Cosoma taps lessons from beyond

The Copyright Society of Malawi (Cosoma) is hopeful that the recent trip by its officers to South Africa under the Integrated Arts Development (IAD) will help improve production and distribution systems of arts products in the country.

Under IAD, a blueprint which seeks to revive the country’s arts industries, Cosoma embarked on a number of interventions that include the establishment of a production and distribution cooperative for products.

In an interview yesterday, chairperson for the cooperative, Ezaius Mkandawire, said they are now making inroads following the study visit.

“We went for a study visit at South African companies, Storm Media and Intellistor, recently where we learnt production and distribution issues to perfect our system in Malawi.

“Lessons included how we can migrate to other modes of making distribution such as through internet as compared to physical copies such as CDs and DVDs,” said Mkandawire.

Currently, artists in Malawi are struggling to market, distribute and benefit from their products because of a porous marketing system.

This has led to the formation of a grouping called Mingoli Movement which seeks to promote the economic rights of artists.

President of Mingoli Movement, rapper Fredokiss, said artists want to start benefitting from their sweat, hence the push for proper arrangements with music users such as online music stores and mobile companies.

But Mkandawire said with expertise acquired through their visit to South Africa, they will develop a strong content aggregation set-up that will see artists benefiting more from their products.

“We will strengthen the platforms and service providers of different kinds such as mobile companies, radio and TV stations and individual websites in order to nurture them into tangible economic gains for artists in the country,” said Mkandawire.