The Southern African Music Rights
Organisation (SAMRO), the biggest collection society in Africa, has proactively
gone out with other institutions on behalf of artists and composers to request
financial institutions and various stakeholders to exercise some leniency
towards musicians in relation to their financial obligations.
“The Coronavirus pandemic has shaken the
world. The impact on earnings and earning potential of our members in South
Africa, where the live music circuit has ground to a halt, is gravely worrying,”
says Mark Rosin, CEO of SAMRO.
“We are very pleased to note that the
response by various stakeholders to that call has been extremely positive with
nearly all the big five banks announcing some form of relief to their
customers.
“The current state of the economy,
exacerbated by the restrictions on movement of people in an attempt to curb the
spread of the Covid-19 virus, affected our members most severely and we are
delighted that we have been in a position to lighten the burden somewhat.
Almost 10,000 members benefited from a recent TV distribution of R63 million
which we completed on 30 March.
“A month prior to that, we also paid out
royalties from the Radio category to the tune of R141 million, making this the
highest radio distribution in the past five years. The ongoing achievement of
higher royalty collection and distributions is the result of the efficiency
measures we recently put in place. It is one of our priorities to put more cash
in the pockets of our members and this can only be achieved by ensuring we
license more, we continue to reduce our cost-to-income ratio and we actively
find other revenue streams,” continues Rosin.
“Times are uncertain and challenging, but
we will continue to look to act in the best interests of our members. One of
the ways we will do this is to try to convince broadcasters to increase their
usage of local music. We will seek Government’s support in this regard. This
will help when we pay out future royalty distributions and, in some way,
mitigate the potential loss of income for members that rely on live shows. While live income has dried up, we will help
members, where we are able, to access the fund made available by the Department
of Arts and Culture to compensate performers where shows have been cancelled.
“We are working on a host of other member
benefits that we offer, over and above our primary role as copyright
administrators. For instance, we are the only CMO that has a funeral policy
fund for our members and we have just increased the funeral benefit from
R20,000 per member to R25,000.
We are working hard to collect more on behalf
of our members and will do our utmost to ensure that the Coronavirus pandemic
does not derail us from achieving our aims and initiatives,” concludes Rosin.
For more information on SAMRO visit www.samro.org.za
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