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Broadcasters sign royalty tariffs MoU with music artistes

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Kenya Copyright Board CEO Edward Sigei . PHOTO | Francis Nderitu | NMG

Broadcasters and music artistes Wednesday reached a landmark deal on monthly royalty tariffs, ending a feud that has lasted for more than five years.

The agreement between the Media Owners Association (MoA) and three societies licensed to collect royalties on behalf of music artistes will see the disputed tariffs gazetted on April 21 by Attorney General Githu Muigai revoked. The societies in the deal are Performers Rights Society of Kenya (PRISK), Kenya Association of Music Producers (KAMP) and Music Publishers Association of Kenya (MPAKE).

New tariffs that radio and television stations will pay under the MoU, which regulator Kenya Copyright Board (Kecobo) will present to the AG’s office for gazettement, will fall by up to 91 per cent compared to those enforced in April. MPAKE will, however, not receive payments on behalf of authors, composers and publishers pending determination of a Kakamega court order that suspended its licence in April.

This was after Benga artiste Laban Juma Toto and veteran David Amunga challenged the revocation of Music Copyright Society of Kenya’s (MCSK) licence on March 27 by Kecobo for breaching financial reporting conditions.

“The reason we have this MoU is because… without the media, the music industry cannot survive and at the same time the media industry cannot survive without music,” Kecobo’s executive director Edward Sigei said. “Globally, the broadcast industry is the biggest contributor to music royalties and collecting societies should be accountable to the last coin.”

Under the MoU, monthly royalties for radio stations have fallen sharply to between Sh13,500 and Sh206,550 depending on the percentage of music content in daily programming and geographical coverage  from Sh200,000-Sh700,000 previously. Rates for TVs have also dropped to between Sh4,500 and Sh68,850 from a flat rate of Sh150,000.

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