Business of making music

In today’s world, having a studio-recorded song is no longer an
achievement—with enough cash anyone can record a song or two.

Even having a recording studio is nothing spectacular these days—with
a computer, software and speakers, one can easily become an overnight
producer.

Insistent advances in the computer industry have resulted in changes
in the music recording industry and producers have harnessed these
developments which have resulted in the mushrooming of in-house music
recording studios in even the most awkward of places.

Experts call it technological development and claim Malawi is responding well.

Many Malawians are easily embracing technology and apply it in the
music business.

However, of great concern is the quality of products produced by most
studios and the viability of the studios business in Malawi.

Without doubt, the majority of music producers in the country are
products of self-taught music schools. Very few have undergone music
training and fruits are there for all to see—Malawi lacks creativity,
a development some local experts have said is killing the growth of
Malawi music.

Every artist today talks of going international, but as noted by Ben
Michael Mankhamba, the first step towards this is to produce quality
music that can compete at all levels.

Nonetheless, despite all this knowledge, artists continue to flock to
studios in their proximity and new faces continue to join the music
recording and producing business.

Interviews with local musicians revealed that music production has
lost its clout because most musicians are concerned with producing
songs and not the quality.

The artists noted that most producers, who offer cheap rates, learn by
producing some musician’s songs.

But is the music studio business still attractive?

Director of Lilongwe-based, Gani Records, Gani Chingonda, says he
joined the business to serve both established and budding artists. He
said there is no profit in running a music recording and producing
studio.

“I strive for best results and for that reason I recruited well
experienced producers. This means such calibre of producers deserve
good perks. However, their earnings are supposed to come from payments
made by musicians. But I cannot hide it, we do not make a lot of money
from payments. We have to rely on other incomes,” he said.

He added that the majority of musicians do not have enough money to
record an album.

“Rarely do musicians pay in full amount the cost of recording an
album,” said Chingonda.

Producer at Pro Pee Records, a music recording studio in Chirimba,
Blantyre Percy Manyozo agrees with Chingonda.

“Malawians like bargaining and rarely do they pay for services without
bargaining and this is the tradition in music. It happens that a
musician wants to record two songs and let us say each goes at K5 000,
most of them will want to pay K10 000 for three songs,” said Manyozo,
who has produced the bulk of Malawian urban artists in the likes of
Maskal, Young Kay, Piksy and Dan Lu.

He added that the music studio business is yet to open up in Malawi.

“There is a market building up and the future looks good. However, it
is too early to say there is music studio business in Malawi,” said
Manyozo.

He, however, said Malawi’s main challenge is lack of professionalism.

“Our main problem is education. There is no school that grooms
producers and most of the producers learn from others. This is why
there is no creativity in most of the productions,” he said.

Nyimbo Music Company director Daud Suleman also sees a good market for
music studios in future.

He says sound recording is a viable business anywhere in the world.

Suleman says music production is not profitable in Malawi because the
market is too small and the informal market keeps on creeping into the
proceeds and the revenue channels are very limited.

“Sound recording cuts across a number of areas including commercial
production, music production. There is also communication development
which also requires professional sound recordings. So, it is a matter
of positioning on the market and how to attract the right market that
pays the professional fees,” said Suleman.

On quality and professionalism, Suleman said Malawi lags behind.

“To produce some authentic sound recording you need a team of experts
from sound engineers, composers, players, producers, final mix experts
which we hardly have on the local market. What we have is a quick
approach to the job. One man does everything,” he said.

Suleman added that another big setback in Malawi is lack of investment.

He said most studio owners do not invest in equipment. He says the
producers use cheap hardware which in the end gives very shallow and
light sound recordings.

He said: “We need to invest in proper equipment and hardware. Skills
and capability has to be developed by training engineers and
producers, from them to fully understand and execute their work to the
best standards.”

However, Suleman asked musicians to understand that music production
is business and in any transaction, there has to be value that should
be created and marketed and profit made.

“We need to reevaluate the music market and redefine the rules. We
need to put in place structures that ensure every player in the value
chain is accessing their rightful portion of the cake. As it is, we
are losing value and market too quickly,” he said.

Suleman says he has an idea to lay a foundation: ” We have to redefine
the game and put roles and limits, start regulating entrance into the
music market, revive the musician association to make a strong player,
civic educate artists and other players on the legal implications of
being in a business.”