South African artists have been for many years complaining about the challenges they face when it comes to claiming their royalties and being paid for their music, if at all. The Southern African Music Rights Organisation (SAMRO) has achieved a key milestone in their business by successfully distributing R22 million in accumulated unclaimed royalties to members who had outdated or incorrect banking information.

SUSPICIOUS

Veteran musician turned politician, Eugene Mthethwa is one of many artists who have been skeptical at the newly announced deal by Samro to collect royalties on behalf of its members from TikTok, Facebook, and Netflix. This is after they made the announcement stating that this was a major step towards adapting its licensing and royalty payments to the ever-changing technological landscape.

TWO YEARS RUNNING

The project to track and trace members who needed to update their banking details commenced in April 2021. SAMRO CEO, Annabell Lebethe, says that the organisation embarked on a large-scale process to contact thousands of members to request that they update their banking details. "The initiative was further enhanced by the launch of the digital unclaimed royalty platform in November 2022 to enable members to check if they have accumulated royalties because of outdated banking details," Annabell says. "The platform allows members to update their banking details in order to receive their payouts. To date, the project has achieved a total distribution of R22 million."

NUMBERS ARE GROWING



SAMRO says they are committed to achieving optimal business operations and enhancing member distribution through efficiency and effectiveness. "To ensure accuracy and transparency, SAMRO strongly encourages all members to regularly update their banking details and closely monitor the Unclaimed Royalties platform on the SAMRO website to check if they have accrued royalties due to them," they say. "It is worth noting that 1011 members have already engaged with the digital platform and 32% of those members have successfully updated their banking details in the last six months, resulting in a significant improvement in the organisation's ability to pay members with accrued royalties. Of the 1011 members, 68% are yet to submit their updated banking details and we urge them to do so to finalise the process," Annabell concludes.