Wednesday 31 August 2016

Afro Ng'ombe

IP and African Music Industries: An Interview with Phil Chard - part 2

Phil Chard
Welcome to part two of Little Leo’s interview* with Phil Chard from African Hip Hop Blog and Two Broke Twimbos.  In this segment, we discuss music-making as a career—building respect for the industry within the industry and how respect for copyright comes into play. (If you missed it: Part 1.)
Little Leo:  When you’re talking about how African artists can do everything themselves, it sounds like a label doesn’t have a value add.  But Cassper Nyovest, he has other artists on his Family Tree label.  So, that sounds like there are some artists where they’re not able to do everything themselves or that for them it does make sense to be on a label.  How do artists pick and choose whether they need to pull it all together or whether they should find a label or find somebody else to manage the team?
Phil:  It all depends.  I had a series of posts actually last year where I explained that one of the reasons industries in Africa are failing, especially in Zimbabwe, is that asking an artist to be a creative and then also to be a business man is asking too much of them.  Not everyone can do that.  So in the event where an artist is only good at being an artist but isn’t good at figuring out how to promote themselves or how to get bookings, how to build their brand, in that instance you bring someone on as a manager or publicist, or you go on a label where those systems are already in place.  But especially if you’re big enough or have a big enough hit that garners you a certain amount of income, a certain amount of leverage, there’s no need to sign to a label because you can pull that yourself.
Wizkid did the same thing.  Wizkid was signed under Banky W.  Then he became bigger than the label, and he was like “ok, it’s time for me to leave the label and start my own thing.”  And he surrounded himself with a team of individuals that know how to handle it.  So it’s just a matter of thinking long term, building your brand and scaling up.
If you’re an upstart and all you have time for is making music and you don’t have time for anything else, then of course you need to surround yourself with a team.  What you have to do is figure out how to manage those costs.  If you can’t afford to pay them commission, give them IOUs, whatever it may be.  But a lot of artists don’t realize that, which is also the basis of my rant.  You’ll find a lot of young artists complaining.  It’s very odd, even with our website.  We have very clear guidelines; if you want to submit your music, everyone’s on an equal platform.  But submit it the right way.  Don’t just come out of the blue and spam me with links on Twitter, because if I don’t know you, I’m not going to click on those links.  You haven’t built a reputation with me.
We’ve actually put up a number of posts about how artists can submit.  If you want to do that on Twitter, build a relationship, build a rapport with me so that if you do tweet me, I know “Oh, this is this guy.  I know his stuff; it’s worth checking out.”  But I’m not going to be on Twitter the whole day clicking on links, because I’ve got better things to do with my time.  So stuff like that, they’ll send you stuff, it’ll get ignored.  They’ll rant. “Oh, Phil doesn’t look out for us.  Phil hates us.”  One of the popular things is—I’m a Zimbabwean by birth—so artists look to me like, “ok, Phil is known continentally, so he’s the guy we should speak to in order to blow up.”  But they don’t submit their music.  They’ll send me music via WhatsApp.  They’ll send me music via Facebook.  They’ll send me music on Twitter.  And the moment I see that stuff, I’m ignoring it.  And then they’ll immediately say “Phil is ignoring us.”
There was one guy who actually did an audit of the stuff and was like “Phil, we’ve done an audit of all the stuff you’ve posted and 10% of your content is Zimbabwean, which is wrong.”  And I went into a long tirade about I’m not the Zimbabwean Hip Hop Blog that posts African hip hop occasionally; I’m the African Hip Hop Blog, so I’m posting relevant content.  If your music isn’t on par with everyone else on the continent, it’s not my fault; it’s your fault.  I’m not here to hold your hand.  I owe you guys nothing.
L:  Industry size-wise, that’s not exactly a bad percentage.
P:  Exactly.  I’m a human being.  I have biases.  My biases are to the people that are from my home nation.  If you send me good stuff and it’s half-way decent, I’m going to give you a fair shot.  But do it right.  That’s the main issue.
Artists don’t take their craft seriously.  You want to do an interview with them and you email them or you message them.  They don’t get back to you or they give you times and they forget about the interview.  You give them a call, “oh sorry, I’m out right now,” “I’m in the studio,” “I’m passed out,” “I’m high.”  It’s just a long list of complaints.  Or, you’re a blogger dedicated to this stuff, and you analyze their work and you know their work well.  And it’s like—In America, the media evolved somewhat—but it’s similar to what Good Morning America does or what Breakfast Radio does where you only have an artist for a short amount of time, so the interviews are very limited.  So if they don’t have a project out, it’s literally, “So you recorded this movie?  Oh great, how was it?  Oh that’s dope.  Ok, so, what’s your favorite color?  Um, do you like dogs?”  And the interview’s over, so there’s no real content.  And over here now, the sad thing is, mainstream long-form interviews do that same type of stuff.  They’ll literally have maybe 10 questions and thereafter they’re now playing games with artists.  “So let’s play a game of word association; tell me, if you were a dog, what type of dog would you be?”  That type of stuff, which is literally why I started Two Broke Twimbos, because I was tired of hearing the same old crap.
I’m listening to all these amazing American podcasts where their delving in, like Mark Maron and Combat Jack where they’re delving into the careers of artists for 3 hours and you leave that podcast knowing everything of these amazing stories.  But, in Africa, no one knows anything about anyone.  And there’s no one cataloging that stuff.  So that’s why I started that podcast.  And now we have a situation where sometimes when I interview artists, they get shocked as to how well-researched the interviews are.  And they’ll even start complaining, like “yo, this interview’s going for 30 minutes, really do you still want to keep talking?”  And I’m like, “yeah, we haven’t even got half-way through.”  But they’ll rather go and do those cheap, tacky interviews that really add no value to their brand because it’s quote-unquote traditional media.  But that's the same traditional media that goes recycling people’s stories, so the moment a woman tweets that she’s pregnant by artist so-and-so, they’ll run that headline without verifying anything.  And in your mind, your like, ‘but you chose to go to those people and give them a platform, but it’s clear they don’t respect your craft.”
L:  It sounds like you’re also saying in some ways the artists don’t respect their craft, that they’re not taking it seriously.
P:  To a certain extent, it’s true.  There’s a culture here, a microwavable culture.  Everyone is trying to get the next big hit, the next big headline, the next trending topic, with no real consideration to the long-term ramifications of what they’re doing.  And it gets frustrating.  Even large organizations, they’ll rather have a quote-unquote Twitter celebrity do an absolutely pointless interview than have people that actually produce quality editorial content do that stuff.  And it seeps down to the consumer because now the consumer is like “why should I spend 30 minutes of my time watching this good interview, when I can watch a listicle that’s 3 minutes, that tells me nothing but is entertaining.”  So, it now devalues the content across the board.
We’ll break here and resume part 3 with the nuanced relationship between artists and copyright.
*The conversation has been edited for clarity and reading ease; it is not an exact transcript.
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Tuesday 30 August 2016

