Tuesday 13 January 2009

Samro Annual Distribution

According to several reports, 6177 music writers and publishers shared in a R56,8m ($5.6m) payout from The Southern African Music Rights Organisation (Samro). Samro earned that amount through investing royalties that it collected in its past financial year for composers, publishers and heirs to deceased composers estates, who now qualify to share the amount. The annual payout is over and above the performing rights royalties that members receive. Royalties were held in trust by the organisation while playlist usage details were worked out and royalties attributed to the correct person.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That seems like an astonishingly high figure to me -- though admittedly I know little about collecting society finances. Any idea how this compares to other collecting societies, especially on just the basic questions of whether they engage in these sorts of payouts?

Thanks

Darren Olivier said...

The payout is about $1000 per writer. Bear in mind that fixed deposit rate returns in South Africa are around 10% so it means holding $10000 in royalty payments per writer, not that much. Writers may in fact argue that if Samro was more effecient in paying out the royalty, they could invest it elsewhere eg their household bond and save more money. Interest rates on mortgages are around 14%.