What’s the effect of piracy, for example?
Khcheich: You yourself pay to do the CD, and you don’t make money. Even if the CD’s selling well, the market here in the Arab world is very small because of piracy. Most people in the Arab world copy CDs or download them. I released a CD and in one week it was on the Internet, people could download it for free. So it’s hard. You don’t even get back what you pay to make the CD, especially if you want the best studio, printing, the best musicians. Ok, you can do a CD with $4,000, but you have to sacrifice the quality, which I don’t. I’ll sacrifice the money but not the music. Although, when I gave a performance in Cairo recently, the whole audience knew the words to my songs, which was amazing. That’s the good side of piracy! Tell us about your choice of music. Khcheich: I specialize in old Arabic music; I grew up listening to it and found it the most beautiful. Now no one is doing it at the level [of the greats]. We are not at a high point in art, and creativity is less than before, not
