Samro to collect royalties from TikTok, Facebook, Netflix

THE Southern Africa Music Rights Organisation (Samro) has entered into licensing agreements with digital platforms TikTok, Facebook, and Netflix.

This agreement is set to benefit members of the organisation when it comes to collecting royalties from the digital platforms.

“This is a major step forward towards adapting its licensing and royalty payments to the ever-changing technological landscape,” said chairperson Nicholas Maweni.

He added that through the binding agreements, Samro will be able to collect royalties on behalf of members for all copyright-protected content that features on these platforms, with immediate effect.

Maweni said before the conclusion of these groundbreaking deals, platforms such as Facebook prohibited the use of copyright-protected content on their networks.

“This deal is going to enrich these platforms through the use of high-quality content produced by our members, while at the same time broadening the scope and usage of member content,” he said.

Maweni said this agreement would result in enhanced revenue for Samro members.

“The technological evolution we are experiencing is a welcome development as it creates new avenues through which the public can experience creative works, while at the same opening up new opportunities for our members.”

The latest agreements follow an already existing arrangement with

Google.

Samro’s main aim is to administer music rights on behalf of music composers, authors and publishers.

Since the beginning of 2021, Samro has successfully paid out in excess of R120 million in royalties to its members.

Recently Samro completed the process of enabling qualifying members to cash out their retirement annuities from their retirement annuity funds.

“Initiatives such as the retirement annuity withdrawal and the recently announced Music Creation Support Grant demonstrate that Samro is continuously on the lookout for additional benefits and mechanisms that can be leveraged to help our members during the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Maweni.

He added that the work for the collection of royalties continued.

“We remain committed to doing our utmost to ensure that the Covid19 pandemic does not thwart us from achieving our aims and initiatives of supporting local musicians and strengthening the local industry as a whole,” he said.