The Revenue Streams for African Musicians project

The Music In Africa Foundation (MIAF) is pleased to introduce the Revenue Streams for African Musicians (RSFAM) project – a multifaceted initiative with an objective to help African music professionals earn more income from their works.

A non-profit organisation committed to the development of the music sector in Africa, the MIAF is launching the pilot phase in South Africa in August 2020. The project will collect and analyse big data on the earning trends of music professionals with a view to reduce findings into definitive revenue models that work for musicians in different locations; provide training, educational content and digital tools related to identified models; and advocate for the development of relevant legislation to support the music industry.

The African music sector continues to be affected by a lack of reliable statistics and data that inform strategies and policies globally. Many music practitioners on the continent are not able to fully monetise their works because of poor enforcement of legislation, noncompliance, infective or outdated policies and trade agreements, and  lack of knowledge. 

There is need to establish a strong understanding and intimate knowledge of the ways in which musicians earn money, and further investigate the key impediments to progress with a view of shaping effective policies, legal systems and strategies that will transform the sector into a more professional and bankable industry capable of compensating its practitioners fairly while sustaining itself in the long term.

The broader objectives of the project are to:

• To help musicians and stakeholders generate more income and make better revenue decisions by providing them with reliable data, statistical information, analysis, practical tools and educational content based on revenue streams that work. 
• To identify the key distinctive revenue streams with which musicians generate revenue.
• To conduct informed advocacy aimed at shaping policies and regulatory frameworks that meet the challenges of the African music industry in a changing digital age.
• To promote the development and professionalisation of the music industry in Africa.

Pilot phase in South Africa 

The pilot phase in South Africa will take place over 18 months from August 2020 and all opportunities will be advertised publicly on the Music In Africa Foundation (MIAF) website: https://www.musicinafrica.net . The MIAF plans to introduce more countries after the pilot phase.

In the pilot phase the project will offer:

1. Industry research, analysis, mapping and reporting

This refers to a data-based, multi-method research process that will provide statistics on revenue generation trends for musicians in South Africa. This data will assist in developing a framework of viable revenue models. An innovative web platform will be developed to gather and present this data, supported by field research, consultations with key industry role players as well as the ingestion of existing data. 

2. Capacity building

Once the revenue models are identified, it will be key to train practitioners to fully utilise sustainable models. Our findings will inform training and the development of tutorial content, including an innovative revenue model recommendation tool that will guide practitioners to discover models that suit their profiles. Training workshops will target participants from all the provinces in South Africa, especially practitioners from disadvantaged and underrepresented groups.

3. Advocacy for policy change

As a way to strengthen our advocacy and drive positive change in the interest of practitioners, the project will set up a dedicated committee to carefully study revenue trends against existing policies and legislation, with an aim of identifying impediments, offer legislative recommendations and engage with the relevant bodies in South Africa. 

The Music In Africa Revenue Streams for African Musicians project is supported by UNESCO’s International Fund for Cultural Diversity in the framework of the UNESCO 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, Siemens Stiftung and Goethe-Institut.

Picture © Bram Lammers