Entertainment

The Arab Music Market is basically an oligopoly, with four firms dominating: Rotana, Alam el Fan, Melody, and Mirage have 85% market share. Then there are smaller players with 13% of market share, and the underground producers with about 2%. The old value chain for Arab Music in Egypt (through the 1980s) looked like this: singer, music company, studio, permits, production. This has changed because of the introduction of the satellite.

Now there is a star system that involves industry actively seeking out good looking young people to produce a video clip, send to satellite stations, produce albums, and play weddings. Underground musicians skip the video and jump to an album and paid live performances.

The wedding is a really important part of the culture, and there’s a burgeoning culture of live performances. There’s also collectivity based on kinship solidarity and a strong gift Culture. If someone asks you for a copy of the CD they like, forget copyright: they’ll make a copy. In this way, Copyright may actually be disruptive to social norms.

Basically, the live performance is what matters. As for its government relation, Pop music is seen as a mass distraction.

The Domestic music piracy levels: egypt has over 50%, kuwait, lebanon, saudi arabia are 25-50 percent, etc.