By Joseph Kamau Waweru
An upcoming Eldoret-based Gospel singer has hit out at the Kenyan media for giving priority to songs done by foreign artists.
According to the singer – Paul Wekesa – most of the media stations in the country play too much of songs released by non-Kenyan artists at the expense of locally produced ones.
“Songs from other countries are mostly played in our media stations compared to the local music,” stated Wekesa.
The singer further lamented how it has been hard to get his songs played on the local media stations.
According to him, radio stations usually give fake promises to play the songs when approached.
Wekesa argues that he has been in the music industry for the last four years but all his efforts to get his songs aired on local media have been futile.
Government support
Meanwhile, the singer has also challenged the government to consider officering upcoming artists financial support.
He points out that most singers are struggling to make ends meet as video-sharing platform – YouTube – where most of them depend to earn from their songs has set high standards for one to start earning from it.
For a content creator to monitize his/her YouTube channels, it needs to have at least 1,000 subscribers and at several watch hours on the videos uploaded.
“We are requesting the government to support local artists at least in music publicity or recording costs which may involve provision of recording tools,” Wekesa said.
Kenyan music industry is among the vibrant one with unique qenres.
The industry has however been facing numerous challenges among tiem copyright infringement.
Artists have also been up in arms over the model in which the Music Copyright Society of Kenya (MCSK) and Kenya Copyright Board (KECOBO) uses to pay their royalties.
Royalties are usually paid to artists once in a year.
