Streaming platforms and the music industry crisis in Cameroon

Abstract

Cameroon's music sector has been reinvigorated by a new generation of musicians and by locally created and international streaming platforms. Arguing that these streaming platforms have the potential to mitigate the music industry piracy crisis of the 1990s and 2000s, this article examines the recent developments on the Cameroonian music market, the positions of the various stakeholders in the music business, the twenty-first-century copyright legislation concerning music in Cameroon and users’ and musicians’ perception of the platforms. It shows how the crisis arose due to the accessibility of digital gadgets that facilitated practices of copying and sharing that drove music producers into bankruptcy. Although in their daily lives users still prefer to listen to free music, as many have difficulties to afford paying for music streaming, this article argues that in the long run the streaming platforms, if they succeed in persuading users to pay for renting music, will turn out to be more efficient in mitigating informal music-sharing than copyright law and prosecuting the so-called ‘pirates’ in court.