The company is said to owe just under R1 million in royalties for 2014, and apparently also failed to declare music sales data and earnings for 2015 to songwriters.
Composers Authors and Publishers Association (Capasso), the royalty collecting society which represents songwriters and their publishers for digital music sales, claimed attempts to license and collect the outstanding royalties and reports from MTN and its subsidiary, Content Connect Africa (CCA), which is responsible for delivering some of the music available on MTN music platforms such as CallerTunez, have been met with nothing but constant rate disputes and an unwillingness to enter into licence agreements.
Business affairs manager at Capasso, Wiseman Ngubo, said they have had more than a year of negotiations with MTN and CCA. “And it is remarkable that both these parties are now disputing the licence fee rate, even though MTN previously paid royalties at the same rate in 2013. The rate has not increased,” he said.
This despite other industry players, including competitor mobile companies and other suppliers of music to MTN, agreeing and duly paying music royalties at the same agreed rates, Ngubo added.
Capasso represents numerous songwriters, either directly such as Tarryn Lamb, Nompumelelo Mzobe and Doctor Malinga, or through other composers’ publishers such as Ghetto Ruff, Soulistic Music (Universal Music Publishing), CashTime Life (Gallo Music Publishers), and Thoho Records.
According to Capasso CEO Nothando Migogo, CD sales were steadily declining and digital music sales were an increasingly relied-upon revenue stream for songwriters.
“The unfortunate thing is that songwriters, who are also artists, don’t realise that even if they receive payment for their role as the artist or singer on a song, they are still owed another royalty for their role as a songwriter. It is this songwriter royalty that Capasso collects.
“It is even worse for songwriters who don’t perform on the actual song. They don’t even benefit from the first type of royalty which may [or may not)] have been paid by MTN.”
Migogo added that numerous ‘hidden’ songwriters or featured artists on other artists’ big hit singles have been at Capasso’s doors demanding reasons for the missing royalties.
In response, MTN SA’s sales, marketing and distribution executive, Larry Annetts said, “MTN has noted the allegations that Capasso has made claiming that MTN has failed to pay music copyright royalties to songwriters since 2013. The allegations are devoid of all truth.”
He said his company prided itself on being at the forefront of music development in South Africa and across the continent. MTN has, in the past, collaborated with collecting societies in respect of the payment of all royalties owed.
In a bid to expedite payment to artists, he said the company had initiated its own process to settle outstanding royalty payments that were delayed by industry issues. He added that MTN had a close working relationship and engaged extensively with the National Organisation for Reproduction Rights in Music, the predecessor of Capasso, and even settled outstanding royalties with Capasso in late 2014.
Annetts said his company had been working with Capasso to settle royalties for the current period. Apparently, Capasso had sent MTN an invoice for royalties that contained duplicated claims, and the mobile service provider had requested Capasso to submit a revised and corrected invoice in respect of invoices payable. To date the revised invoice had not been sent, Annetts alleged.
“MTN has never disputed any royalty rates with Capasso or any other collecting society. Since 2014, MTN has required all content providers to obtain all necessary licences and engage directly with the regulators,” he said.
Details: 011 447 8870; nothandom@capasso.co.za
