! maybe it is because I do not use a free-to-air decoder,” said Emergy Chizanga, who is popularly known as Freeman, from Legendary Music Records, who is also one of the artistes affected.
Although the TV station screens other programmes such as Press TV, cartoons, sports and God channels, at least 85 percent of the time they are playing musical videos.
The fact that only Zim dancehall has a specific programme and yet urban grooves is just played randomly with other international songs could suggest that the most feedback is coming from Zim dancehall fans.
