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Kuwait Music News

Music Master pulls out of Kuwait over censorship woes

A leading music distributor has shuttered its Kuwait operations after claiming the Gulf states’s censorship of albums and artwork had made it impossible to run a full-scale operation. Music Master, which distributes music from major labels such as Universal, Sony and EMI, said curbs on content from bestselling artists such as Lady Gaga and Beyonce had left it battling to maintain its profit margins.

I didn’t even know they were in Kuwait. I actually can’t think of one place that still sells new CD’s now that Virgin has closed down. [Link]

Thanks Ahmad

42 replies on “Music Master pulls out of Kuwait over censorship woes”

If they are citing Lady Gaga and Beyonce as examples of their “Art Work” then no doubt they would be censored 🙂

I would have to side with Kuwait on this one…some of the covers of these artists are quite revealing, let alone lyrics…Record labels wanting to penetrate this market, no pun intended, should consider making labels more appropriate to this region of the world.

Why does it have to be either naked or no cover? Can’t they make a cover more appropriate to the region?

Hey Zorbon how is it that tourists from all over the muslim world travel to records stores in Dubai and see these covers and they ‘can take it’, but you make a statement, in support of censorship, ridiculous censorship in Kuwait, that makes this country look foolish in front of the outside world eluding that the covers are offensive to the people in Kuwait? Sorry, when I look around Kuwait I do not see a conservative muslim country. Save your jokes for the stage, bud.

Go to Amsterdam and you can see Porn DVD’s (I was going to say Tapes 😛 ), displayed in video stores…Japan allows drinking in public. In certain parts of Europe you can have sex in public…!

Oh yeah..one more….In most parts of the world, you can openly criticize the head of state!

Freedom of speech is RELATIVE!

I do believe that a small portion of censorship is sometimes warranted…

I am quite liberal and I don’t mind it myself…
BUT, if a business really wants to promote its products in a country that has censorship laws, then it should accommodate them.

And as I said in my first post, the fact that they used Lady Gaga and Beyonce in their release, who’s video clips and album covers have been quite provocative even for US standards, shows that this company does not wish to respect local laws and hide behind the issue of freedom of speech instead of working with the artists to publish something that respects the local laws, traditions, religions, etc…

“Freedom of speech is RELATIVE!”

You have freedom of speech or you don’t have freedom of speech. ‘Relative Freedom of Speech’ sounds just like: -‘He’s a little bit dead’.

+1

Sadly it’s buffoons like Zorbon (of Lebanon !! haha) that give Kuwait a bad name.

Where as most of the population (a majority under 30) are trying to fight the oppression and liberalize, the old guards like him are trying to curb our freedom, instead trying to argue that Kuwait’s “Nanny state” policies (censorship on music, movies, books) are acceptable.

Sad, but the good news is – he wont win.

No…..

I am saying, would you accept porn DVD’s to be displayed in video stores for all to see?

Would you mind people having sex on the roads?

Would you mind people smoking joints in cafes????

Would you mind, and dare i say this, offensive caricatures being drawn of religious icons?????

Censorship is relative…

Yes Kuwait takes it to the extreme…

But I stand by what I say when western models strut around half naked, adding absolutely no artistic value to the artwork and simply hoping to sell more cd’s…

In Lebanon, and yes Abdullah M I am Lebanese, there is a huge debate on whether lingerie model ads should on on outdoor banner ads..

This is the country where we have shows like LOL and R Rated movies….

Isn’t it your own responsibility which choises you make in life?
Isn’t it your own choice if you visit a shop to watch/rent porn videos?
Isn’t it your own responsibility if you like to smoke a joint in a cafe, which is only intended for ‘smokers’?

Sex on the roads? Can you be a bit more specific? It seems to me quite dangerous.
Sex in public? May be you know Europe better than I do, cause as a Dutchman I’ve never heard of these places.
…

‘Censorship is relative…’ – Can you please explain what ‘relative’ means in this context?

Definition Freedom of Speech:
Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak and/or express yourself freely without censorship.

Your vision on ‘decency’ is killing creativity and is discriminatory towards liberals and dissidents.

Then again:
Is creativity always brilliant, witty and successful?
No. But nevertheless necessary for a little life in society.

Hey Marcel,

Choice is not the issue here because of censorship. Sometimes, you don’t get to make the choice…and we can see that in many parts of the world.

So the issue returns back to censorship. Based on religion/social habits/politics, etc… governments often practice censorship to certain extent, some more extreme than others…

I will agree that the examples I gave might not directly be translated into freedom of speech, but how about the freedom to protest, the freedom to express opinion contrary to local religion, how about the freedom to criticize religion….

That’s why I said censorship is relative. Some places exercise it more extremely than others.

And lastly, who defines creativity? 🙂 I certainly don’t see Lady Gaga’s stunts as creative…so I exercise self censorship 🙂

Hi Zorbon of Lebanon

Thanks for your reply. It all makes more sense to me now. Fortunately you’re not the ‘hater’ which I thought you were, after reading your first comments (lol). Sorry for this misunderstanding from my side.

