Know your copyrights
It is every artists dream to make a living out of their music. But the process of getting paid royalties can be a challenge for some. Artists and producers are often left asking: how do I register? how do I get paid? GroundUp went looking for answers.
The Southern Africa Music Rights Organisation (SAMRO) is the main copyright organisation in the country.
“The benefit of applying for membership of SAMRO or notifying SAMRO of your musical works if you are already a member is that you will get paid royalties if your music is used by licensed entities”, says SAMRO Marketing and Communications Manager, Kgomotso Mosenogi.
Another benefit is that in the case of a dispute over a musical work, SAMRO is able to verify, based on the records, who notified the musical work first,” says Mosenogi. However, SAMRO does not resolve disputes on behalf of its members, it merely facilitates the conversation between the concerned parties.
Registration at SAMRO is free. All you need do is submit the SAMRO Member Application form, Notification of Works form, Deed of Assignment form, and a copy of an identity document. All these forms can be downloaded on the SAMRO website.
“Once all the required documents are received and correctly filled in, the process [to register] can take from two weeks to a month, depending on the method that the documents would have been received,” says Mosenogi.
SAMRO membership is not automatic. There are various conditions that an applicant will have to fulfil before being nominated as a member. For one to be an interim member, one or more of their songs will have to be active (used by music users).
“Your musical works must at least have been broadcast or performed in public enough to earn reasonable royalties,” says Mosenogi. SAMRO cannot process applications when there is an incorrect split of shares, incomplete forms and incorrect banking details.
Royalties are paid to SAMRO members in distribution cycles.
To submitting music to radio stations, Freedom Nhlane, Bush Radio Music Compiler, says presentation and quality are key. “You need to have your product on CD with all the relevant information, the producer, composer, artist, publisher and should be broadcast quality with a minimum of 128 kps”. One should also research the station to find out whether your genre of music is appropriate for the station. “We go through a listening sessions where we decide if the music fits the stations’ music genres.”
Niki Mngomeni, Music Compiler at Valley FM. Photo by Niki Mngomeni.
Niki Mngomeni, Music Compiler at Valley FM, echoed the same sentiments as Nhlane, but added that the artist should be registered with SAMRO. “We don’t want a situation where an artist takes beats from other artists as it’s going to be impact badly on us as a station,” said Mngomeni.
She also pointed out the importance of sending a profile with the music.
Once the music is played, SAMRO collects the fees from the broadcaster and passes on royalties to the artists.
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