THERE is a need to stop copying and imitating foreign music in the country.
The chairman for the Fiji Performing Rights Association, Eremasi Tamanisau, said Fiji needed visionary innovators in the music industry.
"We need to be leaders of our own brand and style of music, project our thoughts into the future lifestyle of society, forecast their musical needs and demands and evolve our music so that it will be in harmony with the future and therefore have relevance," he said.
Mr Tamanisau said the country needed to develop and encourage visionary innovators of music "so that music is a living and breathing entity".
The FPRA chairman said the biggest problem faced by musicians was the high costs of producing their recordings and piracy.
He said musicians made their recordings in their 20s and late teens with very limited sources of income.
Mr Tamanisau encouraged the stronger enforcement of the Copyright Act 2009 and also stressed the need for judiciary persons to be well-versed with the Act to avoid confusion with cases heard over the issue.
World Intellectual Property Day 2012 was celebrated last Thursday and focused on Visionary Innovators.