Macheso battles piracy as fake CDs flood the market

ALICK Macheso and his team are crying foul after some unscrupulous people flooded the market with CDs purpoted to be his. The singer believes some upcoming musicians are behind a fake album that is being sold by pirates to unsuspecting fans.The album, titled Tiyamurei with Macheso’s image, has flooded the market but it is not the sungura legend who sang or produced the album.The fake album has since irked Macheso and his team who are still in the studio.

Macheso’s publicist Tich Makahamadze said the CD does not even have their music.“There is no Macheso’s music on the CD. It’s actually someone’s music. The people who are behind that just took Macheso’s picture and thought of a name. There is a clip of Macheso in studio singing a song with lyrics including Tiyamurei and they capitalised on that,” said Makahamadze.“It’s those upcoming artistes who want to sell their music, so they put their music on Macheso’s face and obviously people will buy assuming it’s the man himself. The idea is to get people listen to their music,” he said.

Piracy is a major thorn in the flesh for most artists as they have to compete with those that download their music and sell it on the streets.

Macheso has been playing new music at his gigs before lockdown raising expectations of some his avid followers.The pirates, who usually cash-in when musicians release new albums, are now targeting even musicians’ faces.Makahamadze said they are no longer worried, describing the tactics as tired.“I think their tactics are outdated, you can’t continue duping fans with same tactics for years.“Those who have been following this should be aware of this and are always following on our updates through the media. Most of our fans know that we are still in the studio.“However, it’s unfortunate some fans are still falling victim. The other thing is some buy assuming that it’s some of those songs from live performances but this time around, it’s just the picture of Macheso.“We encourage our fans to wait, we will announce when we are done with recording. There are a number of issues that still needs to be decided on,” said Makahamadze.