Director of Music Crossroads Malawi Gayighayi Mathews Mfune says the ongoing Business Music program currently underway, will ensure musicians benefit fully from their art.
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Mfune made the remarks during the music business master class which was led by a renowned artist Faith Mussa at the Music Crossroads Campus in Area 23 in Lilongwe, Tuesday.
He said the business class is about monetizing the music to make a living and to enable students to have a feel of what happens in the industry through interactions with experts.
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“During the master class we combined the business school and the crossroads academy since they are in the same industry and open up debates on certain theories such as blank media levy, and distribution of royalties and invite different experts such as those from the Copyright Society of Malawi (COSOMA),” Mfune said.
Mfune further hailed Mussa for his contribution to the class as he gave a well-defined insight on several topics along with music and business atmosphere.
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“Faith Mussa is a big brand, not just in Malawi but internationally, he has experience working with different sectors including the corporate world and these are some of the talents that musicians need to know to learn from,” he said.
Mussa shared his experience with the class and stressed the need for musicians to protect their content by putting agreements in writing among many things.
“We shared concepts such as; how a young artist can organize their brand and benefit from it because musicians usually put content out but don’t get enumerated correctly. We also spoke on challenges, possibilities, and arising issues like how technology has impacted music.
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The amount of time it took us to break into the limelight should not be the same for these guys, so much has come into play, the music and the way people consume music has all changed,” Mussa explained.
Piano teacher at the academy, Moses Mushu Shumba said the money aspect was well addressed such as how musicians can track money while second-year student Christopher Master said the lesson he enjoyed the most was on the need for artists to brand themselves.
Meanwhile, the business school which was introduced in 2022 within the programming of music crossroads, is supported by the Sound Connect fund through Music in Africa and Goethe Institute with funding from the European Union.