KENYA:Skiza Nightmare Finally Over For Artists as Safaricom Releases Sh152 Million Worth of Royalties

It’s now been almost a year since Kenyan artists received Skiza Royalies from telco Safaricom. But now the nightmare is finally over for thousands of artists across the country as the Sh152 million owed has been released.

Safaricom released the money to the Collective Management Organisations (CMOS) and Premium Rate Service Providers (PRSPs), following the conclusion of a court case filed at a Malindi court.

CMOs received Sh141.675 million with each of the three CMOs (Music Copyright Society of Kenya, Performers' Rights Society of Kenya and Kenya Association of Music Producers) receiving about Sh47.225 million, while the PRSPs received Sh10.3 million. Now thousands of artists are set to benefit from the royalties accrued since July 2015.

The organizations will then distribute the money to all the singers, songwriters, sound engineers, performers and music producers whose works have been registered under Skiza tunes.

“Last month we said that we were ready and willing to pay the money owed to the artistes as soon as we received the go-ahead from the court, and that is exactly what we have done,” said Stephen Chege, Safaricom director of corporate affairs.

“We are committed to supporting local music talent and giving musicians a platform to sell their music to the millions of subscribers registered on the Safaricom network. In that way the lives of our artistes will be transformed by providing another avenue for them to generate an income from their work,” he added.

This whole debacle began back in August 2015 when Safaricom entered into an agreement with the three government licensed CMOs, which would allow them to pay royalties to artistes instead of the funds going through the PRSPs.

Following the agreement a section of artistes filed a case at the High Court asking the court to order Safaricom pay them through the PRSPs and not the CMOS. Thus causing the funds to be frozen until the determination of the case.

Earlier this year in January Safaricom brought together stakeholders in effort to end the stand-off, however before the agreed payments could be disbursed another case was filed at the Malindi Law Courts, stopping the telco from disbursing the funds either directly or through the PRSPs or CMOs.

This case was finally determined last week allowing the telco to release the royalties.

 “Our interest is in supporting Kenya’s music industry, and we are ready to work with various stakeholders to do this so that those who have chosen a career in music can make an honest living from it,” said Chege.

“Our wish is to see more transparency and accountability in the industry because this is the only way it can grow, and the only way it can produce and attract more talent.”

2016 has been marred with controversies over royalties in the music industry with the Music Copyright Society of Kenya (MSCK) in the middle of all the drama.

Following several complaints from artists about the organization, this prompted the MCSK board to suspend their long serving CEO Maurice Okoth pending investigations of the fraudulent claims. Okoth later resigned to allow room for the investigations to be completed.

SOURCE: The Star