By Sam Banda Jnr
Musicians Union of Malawi (Mum) has admitted that its office has been overwhelmed by musicians’ complaints on royalties following Copyright Society of Malawi (Cosoma) distribution of K451, 223,982.75 in blank media levy for literary works and music recently.
The copyright body distributed K451,223,982.75 in blank media levy for literary works and music for the periods April 2022 to March 2023 and October 2022 to March 2023 through its new system of Wipoconnect following an upgrade from Wipocos.
It also distributed royalties for TNM ringtones for January 2021 to December 2022, amounting to K14, 052,742.15.
In the distribution class of blank media levy for literary works for the period April 2022 to March 2023, Cosoma has disbursed K253, 997,403.69 whereas for music works in the period October 2022 to March 2023, the copyright body has distributed K197, 226,579.06 which gives a total of K451,223,982.75.
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However, creatives continue to cry foul over the distribution of royalties with some questioning the criteria used.
Keturah of the ‘Nambewe’ fame is one of the musicians that took to social media to hit at the copyright body and queried the distribution system, having received a “smaller amount”.
Some musicians have even alleged that other musicians are “favoured” when it comes to distribution of royalties.
“There have been complaints from our members as regards the criteria used in blank media levy disbursement. Many are not convinced and so, they have reached out to our office with questions that need answers. We do not have the answers but we plan to engage Cosoma so as to understand fully the criteria they use and other processes,” Mum President Vita Chirwa said.
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Cosoma Head of Documentation Shadrick Kumtengo said on Monday that they will always be “transparent” in their transactions including distribution of royalties and ruled out favouratism in all their operations.
“We have a system that does everything and we have our own methodologies and criterion. We serve a lot of creatives and, so, there is nothing like favouritism and we are always transparent,” Kumtengo said.
He further said that their door was open and called upon all creatives to go to their offices and get all the information they needed if they were not satisfied with some of the transactions.
He said a lot of artists lack information on distribution and other areas and that they will continue to engage them through sensitisation campaigns.
Kumtengo revealed recently that figures for the disbursements have gone down compared to the previous payments and attributed this to the country’s economic challenges, leading to people importing less gadgets from where a levy is taken.
Despite this setback, Kumtengo said musicians have still benefited as over 50 received over K1 million.
