25/08/2025
All true
For the past year since participating in the Value Creation Challenge, I realized i had to take a step back and really consider the state of the music and creative arts industry in Zimbabwe... the full scope of the problems, which can also be opportunities for someone with an entrepreneurial spirit. It's going to be a slightly long read, but here goes...
The music industry in Zimbabwe, has a shortage of fully equipped professional studios, scant information of where to find them, few professionally trained musicians, producers and studio engineers, due to a scarcity of schools of music and sound engineering, a shortage of professional artist managers with thorough knowledge of the music industry or management principles, nomore proper functioning record labels since the collapse of ZMC and Grammar Records, and so no A&R for scouting, signing and incubating talent which has led to poor quality and consistent output, no publishing institutions, low IP protection with overlapping and poorly functioning institutions and rare enforcement of copyrights, no clear and accountable institutions for royalty collection and disbursement, which also leads to few dedicated songwriters, scarcity of fully functional organizations dedicated to P.R. and Promotion, no dedicated Booking Agents with makeshift managers doubling as Booking as well as PR agents, as well as a lack of radio pluggers and licensing. This coupled with several adjacent and necessary support industries such as graphic design, videography and filmmaking, dance and theatre, advertising and several others, all being in a similar run down state. The vast number of Institutional Voids has created an industry that is mostly unprofitable, with the exception of a handful of artists and their teams who can earn a livable income. It has also led to it being a high risk sector which has no opportunities for financing. And in all this most players in the industry, most of all the artists, are oblivious to the scope of the problem.
Is there anything I left out? Or anyone with suggestions on how to bridge these gaps?
Old Mutual Zimbabwe British Council Zimbabwe UK in Zimbabwe U.S. Embassy Zimbabwe UNDP Zimbabwe Chronicle Zimbabwe Star FM Skyz Metro FM Khulumani FM 95.0 ZiFM Stereo Power FM Zimbabwe Eight2Five Innovation Hub Embassy of Switzerland to Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe Embassy of Sweden in Harare EU Delegation to Zimbabwe
