Mid East business faces the music (page 4 of 4)

But he adds that this market is still underdeveloped since people buy tapes without knowing what they are getting.

"These people buy compilations out of interest but don't understand a word of Arabic. They buy the album blindfolded. We still face a long way to go to get an educated market. But we feel there will be an Arabic market. The other thing that's happening is that we are working quite well in the Western markets because of remixes of old Arabic songs and that's a trend that could work really well," he says.

While the global giants may be keen to build their own Arabic repertoire, the going has not been easy. Most of the big names in Arab music are currently signed up with various local companies, like Egypt's Funoon, whose repertoire includes Amr Diab, the biggest Arab star, whose albums sell an average of 300,000, a huge figure for the market. This left the biggies with little option but to go for joint ventures with the local companies so that they could get a share of the market.

Another strategy has been to buy the global rights for the artists, excluding the Arab world. This was what Universal has done. It bought the worldwide, except Middle East, rights for One Thousand and One Nights, a compilation by Saïd Mrad, a Lebanese DJ. The deal has been a great hit since the album has sold over 50,000 units in France alone. It is now on rotation eight times per day on a leading radio station in Paris, and the album may cross the 100,000 figure in France before the end of the year.

The entry of Western companies has also changed the way business is being done in the region. Until recently, almost all the deals in the region included a fixed lump sum for the artist. While this protected the artists from the risks of an album bombing, it also deprived them of any share in the bounty if the album proved a hit. Increasingly, artists are now opting for a royalty-based system where they benefit from sales.

This small change, affecting just a few musicians in a fractured market, may sound like no big deal. But it's part of a larger shift: instead of settling for easy money, Arab musicians are taking risks and investing in their own success. Now that's something to sing about.