Musician Stewart Mashallo Samilo continues to cry foul over financial returns.
“I have realised that foreign-based organisations exploit Malawian artists big time. For example, my music video, ‘Welcome to Malawi’, has been, and is being, played by Triton Television in the United States as well as Musicales Television without my consent,” said Samilo.
“Again, statistics indicate that, since April 11 this year, ‘Welcome to Malawi 2’ has been watched 9,474, 312 times and downloaded 9,772, 144 times on Tv stream times of the United States, yet I have received nothing for my sweat. The first time I followed up with the officials, I discovered that they reduced the number of times my music video had been watched and downloaded and I feel like they want to short-change me.”
A visit to the website reveals that, indeed, Samilo’s music video has been viewed over a million times. Surprisingly, though, every music video on the site, including those released by unknown musicians from other countries, attract over a million downloads and ‘watches’, raising questions over the authenticity of the statistics.
What raises eyebrows, though, is the fact that Samilo’s music video, which has been watched and downloaded multiple-millions on Tv stream times, has only been watched 58 times on YouTube.
Recorded at Audio Clinic Studio, ‘Welcome to Malawi’ gives a glimpse of what it feels like to visit Malawi.
However, while Samilo is crying foul over unremitted financial benefits from foreign—owned websites who offer streaming services for his music video, veteran musician Lommie Mafunga warns that crying out loud too early may stifle the exposure of local artists.
He asks local artists to take advantage of international exposure to increase the visibility of local musicians, instead of focusing on financial returns, in a bid to turn local music into a force to reckone with internationally.
“I think we, Malawians, started very well in terms of international exposure. I don’t know where things went wrong. We all know that the hit song ‘Sometimes I Wonder’ did very well on the international stage, to the point of getting into the top three on the British Broadcasting Corporation chart. Websites offer us the same opportunity; but, again, we can only benefit if we handle issues to do with modern technologies and financial returns very well,” said Mafunga, of the ‘Baba Mica’ and ‘Bwato ndi Moyo’ fame.
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