Shaggy Calls For Reform Of Music Business In Jamaica
Dancehall megastar Shaggy, has called for the implementation of a quota system by the Jamaican Government, to ensure that the majority of music played on Jamaican radio stations is from the island, as opposed to overseas.
According to the Angel singer, in other jurisdictions like Canada and France, only a small amount of foreign music are able to be played on their local radio, as opposed to Jamaica, the home of Reggae, Ska, Rocksteady, and Dancehall, where anything goes.
“We have to reform our music business in Jamaica. Reform it. There are things like for instance in Canada and in France, is like you have to have 80 percent French music played on the radio, Canada I think is something like 60,” Shaggy lamented during an interview on Onstage.
“I think Jamaica should have that though, where local music on radio is played at least 60 percent of the time other than foreign music. I think it will help us. It will certainly help our (streaming) numbers to have everything going. There are just things that need reforming where the Jamaican music and entertainment culture is concerned, and it going take some work and we should get it,” Shaggy said.
Shaggy’s concerns echo the sentiments of his dancehall compatriot and Grammy nominee Devin Di Dakta, who, in October last year, while also speaking in an Onstage interview, lamented the fact that there was still too much foreign music being played on Jamaican radio stations, to the detriment of Jamaican artistes.
The St. Mary native who was responding to questions about Jamaican artistes dabbling in Trap music, said young entertainers who are focusing on using Trap and Hip Hop beats, were not to be blamed or condemned as many of the island’s radio stations over the years, had bombarded the airwaves with foreign music.
As a consequence, Devin said this kind of influence, became a travesty, resulting in many being under the impression that genres like Hip Hop and Trap are superior to Dancehall, Reggae and Jamaica’s other music genres.
“Sometimes you listen to some radio stations and is just bare foreign music. If mi a di Prime Minister and mi have certain power, yuh can’t play certain amount of foreign music pon your radio station; simple things like that,” Devin said at the time.
“So even when revenues come in we haffi sen back a lot of it go a foreign when you have so many talents here in Jamaica weh need dat space on the radio. Too much foreign music we have,” the 2015 Reggae Grammy nominee said.
The concerns were not lost on Entertainment Minister Olivia’ Babsy’ Grange, who had also expressed dismay back in 2016 about the disparity in royalties paid out by Jamcopy to foreign acts based on radio airplay, after learning that only $7 million in royalties was paid to Jamaican artistes compared to $32 million to their overseas counterparts.
In 2015, during the International Reggae Day (IRD) conference in Kingston, industry players lobbied the Jamaican Broadcasting Commission for the introduction of a content quota system, arguing that that limiting the amount of foreign music being aired on local media was the key to strengthening the country’s creative industry.
Music producer Danny Browne who was then chairman of the Jamaica Music Society (JAMMS) said at the time, that in addition to boosting the local recording industry, the quota system would support the development of local culture and national identity, according to a Gleaner newspaper report.
Browne also said then, that “As much as 70 per cent of the content on local radio is from abroad, and whilst he was not against foreign content, he did not believe it should be at the peril of our the local music industry.
The former Main Street producer also referenced Canada, Australia, France, and Nigeria as countries which had imposed local content quotas, even though none of them had given the world at least three distinct genres of music like Jamaica.
However, the music stakeholders’ arguments proposal was rejected by executive director of the Broadcasting Commission Cordell Green, who claimed that it was payola which was the root cause of the problems facing the music fraternity, and was also reason why there is very little variety in the music being played on local media.
Green had said that he remained unconvinced that by setting a local content quota Jamaica would be protecting its music. According to him, Jamaica’s music should not be mandated, but should be played out of respect and love and “not because there are laws forcing us to”.
In March 2014 Peoples National Party (PNP) Senator Sophia Frazer-Binns, had also called for the implementation of a quota system for Jamaican radio stations. She argued that a quota system would propel the creative industry, and also contribute to Jamaica’s economic growth.
“Local music is not always the first to be played. The fact is that some of our young artistes struggle to have their music played, and if music isn’t played, there are no royalties. And if there is no royalty, there is no money,” The Gleaner quoted Frazer-Binns as saying.
Several countries not known for strong musical traditions, have set quotas for all commercial radio stations. Canada for example, set a policy where 35 percent of all musical selections played by stations must be Canadian, according to a Forbes Magazine article.
This quota policy has, along with a support mechanism to subsidize new and emerging Canadian musicians through financial support from broadcasters and the government, has, Forbes said, reaped rich rewards for Canada, as many of the world’s top talents such as Daniel Caesar, The Weeknd, Drake and Justin Bieber are Canadian.
The sentiments in Jamaica about implementing quotas, are also being echoed in South Africa, where local artistes have been complaining that their music plays second-fiddle to American content. According to them, despite the local music industry being hit hard by the COVID-19 lockdown, South African broadcasters were rubbing salt into their wounds by failing to prioritise local content on their platforms.
‘It’s an American circus!’ – Artists up in arms over local content quota on radio.
One artiste likened on of the local radio shows to what he described as “an American circus”, as the programme was playing the same foreign content over and over.
“No matter how you look at it, the excuses you hear from radio stations are simply a lack of patriotism and perhaps a smidgen of self-hate that results in radio stations impoverishing local artiste and enriching international artistes,” singer-songwriter Simphiwe Dana had told the City Press newspaper in an article titled It’s an American circus!’ – Artists up in arms over local content quota on radio.