RiSA blames pirates for falling sales of local artists

According to The Times, South Africa, the South African music industry is blaming piracy for the R14-million drop in sales of CDs and DVDs of local artists. Figures released by the Recording Industry of South Africa (RiSA) showed that, despite a growth of 2.4 percent in the industry’s total physical sales — from R996 million in 2006 to about R1 billion last year — there was a decrease in sales of CDs by local musicians, this being the first time in the past 10 years that local artists’ sales have dropped year-on-year. While the overall sales of music by international artists rose from R460 million in 2006 to R499 million in 2007, CD sales by local artists dropped from R339 million to R336 million over the same period, while cassette sales dropped by R12 million. Ivor Haarburger, chairman of RISA, said the drop could be attributed to piracy and rising costs of production.

The same article reports that, last year, artists including Mzwakhe Mbuli (above, left) and Richard Siluma took the battle against piracy to the streets, raiding shops and factories producing pirated music and confiscating millions of rands worth of counterfeit products.