Piracy continues to derail artists in the country, especially musicians, who are failing to make ends meet despite investing a lot in the studio.<\/p>\n
This has forced some musicians to stop producing albums and concentrate on singles, which they sell through different platforms.<\/p>\n
However, with this challenge under their nose, gospel singer Ethel Kamwendo Banda has called on fellow artists not to lose hope but to keep on fighting as there is hope at the end of the tunnel.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll I can tell fellow artists is that let us not give up, let us keep on fighting; it is a huge task but God is on our side and we will surely win this battle. It costs a lot to put together a song and is discouraging that pirates want to benefit where they did not sow,\u201d Ethel said.<\/p>\n
Recently, Copyright Society of Malawi (Cosoma) came out to engage the Judiciary, police and artists to bring awareness on the Copyright Act of 2016 which has provisions for stiffer penalties.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is more to be done and, to minimise cases of piracy, artists themselves should hold hands although we have Cosoma and other stakeholders. As the owners of the work, we need to be in the forefront, unite and speak with one voice; otherwise, if we do not do this, we will continue to suffer,\u201d the singer said.<\/p>\n
Ethel, who started with secular music before turning gospel, said it has been a long journey to be where she is today.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has not been easy. There have been lots of challenges but God has been there to fight my battles,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Ethel said music was no longer the same as sales have completely gone down on the market.<\/p>\n
She said, with online music sales, the situation is changing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are some musicians who depend on selling their albums and do not hold live performances while others do both. So, those who only depend on sales have really been affected,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The gospel singer said it is high time people realised that there are musicians who solely rely on music for their living and, due to piracy, their families are affected as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cMusicians have family members who look up to them and, so, pirating our music means killing not only the music but the families as well. People should promote our artists by buying original works,\u201d the musician appealed.<\/p>\n
Ethel is set to release three albums later this year, having stayed for close to seven years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been close to seven years without releasing an album. It\u2019s not that I was afraid of piracy or I run out of ideas but I believe in God\u2019s plans. God\u2019s plans are the best; hence, coming out now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The \u2018Ndiumboni\u2019 star on February 6 dropped the song \u2018Ndili Pa Mzere\u2019 which, she indicated, is the title track of one of the albums.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe video for \u2018Ndili pa Mzere\u2019 is already out and people can buy it on www.apmcstore.com. This is the first album and it was produced by Joseph Tembo at Groove Magic. Putting the song out is part of promotion,\u201d Ethel said.<\/p>\n
The other albums are Timuyimbile Yahweh <\/em>produced by OBK and Ndinu Woyera, <\/em>a worship album which was produced by her son Peter.<\/p>\n \u201cThe landscape has changed now and we, as musicians, also need to change to be at par with our colleagues but without running away from our identity. These three albums are all different and I should say that the other album is targeting the international platform,\u201d the songstress said.<\/p>\n With the three albums set to come out, Ethel has 14 albums in total.<\/p>\n Her other albums are Amen Yesu Wandimasula, Yesu Amayankha, Sindilindekha, Hossanah, Ndiumboni, Ambuye Wazatheka Bwanji, Ndinu Nokha, Zabwino Zonse <\/em>and Chete. <\/em><\/p>\n Ethel\u2019s husband, who doubles as manager, said the three albums will be on the market by next month or April.<\/p>\n \u201cAs Spectrum Communications, which distributes music for different artists, we are making sure that we have the three albums of Ethel on the market in good time but, again, we want to give people a good product,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Piracy continues to derail artists in the country, especially musicians, who are failing to make ends meet despite investing a lot in the studio. This has forced some musicians to stop producing albums and concentrate on singles, which they sell through different platforms. However, with this challenge under their nose, gospel singer Ethel Kamwendo Banda […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":61152,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61148"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61153,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61148\/revisions\/61153"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}