Bze musicians: Piracy must stop!

By all accounts, the life of any aspiring artist is no walk in the park. On Thursday night’s “One on One”, that theory seemed to be re-enforced. The show’s guests included music producer Ivan Duran of Stonetree Records, and popular Belizean musicians bredda David and Andy Palacio. While topics of the spirited discussion ranged from public support to CD prices, the musicians stressed that copyright and piracy issues must be given more attention by the authorities.

Ivan Duran, Stonetree Records

“The law is nothing without enforcement. It’s like having anti-drug laws…”

Dickie Bradley

“We have lot of drug laws in Belize…”

Ivan Duran

“But still, we do a lot of things to enforce those laws.”

Dickie Bradley

“Is the Belizean music protected?”

Andy Palacio, Musician

“It is protected in legislation.”

Dickie Bradley

“No, I’m talking on the ground, factually.”

All

“No.”

Dickie Bradley

“Why so?”

Bredda David, Musician

“You go in one of biggest music store on Albert Street, and one day me and the man got caught in a thing in his own store because when I went in and looked, all I saw was foreign things that they make. Pirated, this is not even the real thing from foreign. If it was real thing, then we could work with that because we know our musicians, brethren from Jamaica, Grenada or Trinidad is making some money. But when you look on the shelf…Do you know where our music is if you go in there tomorrow morning? We are behind all the copy music. Now you want to tell me that our government or whoever is in charge can’t do something about it.”

One on One can be seen in its entirety at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday right here on Channel 5.