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Melissa Mpofu Showbiz Editor
FAST-rising South African pop band, Beatenberg, has urged fellow musicians to focus on gig presence saying they can no longer rely on CD sales due to a shift in the music industry.

Speaking after their performance at the Jameson Vic Falls Carnival on New Year’s Eve, the band’s drummer, Robin Brink, said the music industry was no longer one in which bands could make money off physical/digital CD sales as most of their money was generated from live performances.

“Worldwide, bands now make their money off live gigs so gig presence is absolutely important as there is a massive shift in the music industry which now also requires artistes to focus on corporate alignment,” said Brink.

Quizzed how they dealt with piracy in South Africa, the Pluto hit-makers said they actually liked piracy.

“I can categorically say I’ve nothing against piracy because most of the music I’ve been exposed to in my life has been through copying, sharing and downloading.

“I’ve no problem with piracy as it’s a form of arts and cultural sharing,” the group’s bassist, Ross Dorkin said.

He added that through piracy, one could have access to most music which was not distributed by record labels.

“A lot of music that I’m interested in, I usually can’t even find on commercial outlets so I have to find it through specialised outlets on the Internet,” Dorkin said.

The group, which has been in the music industry for six years – with three years under Universal Records – said they believed Zimbabwe had the best guitarists, judging from those they had interacted with and listened to online.