After we posted the story about the anti-piracy street protest by Carl Joshua Ncube the comments started pouring in, with many saying that music in Zimbabwe is too expensive which is why they do not buy original CDs.

Protesting-
Carl Joshua Ncube.

In comments posted on The Zimbo Jam’s Facebook page and verbal feedback received from some of our readers, there have been mixed reactions to the issue of piracy, with some saying that even before we look at the issue of cost, if Zimbabwean musicians cannot be bothered to make their CDs available then they will be pirated.

Another view point is that the average cost of an original CD, US$10.00, is too much, whereas a pirated product can go for as little as US$2.00 on the street. One reader told us: “They should just make their CDs cheaper and we will buy them.”

We visited Carl on First Street on Sunday afternoon (14th March) and found him in a heated discussion about piracy with some colleagues. He told us that some of the reactions he was getting were really shocking.

“There are people who have told me literally that Zimbabwean artists produce crap music and so they could not be bothered even if the industry died.” There was resonance with some of the comments we had received when he told us that many people just wish that the CDs could be cheaper then they would buy them.

He has started collecting signatures from people who pledge that they would buy the music if they could afford it and his notebook made contact with many hands over the weekend, with over 300 signatures collected on Sunday alone. However things have slowed down since then and a frustrated Carl has threatened to "go to sleep" if he does not get at least 1 000 signatures by the time he ends his protest this afternoon (18th March 2010).

Another common opinion is that Zimbabwean artists should move into the digital age and sell their music on the Internet. A number of people, both on the street and online, have said that they did not feel there was a need to buy a whole CD when all you wanted was one or two tracks.

- The Zimbo Jam

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DX   |2010-03-19 04:58:31 No to Cds. Let's go electronic. Reply 0   0

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