Abitex faults artistes on profitless music shows

Music shows

By Drone Writer

Local music promoter Musinguzi of Abitex promotions, Uganda has told fellow music promoters in Uganda to stop organizing music shows for local artistes.

In a statement he published on his Facebook account on Sunday, 22, January, 2022, he said local music concerts are nolonger making money for them because they are too expensive to organize.

“Most of the shows that were organized in 2022 after the lockdown never made money for promoters part from the Winnie Nwagi concert that was organized by KT events,” he said

He said most of the money that promoters collect at the entrance or tickets is always spent on paying venue owners, hiring sound and paying expensive Ugandan artistes

“I urge promoters not to invest their money in organizing shows. Let artistes organize them for themselves and they see the hustle we go through,” he stated

Other reasons he mentioned in his statement included the recent directive by the Uganda Revenue Authority of taxing artistes and promoters

“18 % VAT of tickets and withholding tax of 6 % on the amount paid to a performer plus income tax we pay per year is too much. We cannot afford these taxes,” he wrote

He however said that he is not going to quit the business but will instead promote Nigerian and Tanzanian musicians in 2023

“Am now going to promote Nigeria and Tanzania musicians this year .Ugandan artistes are no longer making money for us,” he added.

He urged his fellow promoters to find alternative sources of income this year because he doesn’t see any chances of making money through organizing events of local artistes.

This comes at a time when Ugandan music industry is picking up from a two-year lockdown that locked out artists with their talents. However, Abitex just gave out his opinion.