The Music Copyright Society (MCSK), the Performers Rights Society of Kenya (PRISK), and the Kenya Association of Music Producers (KAMP) have unanimously called for compliance from music consumers in Kenya to ensure musicians are well remunerated for their creative works.
Addressing the media on Monday in Nairobi, the three Collective Management Organisations (CMOs) urged music consumers to pay all pending royalties and comply with relevant authorities to ensure all revenue is collected and paid to musicians.
MCSK CEO Dr. Ezekiel Mutua emphasised the need for compliance by consumers of music to ensure that artists are well remunerated.
“We have aligned our operations with the agenda of the Government to ensure that creatives are recognised, respected and rewarded for their work. The only way this can work is for us to create awareness for consumers of music to respect copyright and pay for licenses to use music in their business premises,” said Dr Mutua
He thanked the Government through the Kenya Copyright Board for issuing a license to the CMOs and creating stability and predictability of business through collaboration
“Music business is an ecosystem that calls for cohesiveness and collaboration from different stakeholders. CMOs cannot succeed alone in addressing the plight of artists without the support and goodwill from the Government.”added Dr.Mutua
On his part, the Head of the CISAC mission in Kenya, Samuel Sangwa thanked MCSK for the great strides it had made, adding that CISAC was willing to lend support to ensure that Kenya becomes a model and a success story in copyright administration.
“We are here because we recognise the work MCSK has done in the past one year especially through its CEO Dr. Mutua to bring vibrancy into the CMO operations in Kenya. We follow with great admiration the enthusiasm with which Dr. Mutua has taken up his work and we are here to see how we can support MCSK to be stronger to serve its members better.”
The two SISAC officials Sangwa and Gloria Braga hailed the collaboration between Kenyan CMOS and the government in promoting the welfare of musicians.
Mr Sangwa singled out MCSK for putting in proper structures for running of the organisation and declaring royalties distribution for the 1st quota of 2024.
“As CMOS we are not distributing the amount of royalties we should, because of unpaid revenue.
We appeal to users of copyrighted music to make payment so that musicians and other creators of copyrighted content will receive their dues .” added Dr Mutua
Dr Mutua was speaking in Nairobi when he hosted a delegation from SISAC headquarters in Geneva that is in Nairobi to explore ways of collaborating with MCSK.
MCSK will commence the first distribution of royalties for the year 2024 to its over 16,000 members on the 25th of this month, an exercise that will run until the end of March.
MCSk has also lined up three more royalty distributions this year.
