South African Music Rights Oligarchy
Noseweek|October 2019
‘The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.’ – Hunter S Thompson
Struan Douglas
South African Music Rights Oligarchy

HOW COME SO MANY GREAT SOUTH son to believe that the oligarchy of the South African Music Rights Organisation (Samro) might have had more than a little to do with it.

Despite numerous complaints over the years, Samro continues to be accused of a lack of transparency in its financial dealings and remains subject to little or no oversight.

For a start, Zeus, the R70-million computer system that Samro installed years ago to track the use of its members’ music – on radio, television and in performance – has never worked. (A board member describes it as “a permanent headache”.) Radio stations have noted that, while their play sheets differ radically from year to year, the total royalty amount they are billed for by Samro year after year remains suspiciously the same.

Samro’s core business is to take assignment of the performing rights of members’ music and songs and then license these rights, including broadcasting rights to users for a royalty fee. According to its 2018 financials, Samro collected R471.9m in royalties and distributed R370.7m to members

Samro has the monopoly on rights in South Africa on behalf of the International Standards Organisation (ISO) to issue International Standard Musical Work Codes (ISWC), a global reference standard for identifying each musical work, and the Interested Party Name-Number used to identify each interested party in a musical work.

All authorship and ownership claims, the splits and other metadata are stored on a CIS-net database controlled by the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (Cisac). Cisac has 239 member CMOS (collective management organizations) across 123 countries.

Diese Geschichte stammt aus der October 2019-Ausgabe von Noseweek.

Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.

Diese Geschichte stammt aus der October 2019-Ausgabe von Noseweek.

Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.

WEITERE ARTIKEL AUS NOSEWEEKAlle anzeigen
Lennie The Liquidator Faces R500,000 Defamation Suit
Noseweek

Lennie The Liquidator Faces R500,000 Defamation Suit

After losing his cool when his fees were questioned

time-read
10+ Minuten  |
September 2020
Panel Beater De Luxe
Noseweek

Panel Beater De Luxe

Danmar Autobody and its erstwhile directors get a serious panel beating in court papers. Corruption and theft are said to have destroyed the firm chaired by Nelson Mandela’s eldest daughter, leaving 200 workers destitute and threatening to kill.

time-read
8 Minuten  |
September 2020
Meet Covid Diarist Ronald Wohlman
Noseweek

Meet Covid Diarist Ronald Wohlman

Ronald Wohlman – EX SOUTH African copywriter, author, and actor – never dreamt that his lockdown diaries, written on Facebook and followed by people all over the world – would become his “life’s work”.

time-read
10+ Minuten  |
September 2020
A Picture Of Peace?
Noseweek

A Picture Of Peace?

Beware: Appearances can be deceptive

time-read
6 Minuten  |
September 2020
Flogging A (Battery-Driven) Dead Horse
Noseweek

Flogging A (Battery-Driven) Dead Horse

Why plug-in vehicles are not all they’re cracked up to be– and, likely, never will be

time-read
4 Minuten  |
September 2020
Everybody Drinks Corona
Noseweek

Everybody Drinks Corona

I am hesitant to go Into the pub today. Not because it’s illegal, but there is a crème colored 1985 Mercedes 300D parked behind the pine tree. This means the devil is inside; that’s what we call Dr. De Villiers. You don’t know whether you will encounter the good doctor with the charming bedside manner or the violent, bipolar bully. The problem is, most of the time, you can never be sure which it is, so it’s best to always keep a social distance.

time-read
3 Minuten  |
May 2020
Never Take A Hypochondriac To A Pandemic
Noseweek

Never Take A Hypochondriac To A Pandemic

From Ronald Wohlman’s New York Corona Diary

time-read
4 Minuten  |
May 2020
The money train
Noseweek

The money train

Transnet in court battle with liquidators of Gupta-linked audit firm over R57m in ‘corrupt’ payments and invoices

time-read
10+ Minuten  |
May 2020
‘He's no pharmaceutical genius, he's a vulture'
Noseweek

‘He's no pharmaceutical genius, he's a vulture'

Pharma con seeks prison release to ‘help find Covid cure’

time-read
8 Minuten  |
May 2020
Bush school – A memoir
Noseweek

Bush school – A memoir

OUR SCHOOL WAS IN THE MIDDLE of the bush, ten miles from the nearest town in the harsh beauty of the Zimbabwean highveld. It started life in World War II as No 26 EFTS Guinea Fowl, a Royal Air Force elementary flying training school and I arrived there in 1954, just seven years after it became an all-white co-ed state boarding school.

time-read
10+ Minuten  |
May 2020