Online Reporter
IN our publication yesterday, we revealed that gospel star Sabastian Magacha earned a paltry 33 cents a day, US$2,30 a week and US$10 a month from the rights to his music played on various platforms, including on the digital spaces, last year.
These platforms were monitored by the Zimbabwe Music Rights Association.
Magacha received a payment of just US$120 from ZIMURA last year.
He revealed the ZIMURA payment under oath when he appeared at the Harare Civil Court in a case in which his baby mama was accusing him of neglecting their child.
We noted that if a star like Magacha could receive only US$120 from ZIMURA for a year’s work it means that those who do not have a status like his probably did not get even a cent last year.
We also noted that earlier this year, ZIMURA entered into a partnership with ACRCloud, which the association claims will boost their broadcast monitoring services.
ACRCloud is a global music recognition technology provider.
ZIMURA said this collaboration was meant to improve the accuracy and efficiency of royalty distribution to local music stars.
The association said the would automate the tracking of music played on radio stations and leverage ACRCloud’s technology to identify songs, track play counts, and monitor airplay durations in real-time.
The partnership will help ZIMURA ensure that musicians are fairly compensated for their work by accurately tracking their music’s airplay.
ACRCloud’s technology will enable real-time monitoring of music played on radio stations, providing detailed data on song titles, artists, and International Standard Recording Codes (ISRC).
The collaboration will replace manual, error-prone tracking systems with an automated, AI-powered solution.
ZIMURA will integrate ACRCloud’s technology with WIPO Connect, a music rights management tool, to further enhance the system’s capabilities.
The initiative is expected to minimise errors, reduce administrative workload, and ensure that local artists receive the royalties they are due.
We hope that this will bring the kind of changes which will result in our artists getting a fair share of what belongs to them from the rights associated with their creativity and their work.
We also believe that our artists are also pinning their hopes on this and they believe that come the end of the year, when the dividends from their rights are dished out, they will not get the paltry payments like the money which Magacha got.
Those who are leading ZIMURA will have to find ways to justify their existence and ensuring that our artists get a decent share from their rights will be a move in the right direction.
It doesn’t make sense that the ZIMURA leadership pocket significant earnings when the artists, who are supposed to be the ultimate beneficiaries from the rights associated with their work, get virtually nothing.
The artists are not there to generate money to pay the executives at ZIMURA when the musicians are not getting anything of real value.
If ZIMURA doesn’t generate decent income for the artists then they have a right to question if the association is worth their patronage.