Afro Ng'ombe

IP and African Music Industries: An Interview with Phil Chard - part 1


music notesLittle Leo had the wonderful opportunity, thanks to the miracle of technology, to sit down with Phil Chard from African Hip Hop Blog and Two Broke Twimbos to discuss hip hop, the music industry and IP on the continent.  We had a lengthy conversation about many aspects of intellectual property and Africa’s music industry, so this interview* will be broken down into parts.  We’ll start at the beginning with how African artists can get their content to their audiences.

Little Leo:  Welcome and thank you for being with us today.  This is an opportunity for our Afro-IP Readers to hear from people who actually use the various intellectual property systems that are in place and get a better idea of how they’re working or not working for those people and what they know about them.  You’re actively involved in the entertainment industry in a number of ways, obviously with the African Hip Hop blog, your Two Broke Twimbos podcasts; you’re a writer, you’re an innovator.  Are you also a musician yourself?

Phil Chard:  You could say that.  I mainly executive produce.  I do A&R for the artists that I manage, project directions, promotion.

L: What else would you like our readers to know about you?

P: You seem to have done most of your research; that’s pretty much it.  I’m a pretty open book.  My passion is just trying to get African stories out there.  That’s the goal that I’m pushing for the next five years.  My five-year plan is get as many African stories out there being told by Africans.  Basically telling African stories with an African narrative and then finding African solutions to African problems.  That’s the main key.

L:  What methods are you using to get African stories told by Africans out to Africans?

