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Old tunes stalk local music industryby Staff Writer Music from the past is becoming dominant in Arusha’s entertainment fora as many locals tend to rush for old tunes. Recent investigations conducted in town reveal that a number of music stores have started to stock old titles in both audio tape and compact disc formats in an effort to rescue the otherwise ailing music trade. Speaking to this paper, some music store owners in Arusha have admitted that people no longer buy recorded music especially those done by foreign artists. "The youths are the ones who usually keep us in business, but of late, they stopped buying music", said a pop music store owners at Bondeni street. The Arusha Times however, discovered that young people are actually sharing their own music files through the now rather cheap, CD burning technology which allows them to record more than 200 songs on a single CD using the MP3 technology. Due to that, music dealers now intend to lure older customers by replacing modern hits collection with old titles most of which have already became rare. The old songs include those done by the past mega stars from the African continent like, Luambo Makiadi (Franco), Tabu Ley Rochereau), Sam Mangwana and Veve Verkys. Best selling old tunes currently available in Arusha also include those done in East Africa by bands like, Simba Wanyika, Super Volcano, Super Mazembe and Orchestra Les Mangelepa. Audio tapes containing old tunes cost Tsh.1,500 minimum, but their quality may not exactly be guaranteed since most songs were simply being salvaged from all possible sources. Compact Discs for the past favourite go for between Tsh.5,000 and Tsh.10,000, but most people prefer to burn their own collections at the cost of Tsh.1,000 provided they bring their own blank CDs. It is actually at the same amount that local youths also burn their music collection either from each other or by down-loading music files from various web-site pages at local Cyber cafes. But old music is also returning to reclaim its position in dance halls. Hotel 77 has a night for "oldies" every Friday, as Arusha Gymkhana Club also spins the ancient records at the club on Saturdays. Radio stations are also paying rather big attention to old tunes the Mwanza based, Radio Free Africa dedicate three full hours every Thursday from 10.00pm to 01.00am for the past music with Jacob Usungu at the helm of the programme dubbed, "Salaam za Milennium" (Millennium Greetings). Julius Nyaisanga of the Dar es Salaam based, Radio One, runs his own one hour programme "Hizi Nazo" every Friday from 10.30am to 12.00 noon.
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