MRM optimistic of achieving royalty collection target — Norman KRU

KUALA LUMPUR: Music Rights Malaysia ( MRM) is optimistic of achieving the targeted RM100 million in revenue and royalties this year, said MRM’s board member Datuk Norman Abdul Halim.

He said as at Dec 21, invoices amounting RM92.3 million had been issued, and RM66.8 million in royalties had been collected.

“This amount does not include a contract worth RM21 million which was supposed to be signed this year.

The contract was delayed as it must be agreed upon by the three MRM licensing bodies and once this is settled total collection will exceed RM87 million,” he told Bernama here.

Norman or better known as Norman KRU, said this achievement would clear the misconceptions of certain quarters who had questioned MRM’s governance.

Of late music industry players had turned to the mass media and social media to voice their disappointment over MRM’s incompetence claiming that due to its weak management, royalty distribution to its licensing agencies had dropped.

Norman also hoped that the dispute between the three MRM licensing bodies, namely Music Authors’ Copyright Protection ( MACP), Public Performance Malaysia ( PPM), Recording Performers Malaysia (RPM) could be settled by this year.

“I myself have tried to act as a mediator to assist the parties in reaching a settlement.

If we can all come to a compromise, we will be able to advance further and the rights of all stakeholders will be well protected,” he said.

Responding to allegations on decrease in royalty collection, Norman admitted that when MRM first started, total royalty collection for all its licensing bodies fell by about 40 to 60 per cent.

Although MRM was launched in Dec 2016 he said the Intellectual Property Corporation of Malaysia ( MyIPO) only gave the organisation the authority to collect royalties on Aug 1, 2017.

“This means that we only received the licence after about seven months.

We had a temporary licence but to the consumers as long as we do not hold the actual licence there was no reason for them to pay the fees.

“As such do not blame MRM board members or management for the drop in royalty collection,” he said adding that the matter had been explained to all MRM licensing members at the recent Annual General Meeting.

In fact, he said, thanks to the insistence of certain people especially MRM chairman Tun Zaki Azmi, the organisation managed to obtain the license to collect royalties much earlier.

Norman added it was the responsibility of every licencing body to inform their members of the real situation to prevent them from expressing their grouses through various media platforms.

In addition he said MRM’s management too should learn from this misunderstanding and take measures to strengthen communication with members of the licensing bodies. — Bernama