Kenyan artistes will literally smile all the way to the bank after winning a protracted battle with mobile service operators over revenue generated from their work, particularly Safaricom’s Skiza tunes.
President Uhuru Kenyatta yesterday signed into law the Copyright (Amendment) Bill that will now ensure artistes get up to 52 percent of revenue collected, which could translate to billions of shillings.
The annual gross revenue from the tunes is Sh7.58 billion. Artistes are now set to earn more than half of this amount. The government has also issued a 10 per cent excise tax exemption on Skiza.
The revenue sharing had been a bone of contention among players in the music industry. Artistes previously received only 16 percent of the proceeds, while 25 percent and 51 percent went to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and mobile phone operators, respectively.
“The Copyright (Amendment) Bill introduces a new formula in the sharing of revenues collected from ring back tunes. Section 30(c) of the new copyright law provides as follows: Premium rate service provider shall be entitled to 8.5 percent of the revenue, telecommunication operator 39.5 percent, and the artiste or owner of the copyright shall be entitled to not less than 52 percent,” states the new law.
The Bill sponsored by Homa Bay County Woman Representative Gladys Wanga was passed in February.
“Our artistes spend a lot of time and energy to produce music that has won awards even on the international stage but the paradox is whether they earn what they deserve. We need to give artistes their rightful share. This is going to be revolutionary for the creative industry and our artistes. Such a law would change the lives of our artistes,” the legislator said.
“The object of the Bill is to provide a fair formula for sharing of revenue from ring-back tunes between the artistes or copyright holders and the telecoms companies. One of the major resources we have as a country is the creative industry,” she added.
The Bill also prohibits service providers from unveiling personal information on subscribers thought to be engaging in content infringement.
The Bill tends to cure this through establishing an online national portal for registration of copyright works. Once they register their works on the platform, artists will receive proceeds from any persons who sample their works.
The Bill further bars internet service providers from haphazardly taking down content that is alleged to be an infringement of copyright. It states that a person whose rights have been infringed by content accessed through an internet service provider may request for the content to be removed.
Skiza is an advertising service in which an audio message is played on the outgoing calls of subscribers as they wait for their calls to connect.
Callers on the Safaricom network pay up to Sh1.50 daily for every local Skiza tune they upload as a ringtone. Safaricom launched Skiza service in 2009, giving artistes 7.5 per cent of the revenue.
Ms Wanga has also been instrumental in fighting for artistes to be exempted from paying a 25 percent excise duty that had been proposed in the Finance Bill 2021.
Yesterday, artistes welcomed the development but demanded transparency in distribution of the cash.
“The idea is great but my concern is on the implementation. I hope the collection will be done openly, because the issues that have arisen before are the unclear ways of how royalties are collected. But the signing of the bill into law is definitely a step in the right direction,” said Elani music group member Maureen Kunga.
“It is a good thing. These are the sort of things we want to see because it elevates the industry. But more needs to be done, artists have suffered a lot not being able to earn anything or sometimes very little from their music,” rapper Khaligraph Jones said.
“The biggest issue now is the collection and distribution of the money. The increase of the percentage is okay but how are we sure that artists will receive the correct amount of money owed to them. The rot in the music industry has been with some of the channels used. Because the money can be increased but the people who have been mandated to collect this money are still not open and sincere, so the problem still remains,” gospel singer Daddy Owen said.
Gospel singer Guardian Angel said: “The signing of the Bill into law is a good thing but I feel more still needs to be done. In fact, it should be raised to 80 percent because an artist does a lot to create one single song. We appreciate it but more still needs to be done.”
Artists have in the past protested the meagre earnings as royalty payments they received from music collective management organisations (CMOs).
Last year, Kenya Copyright Board (Kecobo) deregistered three CMOs following a dispute over the distribution of Sh114 million to artistes and non-compliance with licensing conditions. They include Kenya Association of Music Producers (Kamp), Performers Rights Society of Kenya (Prisk) and Music Copyright Society of Kenya (MCSK). BY DAILY NATION