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SA music bodies equip artists

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Mohalenyane Phakela

SOUTH African music organisations equipped local musicians this past week with valuable information on how to register for the different types of royalties available to them in South Africa.

The government of Lesotho government also revealed that it was in the process of ensuring musicians received royalties in the country.

The developments follow a recent workshop at a local hotel that was organised by the Lesotho Music Rights Association (LEMRA) in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism, Environment and Culture. The event was sponsored by Vodacom Lesotho.

LEMRA invited Sheer Publishing co-owner Karabo Motijoane; South African Performance Rights Association (SAPRA) Legal Director, Advocate Ntsietso Mokitimi; Independent Music Performance Rights Association (IMPRA) Chairperson, Doda Monamodi; Victor Mampane who worked for South African Music Rights Organisation (SAMRO) for 20 years as the Key Accounts Publisher as well as Trevor Mahlori and Busisiwe Cebekhulu of the Moshito Music Conference and Exhibition to help equip local musicians with ways of generating revenue in South Africa.

Each of the guests made a presentation on the operations of their respective organisations and how they could assist Lesotho musicians.

SAPRA is a collective management organisation that administers Needletime Rights on behalf of recording artistes and record labels.

IMPRA is a collective society that licences the works of its members to third parties or users such as broadcasters like SABC, Urban Brew and Multichoice. It collects royalties on behalf of its members and distributes to the rightful owners.

Sheer Publishing is one of the world’s leading independent publishing houses with 18 years’ experience in the administration of intellectual property rights in South Africa.

SAMRO is a copyright asset management society which collects money from establishments that use music like clubs, banks and radios for distribution to music creators.

Advocate Mokitimi who also works for Recording Industry of South Africa (RISA) explained that there are four types of royalties, each derived from separate and distinct copyrights.

“There are three types of rights which are Needletime, Mechanical and Performing under which the four types of royalties are collected,” Advocate Mokitimi said.

“Needletime remunerates recording artistes and record labels for the public performance of artistes’ commercially released recorded performances, and record labels’ public performance of their commercially released sound recordings.

“On the other hand, Performing Rights (administered by SAMRO), and Mechanical Rights (administered by Composers, Authors and Publishers Association) compensates authors, composers and publishers of musical works for the public performance of their musical works, in the case of Performing Rights and the reproduction of their musical works in the case of Mechanical Rights.”

She said the four types of royalties include the Mechanical Royalties which are paid by record companies for records sold based on the exclusive rights to reproduce and distribute copyrighted works.

There are also Public Performance Royalties that are paid by music users for songs in the operation of their businesses and broadcasts based on the exclusive right to perform publicly copyrighted works.

Synchronisation Fees are paid by music users for synchronising music with their visual images based on the exclusive right to reproduce and distribute copyrighted works and to prepare derivative works of copyrighted material.

There is also Print Music Income which is paid by music printers for sheet music and folios based on the exclusive right to distribute copies of copyrighted material.

Sheer Publishing co-owner Karabo Motijoane also advised musicians to sign contracts with producers on the rights of the songs before leaving studios as many have fallen victims to song thefts by producers.

For their part, Moshito representatives explained that Moshito is more of an annual three day music festival that offers a platform for musicians from all over the world and also invites international promoters who can sign upcoming artistes.

“Basotho must apply to showcase their music by sending two songs, two professional photos and an artiste profile to us (details on www.Moshito.co.za).

“We incur transport and accommodation costs with the compensation fee standing at M7 000.

“There is also a demo presentation where a musician can buy a ticket to the festival then register on the first day to participate in the demo contest. The prize is M20 000,” Trevor Mahlori said.

Local artistes expressed their gratitude for the useful information which made them aware of the different types of royalties available to them.

Some of the artistes who attended the workshop were Sentso, Stlofa, Fatere, Palesa Motlomelo, DJ Tseko, DJ Saucy and Sefako Sa Menoaneng.

 

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