We messed up says NashTV

By Jonathan Mbiriyamveka

NashTV, an online entertainment channel has admitted to fleecing artists through its copyright contracts.

In an interview on Centre Stage with Power FM’s hostess —Chamvary — NashTV executive producer Tariro Mharapara aka Butterphly said they did not consult widely when drafting the contracts also referred to as Release Forms.

“It was messed up we did not consult but however, we are going to come up with individual contracts that benefit both NashTV and the artists since our main objective is to promote the artists,” she explained.

“It was never our objective to make money but to develop the artists who wanted to be seen and heard. It took a lot of investment of up to US$200 000 on just the equipment. We’re learning that there was a lot of things we did right and also a lot of things we did wrong,” she said.

Several musicians both upcoming and established artists were surrendering their copyrights to the channel after signing contracts only to get views and likes.

According to Butterphly, NashTV was not making money from YouTube and Facebook.

“As at 25^th April we made about US$300 000 from all the videos on our channel against like US$200 000 worth of investment on equipment. So most people think we’re making so much money from the calculations they do that if say, an artist gets 1million videos therefore they made this much money.

“I would give you an example Rokie streamed 100 000 views for Miracle which means he made about US$103 but again this varies it’s not the same figure for every other artist,” Butterphy, a former Power FM presenter said.

The issue of copyright issues within Zimbabwe music scene continues with most artists singing the blues because they tend to sign up for pathetic contracts.

NashTV, is owned and controlled by businessman Tinashe Mutarisi with no known knowledge on copyright issues especially when it comes to drafting a win-win contractual agreements.

Following an uproar on social media recently, critics urged musicians too have legal representation when signing contracts.