P:  For example, now with music distribution going digital, trying to figure out the best way to reach individuals who don’t have the access to iTunes or Google Play or whatever it may be.  They might have access to WhatsApp Bundles, so WhatsApp has now become a distribution platform for music.

L:  So not looking just at the standard internationally-pushed music platforms, but looking at other platforms and other things that can be used as platforms?

P:  Yeah, what we’ve realized is gone are the old days where you force the audience to consume content the way you want them to consume it.  You have to figure out how they’re consuming content and tailor your distribution model to fit their needs.  Because if you aren’t doing it, someone else will.  I’m pretty sure right now there’s a sixteen-year old kid somewhere who knows a lot more than I do, who could easily do more than what I’m doing and probably could do.

L:  I know some people who would say you have a better handle on the situation than the major labels.

P:  [laughs]  Well it’s all about perspective, right.  I mean you look at what the American labels have done in Africa; it’s been an absolute disaster for the past five years.  Just a litany of artists—I’m not going to mention names, but if you do some light research, you’ll find a long list of African artists who signed to American labels which have these subsidiaries in Africa who have nothing but complaints and horror stories about mismanagement and being shot down and about not having their projects green lit and creative stifling; it’s just a mess.

L:  That’s something I’d like to ask you more about.  We hear about labels coming into the continent and creating subsidiaries and then also hear about artists who signed to labels in the States and then start collaborating with American artists.  It sounds like in general, you see that as a bad thing, but then you’ve also said “if you have an African label, it’s not doing anything for you.”

P:  Not quite.  I was speaking in generalities.  If you’re looking at an independent artist in 2016, if as an artist you have already assembled a team that can do your promotion, that can help manage your funds and help get you bookings, there’s no need for a label anymore.  Look at an artist like Cassper Nyovest.  Cassper Nyovest was smart enough to create his own label.  He literary had two big hits {“Doc Shebeleza” and “Gusheshe”} and those two big hits garnered him 21 awards in a year.  And all that fame then helped him generate upward of US$150,000 in show money, which at the time was unheard of for a hip hop act.  So off that, he built his own infrastructure.  Now he’s got a guy named Spike who’s his road manager.  He’s got T-Lee who’s his manager.  He’s got his friend Carpo, who’s his hype man on stage.  He’s built a whole team around it and he’s started his own label, Family Tree.  He’s got his boy Sebastian, his former manager, who’s also managing the other acts on his label, who’s also his videographer and photographer.  He’s created a label for himself; there’s nothing that any other label can offer him.  And as opposed to what other artist are doing, he’s doing his own distribution as well.  Other artists who have their own labels, they’ll go to Sony or Universal and say “ok, we’ve got our album, distribute it on our behalf and then we’ll give you 15%” or whatever it is they offer as distribution rate.  He’s doing everything himself.  And both his albums have gone platinum.  So if you’re smart enough and you’re thinking in that line, there’s really not much a label can do for you in Africa.  Where a record label shows its value is when you want to go outside of Africa, which is why the Davido deal made so much sense.  {Davido signed to RCA Records in July.}  The selling point that they gave to him was “you’re good in Africa, but you’re not good in the West and that’s where we have our distribution channel, so we’re going to push you there.”  But we have to see how productive that relationship will be.

We’ll break here and return to the conversation later to discuss music-making as a career.
Part 2.

*The conversation has been edited for clarity and reading ease; it is not an exact transcript.
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Tuesday 23 August 2016

Afro Leo

INTA's Building Africa With Brands gets closer - a few places left sign up!




In just over a week INTA comes to Africa's Cape Town to run a two day conference entitled "Building Africa With Brands". The full program can be obtained here and Afro Leo understands that there are still a few places left, so sign up! (see "5 Reasons Why You Need To Be At INTA's Building Africa With Brands Conference 1-2 September Cape Town)". This blog supports the event and will be there to cover it.

"The Building Africa with Brands Conference will give you the unique opportunity to meet with African and international brand owners, government officials, and legal experts from around the world, who recognize the importance of the African market to their businesses.
The Conference will provide attendees with unique access to brand owners and provide the perfect setting for an exchange of ideas, opinions, expertise, and best practices on important issues facing those doing business in Africa. Hear firsthand from those who have successfully transformed African brands into global brands, as well as the lessons that multinational companies have learned from doing business in Africa.

