South African musos are joining forces and petitioning the SABC to pay R250m in royalties allegedly owed to them.
The online petition was started by The Kiffness musician, David Scott, after the SABC received a R2.1bn bailout from the government. Scott claims that the SABC has not been paying artists "needle time" royalties and calculated the amount owed to be around R250m.
In a post on his Instagram page he stated, "I recently became a member of South African Music Performance Rights Association (SAMPRA) who are in charge for paying artists needle time royalties, including session musicians i.e. the guitarist or drummer behind the scenes who played on a song. Those are royalties for music that plays on radio, restaurants, shops etc… Every establishment that plays music in public spaces legally has to pay a SAMPRA license, and then SAMPRA pays its members out accordingly. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that SAMPRA owed me over R60k in needle-time royalties for my music that has played in various public spaces over the years. I was shocked to find out that not one cent of that payout came from the SABC. And unsurprisingly, it’s because the SABC have never paid SAMPRA. It’s illegal, but they either think they’re above the law or they simply just don’t care (or both). "
Over 4,000 have already signed the petition, including numerous prominent SA artists.
