Notes from Egypt's Alternative Music Scene: Business Models, Commons and Copyright

• Date: 01 May 2010
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-1796.2009.00393.x
• Published date: 01 May 2010
• Author: Nagla Rizk

Notes from Egypt’s Alternative Music

Scene: Business Models, Commons and

Copyright

Nagla Rizk

The American University in Cairo

The mainstream discourse in Egypt, as elsewhere, deals with music as a private good, where

markets are best optimized by the price mechanism and creators are motivated by profits

realized through unit sales. Such discourse is reflected in copyright law. Maximal intellectual

property protection is presumed to keep the incentive system intact by formulating and

enforcing ever-tighter copyright controls, and imposing sanctions on free-riding ‘‘pirates’’.

This research adopts a different approach based on the premise that music embodies some

characteristics of a public good, where the market mechanism typically fails to maximize both

production and access, and where tension arises between the interests of producers and

consumers. Extensive empirical research reveals that this tension is eased through business

models and actual practices of music production and delivery as they exist on the ground in

the alternative music scene in Egypt. These models of de facto commons are found to be more

closely aligned with the interests of musicians and fans, and do in essence promote access to

knowledge contrary to what the formal domestic IP law and policy formulation preach (but

not enforce). This brings to question the relevance of copyright to the alternative music scene

in Egypt, as opposed to the influence of prevailing social and cultural norms and economic

realities.

Keywords access to knowledge; intellectual property; copyright; commons

In Egypt, as elsewhere, the mainstream discourse deals with music as a commodity

that warrants maximal intellectual property (IP) protection; a goal achieved by

formulating and enforcing ever-tighter copyright controls. This logic implies that

music is a private good, where markets are optimized by the price mechanism and

creators are motivated by profits realized through unit sales.

In this article, I adopt a different approach. I start with the premise that music

embodies some characteristics of a public good, where the market mechanism

typically fails to maximize both production and access, and where tension arises

between the interests of producers and consumers. Adopting a bottom-up empirical

approach, I examine actual practices of music production and delivery as they exist

on the ground in the independent (also referred to as alternative) music scene in

Egypt. I explore existing business models that may more closely align with the

interests of music creators and users and question the relevance of the prevailing IP

regime.

The Journal of World Intellectual Property (2010) Vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 474–501

doi: 10.1111/j.1747-1796.2009.00393.x

r2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd474

The article draws on extensive fieldwork, including interviews with musicians

and other stakeholders and a survey of the prevalent business models in alternative

music production and delivery. Drawing on these various data points, I seek to

answer one central research question, namely, to what extent does the prevailing

business model(s) on Egypt’s alternative music scene offer the optimal mix between

access and contribution to musical content, in a way that is most suitable to the

country’s social, cultural, economic and legal realities? Within that, two secondary

questions are addressed. First, what are the dynamics and interrelationships between

grassroots practice of music, on the one hand, and domestic policy formulation,

implementation and enforcement, on the other? And, second, what, if at all, is the

relevance of copyright to the alternative music scene in Egypt, as opposed to the

influence of prevailing social and cultural norms and economic realities?

Based on field research, I conclude that the alternative music scene offers

models that maximize consumer access and musicians’ contribution to knowledge,

and which exist irrespective of the formal IP regime, and sometimes regardless of

the price mechanism itself. Ironically, this informal and naturally evolving chaos

may end up maximizing public welfare without much need for domestic policy

formulation or enforcement. Indeed, I argue that what exists is in essence a de facto

commons model for music production and distribution.

1

This model does achieve

the very objective of access to knowledge, which is not always as evident in the

country’s domestic policy formulation. Accordingly, I call for Egypt’s copyright

policy to address the unique realities and embrace the prevailing models in music

industry in Egypt rather than blindly implement a top down maximalist agenda.

The article proceeds as follows. I start by providing the conceptual framework

for the analysis, which examines the trade-offs and tensions involved in approaches

that treat music as either a public, private or quasi-public good. I then move to the

local front, and analyze the landscape of music practices on the independent music

scene, focusing on live performances as engrained in Egyptian culture, with accounts

about outlets catering to it and the artists representing it. I compare artists’ earnings

from the live sceneversus the authorized copyrighteditem. I then discuss illegal music

copying in the context of Egypt’s sociocultural, economic and legal realities, with

perspectives from producers and from the artists themselves. I conclude by high-

lighting the relevance of Egypt’s live scene to the country’s musicindustry and discuss

what this means forthe relevance of copyright and policyformulation in the Egyptian

context, and the very essence of music as a non-private good.

Music: A Private, Public or Quasi Public Good?

Like other knowledge goods, music evokes the question of the extent to which it can

be considered a public good or a private one. A public good typically carries the

characteristics of being non-rival (one person’s use does not preclude another

person’s utility) and non-excludable (people cannot be denied access). A classic

example of a public good is a lighthouse. The construction of a lighthouse, warning

r2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd

The Journal of World Intellectual Property (2010) Vol. 13, no. 3 475

Notes from Egypt’s Alternative Music Scene Nagla Rizk