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Jonathan Mbiriyamveka Entertainment Reporter
A business conference bringing together stakeholders in the music industry is scheduled for December 18 at the Exhibition Park and is organised by Tavona Padoro of Dambarefu Records.
At least 1 000 guests – musicians, intellectual property experts, promoters, corporates, music producers, the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe, non-governmental organisations as well as representatives from radio and television stations and record companies – are expected to attend the conference running under the theme “The current state of Zimbabwe’s music industry – A search for a way forward”.
Some of the topics to be discussed are artiste development, music publishing and marketing as well as electronic media and the legal aspects of music industry.

Objectives of the conference include defining the current status of the Zimbabwean music and exploring avenues of improvement. The conference will look at the creation of a platform where the industry periodically interrogate challenges facing the industry.

Stakeholders will also look at ways of instilling a positive business attitude in an industry where a casual approach culture to business was now deep-rooted as well as exploring means of building sustainable business around music. According to Padoro, the conference came in the wake of unlimited shelf space for the music industry to grow.

“We now have unlimited shelf space, virtual inventory and no sales returns, making the warehouse, production infrastructure and sales of the once giant record companies obsolete.

“The new business models being reinvented no longer just focus on selling records but also on monetisation of consumer access to music at all touch-points of the music experiences.

“On the backdrop of all this, piracy of both physical and digital products has been rearing its ugly head thus adversely impacting record sales which all along has been the main source of income for musicians,” he said.