Music video royalties make SA musicians even happier
LOCAL artists are having their moment in the sun, and the announcement that the SABC has paid music video royalties to the Association of Independent Record Companies (Airco) only makes it better.
On Wednesday, SABC chief operations officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng announced that all SABC radio stations will play 90% local content from yesterday as part of a cause that has been recently championed by local jazz icon Don Laka.
Yesterday, Airco expressed its excitement at the SABC’s announcement. Airco chairperson Dodo Monamodi said: “It is a historic milestone that marks the dawn of a new era because it gives back to the proudly South African independent companies the right to have full and direct access to their economic benefit… We shall be able to give more to the artists.”
Meanwhile, on social media, the quota increase trended all day, and artists who had also fought for the changes shared their emotional moments. Laka wrote: “Today I am proud to be a South African. This man, Hlaudi, made me shed a tear for the first time in many years.”
In a series of tweets, Simphiwe Dana said: “Love him, hate him, Hlaudi has given us artists a gift many before him, for whatever odd reason, refused to give us… We were ostracised because people took it personally that we were so outspoken about the paltry music quota systems. Sweet sweet victory.”
The South African Music Rights Organisation (Samro) also shared its excitement at the announcement. Samro marketing general manager Tiyani Maluleke said: “For Samro this is great news as we represent over 13 000 composers and this will benefit our composers in a great way when it comes to royalties.”
She also addressed the worries of many online who feared there would be a drop in the standard of music played.
“We have a varied amount of South African music and South African music is world class. We have some of the best composers and performers in the world so I don’t think the SABC will struggle to fill their programmes with local content,” Maluleke said.