After lengthy meetings and discussions, the South African Music Performance Rights Association (SAMPRA) and Life and Brand Portfolio made up of La Parada, Tiger's Milk, Harbour House, Grand Africa, Lucky Fish and Chips, Live Bait, The Lookout, and Old Town Italy have reached an agreement to pay Needletime Rights Royalties to artists who music is played at their establishments.

IN AGREEMENT

This agreement comes after SAMPRA laid criminal charges at the Woodstock police station against the Life and Brand Portfolio for failure to pay the applicable license fees related to music that the association manages on behalf of its members who are musicians and music executives. According to SAMPRA, the restaurants have been playing music belonging to recording artists and record companies at their stores, unlawfully and have refused to pay the applicable license fees that would enable them to comply with the prescribed legislative provisions. "This effectively means that the artists whose music is used by these restaurants will not be able to earn needletime rights royalties even though these restaurants are making money in their restaurants as a result of using their intellectual property," said Pfanani Lishivha, CEO of SAMPRA.

LEGAL ACTION

Without going into the details of the agreement, SAMPRA said that as a representative company of over 40 000 recording artists and 6,000 record companies, over the past four years, they have been trying to negotiate with Life and Brand Portfolio to pay the license fees due as we are aware that they are using our members? music in their establishments. This resulted in them taking legal action. "Life and Brand Portfolio is, however, adamant in their stance of using music illegally and therefore depriving recording companies and artists of their right to earn income from their music," said Lishivha before an agreement was reached. SAMPRA said they are pursuing other non-compliant music users such as Food Lovers, JMVR Group, and Andiccio, to get them to do the right thing and get licenses for their businesses so they can use music legally.