Sessions include:
  • Brand creation, protection, and enforcement strategies in developing economies
  • The importance of IP in economic growth and foreign investment in the region
  • Challenges and opportunities in Africa from a brand owner’s point of view
  • Developing and implementing the right IP strategy for your company
  • Traditional knowledge, legacy rights, geographical indications
Attendees will:
  • Get tools and tips on building your brand in Africa
  • Learn how to add the value of your IP to your balance sheet
  • Better navigate the regulatory landscape
  • Hear from experts about growing a brand across borders
  • Learn from experts about digital marketing and how Africa has embraced a mobile world
  • And much more!
Attendee justification toolkit (.pdf)"
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Tuesday 16 August 2016

Afro Leo

CLEARVU Opposition Decision

The latest in the trade mark battles between security fence competitors, Cochrane Steel and M-Systems, are the findings in the opposition brought by M-Systems against the Registry's acceptance of Cochrane Steel's CLEARVU trade mark without any disclaimers or endorsements in respect of CLEAR, VU and/or CLEAR VIEW. M-Systems also claimed that the mark should not have been accepted because it described the intended purpose of a fence, namely one that provides a clear view, and that the evidence on file did not support a finding that the mark had acquired a secondary meaning.
 
Readers will recall that market leader Cochrane Steel has consistently attacked its competitor M-Systems' online advertising campaign which had bid on its CLEARVU trade mark as a keyword. The matter was brought before the High Court, the Advertising Standards Authority and the Supreme Court of Appeal. Cochrane Steel was unable to persuade any of the tribunals that there was anything wrong with M-Systems' campaign and in the end created Africa's first SCA case on keyword bidding. These decisions are reported on here, here and here.
 
The opposition decision, handed down on Thursday last week, ruled in favour of M-Systems insofar that:
  • there is some validity in the submission that the word CLEARVU is "descriptive of the characteristics of steel fencing" (para 38);
  • the mark should have been accepted endorsed with disclaimers and endorsements (para 52).
However, the judge also held in favour of Cochrane Steel that their mark CLEARVU was distinctive of other goods in the specification which meant that it could be accepted for fences notwithstanding that the word the descriptive nature of the word (para 38). Accepting that she may be incorrect in this conclusion (para 40), the judge held that the mark had, in any event, acquired a secondary meaning through use (para 50) allowing it to be registered.
 
On the issue of costs, despite upholding the Opponent's opposition in respect of the endorsements, the judge ordered that costs be borne by them. Both parties have until the end of the month to appeal the decision.
 
The conditions to be endorsed against the registration of the mark are that:
 
"The registration of this mark shall give no right to the exclusive use of the word “clear” and “view “separately and apart from the mark; and
 
The trademark registrant admits that the registration of this mark shall not debar others from the bona fide descriptive use in the course of trade of the words “clear view” and “view”."
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Monday 15 August 2016

Afro Leo

Adams & Adams Africa Network Meeting 11 August 2016 (part 2)

 
Following on from Friday's post on the third annual AAANM,  the country reports were ably presented by Mohamed Eldib (North Africa), Brenda Matanga (Southern Africa), Dr Saudin Mwajake (East Africa) and Olusola Ogundimu (West Africa) and enabled a whistle-stop tour of Africa. Some of the developments and interesting points include:
  • OAPI's accession to the Madrid Protocol has resulted in a substantial number of increased filings
  • Nigeria is undergoing a substantial data capture program under the auspices of WIPO
  • Nigeria's new cybercrime legislation has jail penalties, and regulates cybersquatting
  • There are several high profile copyright cases pending before the courts in Nigeria involving COSON, FRCN, NNPC and NNPG. A recent copyright case involving MTN was settled.
  • Lesotho is expecting copyright regulations to come into force soon
  • Mozambique's new IP code came into force in December
  • Malawi is expecting a new IP Policy
  • South Africa's Copyright Amendment Bill and Makate knowhow case were highlighted
  • Swaziland also has pending IP legislation to look out for
  • Zambia's has new design legislation
  • Egypt has mechanisms protecting against counterfeiting using smartphones
  • The Creative and Cultural Industries Bill has provisions for promoting free trade of goods within the EAC, and for protecting IP
  • Kenya has new legislation dealing with Plant Varieties - Seed & Plant Varieties Act CAP 326
  • KECOBO is busy lobbying to strengthen copyright legislation with proposals for CMOs and copyright transfer verification processes for the transfer of copyright
  • In Kenya an offensive trade mark includes a trade mark containing another
  • Several recent copyright cases have been published in Kenya and there has been an interesting constitutional decision involving tobacco regulations
  • Ethiopia's overhaul of its IP regime is 2012 is still receiving commentary
  • Uganda has legislation on GIs and the new IPA 2014 is still under review
  • A number of cases have come out of Rwanda and Uganda recently including one on image rights (Uganda)
  • Tanzania's IPA includes provisions on knowhow and they are seeking ways to protect plant varieties
  • Ghana is still considering draft legislation to implement the Madrid Protocol as well as a national IP policy and plant breeder protection
  • There is no design protection in Ghana except through ARIPO
  • The Gambia published a National IP Policy in April
  • In June Liberia's IP Act was approved by the House of Representatives
Many of these developments have and will continue to be reported on by Afro-IP. Indeed, thanks to Brenda Matanga for crediting this blog in her research for her talk.
 
