I create my music from scratch

The CEO of Nascam John Max is urging local artists to know the difference between infringing upon the intellectual rights of other artists, whether local or international, when creating their music. This was sparked by complaints by the public about certain Namibian artists putting out work that sounds similar or pretty much the same as other artists' songs. Tate Buti told tjil that all his work is original except a few songs in which he used known beats because 'they belong to old songs'. A couple of songs on the artist's latest album Opena including 'In heaven there is no beer' contain the original songs beats and certain lyrics. The original version was released in 1956 by Ernst Neubach who passed away in 1968. According to copyright laws, any song can be remade provided the author has been dead for 50 years or more and there is no management body appointed for his work.“I didn't do anything wrong. The beats of songs I use are of old songs which have no owner. It's not stealing in this case,” said Tate Buti.Max says there is a difference between sampling of songs, an artist doing covers and someone who is stealing a song or beat and claiming it's theirs. He further says all this information is available at their offices but artists don't consult or don't understand - leading to them being on the wrong side of the law. Max says Nascam does not register songs that violate the rights of the original. He further says such songs may not make it into any awards show.“Sampling is taking a percentage of the song that is not yours and using it on your own. “If you want to make someone else's song into a remix of a house song for example; you will need their permission. “One will also need to make arrangements on the royalties brought in from the song with the original author. “Should he have passed on, the family makes decisions for him,” Max said.Tate Buti says a lot of music made today will sound similar to existing songs but this does not mean that artists are stealing. He says it is unfortunate as there are rarely new melodies being made and this blurs the lines. “Music is universal and because of this a new song will sound like something you have heard before. Everyone is doing it; from America to South Africa. “There is now a trend of local artists sounding like Nigerians because they are all adding 'o' to their words and using their melodies. We must be original and make our own,” he concluded. June Shimuoshili

I create my music from scratch

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-18

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I create my music from scratch

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-18

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