In my opinion regarding the right to protest against- or critisize of anything which has power, there’re no taboos. Power corrupts and should always be open for critisism by anyone. If that isn’t possible anymore, than you’ll have a real scary situation…

The point I tried to make was that there doesn’t exist something like ‘relative freedom of speech’ or ‘relative censorship’. Nonsense. It’s just – Freedom of Speech. Adding ‘relative’ makes it looks like a joke. Same as for censorship. You’re free to read/write whatever you want, or you’re not free to read/write whatever you want. There’re no concessions possible in this regard. Just common sense and an independent Court in case of abuse (shouting ‘Bom!’ in an airplane for example).

Concerning the Gaga stunts I totally agree with you. It doesn’t impress me either, but I’m sure a lot of people love her music and performances. Let them have fun… 🙂 No harm will be done.

All around the world music distro services are shutting down, complaining that “Censorship makes it hard to make money” or “Piracy is too high” guess what guys, your model is dead and you just refused to evolve. When everyone I know actually spends money buying music on iTunes or Amazon and has gradually phased out CDs as the useless wastes of space they are it’s hard to feel sorry for these guys selling overpriced 5KD hunks of plastic.

The answer is quite elementary my dear Music Master. The good ol CD that’s used to be used for digital content medium is now dead. Everyone around the world has moved to digital download distributors such as Amazon, iTunes etc. In a nutshell, ask yourself this question “Would you spend 5 KD on a single CD for 1 album or would you spend that 5KD which is equivalent to 18.03 USD on 3 or more music albums from different artist?” Stick with the hip trend.

That is very true. I personally don’t think I would ever buy a CD again…

But, there are still people who buy them cause they prefer these mediums…
Plus, alot of artists are now moving towards adding “extra” digital content on these CD’s/DVD’s.

Just recently, someone here was talking about buying the “Limited Edition” box of a computer game just because of the extras that come with
it.

And by the way, the “Itunes Model” is still being disputed in certain business discussions.

Obviously the ones with a mind of their own… but come to think of it, if we count in people who are fans of non-mainstream singers, wouldn’t that make them also mainstream? Difference is, they’re mainstream to a subculture…

+1…..this is my chief issue – most of the stuff pumped in Kuwait’s Virgin store and the radio (at least the Western stuff being played) is garbage – and this is coming from a Westerner. I’m not sure if people know what good music is – and it makes us Americans with good taste look bad….lol.

I have no issue with Beyonce or Lady Gaga or Adele. I like Adele a lot, and I respect the other two’s talent. But avant garde is something forward thinking. Why is Radiohead’s latest stuff not being played? No real stations for jazz, or electronic stuff – and most of it wouldn’t threaten the region’s censorship issues.

And they need to take that one American lady off the air…seriously, she’s a bad, bad, bad DJ.

I didn’t find radio stations in the US to be that much better. It’s usually one that plays all this crappy pop stuff, a classic radio station, and a bunch of annoying talk-shows.

I don’t understand why anyone would subject themselves to the radio these days.

But agreed, the radio here is even worse.

ignoring the fact that CD’s are a waste of time and everyone should go digitial. Kuwait is a Muslim country that bases most of it’s Laws and rules on islamic values. I don’t think a topless lady gaga with her breasts scrambled (the weakest kind of censorship) and Beyonce’s outfits respect those islamic values. Not saying anyone is right or wrong just that every place on earth adheres to a set of rules and values that they believe in and people from different backgrounds should respect those rules without whining about it. I assume It wouldn’t be possible to sell a recording of a friday sermon in one of the record stores or even an islamic nasheed abroad.

As an expat living/working here, I do believe that companies need to respect the region’s wishes.

With that being said – most of the stuff being sold in the region wasn’t even good music anyways (obvious subjective and relative to what you believe good music is – for me, it’s artists like Arcade Fire, Cloud Nothings, Knife Party, etc….stuff that will never be played here).

I would buy CDs here, and other mediums, here in Kuwait, if good music was available. But you listen to the radio – and it’s basically what was being played in America 2-3 months prior.

I have a question to anyone here on this comment area. Is music really that important to GCC countries? I mean listening to new and different artists from everywhere? I don’t mean this in a bad way, because everyone is not me….they don’t go from country to country looking for collectible vinyl and looking for the newest and latest in everything.

I’ve been trying to even find good Kuwaiti music on vinyl…..I supposed it’s hidden away or destroyed.

Do you even find a lot of stations back home that would play something like Radiohead’s “The King Of Limbs” album?

It’s a bit experimental for most radio stations anywhere I’d think. And I don’t see Radiohead as THAT much of an “out there” type of band…

Maybe all that indie stuff, sure you’d hear it on the radio, and it sounds mostly the same to me anyway (personal opinion).

It’s out there compared to what’s being played – and you can hear Radiohead on certain stations, depending on the size of the city – probably not in like, Iowa or something unless it’s college/university radio….and you can always get Sirius/XM radio.

I mean I could name a thousand out there bands that won’t be played – but Radiohead seems to be something that people can sort of understand. Arcade Fire is something that gets rotation. I think my main issue with radio – everywhere – is that it just sucks badly. I think being here has really just made it sink in more because I feel like a lot of GCC citizens believe that is what Americans everywhere are about. They deserve to hear better music.

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