MUSIGA will name and shame royalty defaulters this year

President of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA), Bessa Simons, has indicated that his organisation, in collaboration with the Ghana Music Rights Organisation (GHAMRO), will take more stringent measures against commercial operators that default in paying royalties for music played.

According to him, such defaulters will be publicly named and reported to musicians.

“This year, one interesting thing that is going to happen is that anybody who doesn’t pay their royalties, we will put your name out there that these are the people who haven’t paid. Not just media houses, but all commercial music users.

“And then we will show them to the musicians who are struggling that ‘you haven’t paid them; that’s why they are suffering,’” he said in an interview with TV3’s Cookie Tee.

GHAMRO warns media houses, brands against refusing to pay for music

Asked about MUSIGA and GHAMRO’s plans to boost royalty payment and revenue for the incoming years, he said the digitalization of the institution will ensure that musicians are given the money they deserve for their properties.

“We are behind time… maybe about 200 years. And so we have to catch up quickly. What we need is to make sure that GHAMRO is fully digital and all the media houses are paying royalties to GHAMRO. And once it is digital, everybody can monitor it.

“Because these days we don’t sell records, we don’t sell CDs, and we don’t sell pen drives. So we have to put everything into a digital store. And when the digital store sells, it has to trickle down proper monetization into the accounts of the musicians. This is what we are pushing,” he said.

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