Marco Sadik talks tough on piracy: ‘Be proud of Malawi music and buy it’
Amsterdam-based Malawian musician Marco Sadik says people in the country must support local artists by buying their original music if the war against piracy is to come to fruition.
“Malawians should be proud of local music and buy original CDs,” he advised.
The Linda hit-maker said in an exclusive interview with Nyasa Times that Malawian musicians should also explore other creative means to escape the prying eyes of pirates such as online music selling.
“With technology nowadays there’s high possibility of selling music online which I see Nyimbo Za chiMalawi has already started doing. Musicians can also make money through caller tunes,” he said.
He added that with the proliferation of the ICT sector it is hard to stop people from burning or duplicating original music.
Sadik suggested that Malawian musicians should, therefore, maximize their income potentials through live shows.
“Promoters should just invest in buying good live sound equipment for better quality live concerts by Malawian artists so that people should pay good money to watch the shows.
“No one can pirate that,” he argued.
Sadik – who said has been in the music industry for 10 years and is currently studying in Amsterdam, Netherlands – said his debut album which had the hit single ‘Linda’ was heavily pirated.
“It’s a big problem for many artists,” he complained.
He added: “Very few people buy original CDs hence a big loss for the artists.”
The artist who has so far released two albums – Umodzi and Zanga – told Nyasa Times that he is presently working on his third album.
“I’ll be going public about it very soon,” he said.
Born in Mzuzu on 4th August 1984, Marco is the fifth child of his Malawian mother and Mozambican father. He started singing at the age of 10 and at 13 he won his first competitive music comp. Aged 18 Marco started to DJ as a hobby. By the time he was 20 he was working as a professional DJ in Mzuzu, where his fan base first started taking root.
2001 saw him move to Blantyre where he begun to explore different musical styles. During this period Marco crossed over to focus more on Afro-beat/Afro-soul music writing, which he felt better fitted the sound of his unique voice. In 2005 he worked as a DJ at Star radio, where he also wrote promotion ad jingles and it was here that he begun to discover his ability to put words to music.
By 2006 Marco could no longer ignore his real passion to be a music artist and begun writing his own inspired songs. It was this work which later became the material on his first album Umodzi – meaning ‘unity’ – which was released in June 2008 and features his hit song ‘Linda’.
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