The day was followed by a cocktail evening and the second day was dedicated to meetings between attorneys in the firm and their country representatives. Really a worthwhile meeting this - well done Simon and Menzi for arranging.

Posted by Darren
 
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Friday 12 August 2016

Afro Leo

Adams & Adams Africa Network Meeting 11 August 2016 (part 1)

 


This is the third annual AAANM. It is not normally covered by this blog because it is an internal meeting of Adams & Adams’ network of agents across Africa. With permission and because the meeting has evolved, I now blog on this rare and perhaps even unique occasion that gets people from across Africa networking and speaking on African IP issues.
 
The meeting, chaired by Simon Brown and arranged by Menzi Maboyi, is held over two days. The first day (yesterday) brings together thoughts, ideas and updates from the various regions and countries in Africa. The full agenda and list of speakers can be obtained here and here. This is a short summary of some of the interesting aspects that came out of the meeting. You can gain some other insights through those that tweeted. Look out for @AfroIP, @AdamsAdamsLaw, @DarrenTOlivier, @LitaQamata and @BrendaMatanga.
 
John Kani, a well known African playwright, director and author, kicked off proceedings with a rousing call to action for Africans to stand up and be counted, and for those in the audience to direct their thoughts into ensuring that intellectual property preserves the cultural heritage of Africa. There were a number of impressive aspects of John’s address. Notable for me was that it addressed all African countries, ethnicities, cultures, colours, races, genders, religions, political aversions as one – this is where we stand, this is what is happening … now do something. And, use IP to help us. Far from the usual divisive bickering and anti-IP rhetoric that is so depressing. His address thoroughly deserved its standing ovation.
 
Break-out sessions followed. For obvious reasons I can only comment on the one I moderated which was on GIs, effectively served up on a plate by the keynote speaker. If there is one current form of IP in use that is particularly framed to, amongst others, preserve heritage, it would be GIs. Dr Saudin Mwajake (Tanzania) and Chris Kiige (ARIPO) delivered excellent mini presentations to start conversations (reps from Egypt, Madagascar, South Africa, Tanzania, Zanzibar and Zimbabwe) aimed at educating about GIs, analysing motivators (which are more than cultural heritage), the different models, the challenges and the disputes. An hour crunched in no time at all.
 

The annual case law review was articulately delivered by Lita Miti-Qamata. Readers may recall her from #SandtonDiscussion fame and her half hour session covered cases in Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Zambia. Her final slide summed it up:

 
 
Stephen Hollis and Gregory Sadyalunda took to the stage on WIPO’s efforts to automate Africa’s Registries. By 2015 WIPO had successfully helped automate Registries in 22 countries in Africa. Highlighting some of the challenges to future automation, Gregory noted Social and Culture barriers as the most significant – “linguistic barriers, lack of service orientation, lack of awareness, lack of external pressure, lack of popularity for e-commerce and online services in general”.  Stephen focussed on the availability searches through IPAS warning to pay attention to the search algorithms for more accurate results.

 Part 2 covers Registry and Regional Updates.

 
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