MCSK Call for Compliance from Consumers of Copyrighted Music
Music Copyright society,Performers right Society of Kenya(PRISK) and the Kenya Association of Music producers (KAMP) officials led by MCSK CEO Dr Ezekiel Mutua(right) address the media
By Fred Maingi
Music copyright society (MCSK), 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 from their creative works.
Addressing the media on Monday in Nairobi, the three management Organisations(CMOS) urged music consumers to pay all pending royalties and comply with relevant authorities to ensure all revenue by consumers is collected and paid to musicians.
MCSK Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr Ezekiel Mutua emphasized on the need for cooperation from the public consumers of music.
“Anyone using music for their business, they must pay, there is no turning back, we are not going to have brokers or middlemen, we want to handle our clients honorably,we are going to engage our clients to ensure they do business in a decent way,” observed Mutua.
“Music ndio shamba ama duka ya mMsanii (music is the land musicians depend for their survival,) we don’t wish your son and daughters who will be musicians in the future to be taken in circles tomorrow,We want to urge people using music including broadcasters, business, Matatus and public service vehicles to please pay for it .”he noted
” We do not want, he added, to disrupt your business or carry away your equipment as it used to be or use police to arrest you but don’t abuse that privilege, understand when you use music for business you need to pay for it”
He said MCK has gone digital where members are asked to dial *2553# for any assistance .
On his part regional Director from the international Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) Samuel Sangwa reiterated their commitment to collaborate with the three major CMOS in Kenya: MCSK, PRISK and KAMP to create elaborative framework and policy making in their operations.
“CISAC is today meeting with MSCK, PRISK and KAMP and we are engaging with policy making on number of issues to do with regulatory framework and also meet some of the users to echo the need for compliance with payment of royalties in Kenya stemming from broadcasters which is the source in of revenue in Africa.
“We need to have a long term plan, Sangwa added, to enable us to apply more strategic vision, this is the beginning of technical cooperation with kenya,”
Sangwa said they are in the country to make the initial assessment of the expectations of Kenya stakeholders.
“From there, we will elaborate the roadmap for this year and probably next year. We strongly believe creative industry in Kenya deserve a conducive collective management, deserves to remunerate creators,” emphasized Sangwa
Sangwa and Gloria Braga, Legal Consultant at MCSK Head office are on a one-week mission in Kenya to discuss collaboration with MCSK in promoting the welfare of musicians.
“Mine is to insist that KAMP is fully licensed for the year 2024 to collect on behalf of the actors and producers. To date we have 734 million from broadcasters who ave not paid and 300 million for the last three years,” he said.
” CMOS are not getting the revenue we are supposed to get due to unpaid revenue .I am humbly requesting members to pay so that we can have enough money to pay musicians and other copyrighted work.”said PRISK CEO Joseph Njagi
MCSK,PRISK and KAMP also met with international partners who reiterated the harnessing of royalties collection and distribution.
MCSK will commence the 1st distribution of royalties to its 16,000 members on the 25th of this month, an exercise which will run till the end of march
MCSK has also lined up three more royalty distribution centers this year.
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