SA musicians, singers happy after Samro distributes R147m in royalties to them
THE Southern African Music Rights Organisation (Samro) has distributed its “biggest royalty distribution” in the Radio and General category – R147 million in the 2023 financial year.
The organisation added it also distributed R73.8m in royalties in the Television category.
Samro views the record distribution as “evidence that its strategy and efforts to license music users and collect licensing fees from them is paying off”.
Samro administers the performing rights of its members and currently represents 137313 members, including active, prospective, and heirs.
“This year’s record distribution in the Radio and General category follows a royalty distribution of R121m in 2022, R123m in 2021, R141m in 2020 and R131m in 2019.”
The distribution identification rate for the radio and general distribution has also been the highest in the organisation’s history in 2023 at 86%, up from last year’s 81.6%, 82.5% in 2021, 85% in 2020 and 84.2% in 2019.
Amapiano star Lady Du said she’d received her payment from the organisation on Twitter: “We got paid I was sooo happy.”
“The latest round of royalty distribution to its members is Samro’s way of reaffirming its commitment to supporting local music creators,” Samro said.
“The goal of achieving higher royalty and distribution rates is underpinned by continuous efforts by Samro to introduce efficiency measures that will ultimately translate into putting more money in the pockets of its members.
“Samro would like to assure its composers, authors and publishers that they can rest assured that Samro is a proactive and innovative organisation that is always looking for new ways to protect their interests and ensure that they are compensated accurately and fully for their work.”
Samro also said there will soon be a second sequence of royalty distribution in the Television category and that they’re hoping the documentation of musical works will improve.
Generally, there is poor identification due to some broadcasters and production houses not submitting cue sheets and some members not notifying the organisation of their new works being used.