**Beyond the Hits: Why Zakes Bantwini Wants Africans to Own the Music Business**

Grammy Award-winning South African artist and producer Zakes Bantwini has been vocal about shifting the focus from merely making global chart-topping tracks to structural empowerment. Through initiatives centered around his label, Mayonie Productions, and his broader industry advocacy, he is pushing for an African-owned music infrastructure.

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What He Said About Ownership

Bantwini argues that while African music is enjoying unprecedented global popularity, the foundational business architecture remains heavily reliant on foreign or non-African entities. He points out that the continent lacks major internationally competitive labels with true "African DNA" that represent African artists globally while answering primarily to African creators. His vision stresses that true success is not just about streaming numbers or international tours, but about Africans owning the publishing, masters, distribution networks, and labels that monetize the culture. Instead of letting local talent stay regionally boxed while multinational corporations reap the highest-tier rewards, he emphasizes building home-grown infrastructure capable of taking African music to the world on its own terms.

Why This Matters for Artists

For individual musicians, ownership dictates long-term survival versus fleeting fame.

• Retaining Wealth: When artists own their masters and publishing rights, the financial rewards of a hit song compound for them and their families over generations, rather than flowing predominantly to external corporate stakeholders.
• Creative and Career Control: Ownership creates environments where artists can mature, transition into executives or investors, and negotiate from a place of power. Bantwini often highlights models where artists have clear agency—such as exit clauses or equity partnerships—ensuring they aren't trapped in exploitative contracts just to get global exposure.
• Preserving Cultural Roots: Locally owned infrastructure ensures that artists can achieve global scale without being forced to water down their sound or relocate permanently to foreign markets to sustain their careers.

The Business Side Fans May Miss

When fans stream a track on Spotify, add it to a playlist, or buy a ticket to a festival, they usually see only the glamour of the stage. Behind the scenes, a complex machinery determines where the money actually goes:

• Publishing vs. Master Rights: Fans rarely realize that writing a song (publishing) and recording the actual audio file (master) are two separate legal properties. Historically, African creators have frequently signed away their master rights to international or legacy distributors for upfront capital.
• The Value of Data and Distribution: Ownership of the pipes—the digital distribution channels, regional licensing deals, and sync agencies that place music in films, commercials, and video games—generates steady, passive revenue long after a song stops trending.
• Infrastructure Deficit: Building a sustainable ecosystem requires localized investments in legal frameworks, transparent royalty collection societies, state-of-the-art mixing studios, and corporate boardrooms. Without these local power structures, the continent remains a supplier of raw creative talent rather than a holder of generational equity.