The battle for SKIZA millions, who’s to BLAME?
Gospel singer Eunice Njeri.
What you need to know:
- At the heart of the battle of supremacy between who is best suited to collect millions of shillings in royalties on behalf of Kenyan artistes lies Safaricom, the Skiza Tunes platform owner and one that is always seen as the ‘bad guy’ whenever an artiste has an issue with their payments. It seeks to explain that it follows the law and the issue with the middlemen and the artistes.
- Platform owner Safaricom has maintained that it is still eager to work with artistes and ensure that they benefit from their work, but it can do so only within the law.
- According to the website Hapa Kenya, Skiza royalties are split between artistes and CSPs — depending on the deal they have — the government and Safaricom. In an article by singer Dan Aceda, artistes and CSPs are paid 15 per cent, while 10 per cent goes to the government as Excise Duty and 16 per cent as VAT, with Safaricom retaining 54 per cent.
Top gospel singer Eunice Njeri of “Unatosha” hit recently wrote to Safaricom complaining about her Skiza Tune royalties, which she claimed she had never received despite logs showing her billing at over Sh30 million.
Her letter, which she posted on Instagram three weeks ago, read: “Dear Safaricom. My name is Eunice Njeri. I’m a gospel musician and I love Jesus. Maybe you might remember me from the close to Sh30 million you make every month from my music... or almost a billion shillings you have made in the past one year...”
Njeri wrote that while Safaricom made millions from her music, she continues to struggle to make ends meets. She went on to say that because she is bound by contracts, she may never get any royalties even though Liberty Afrika, a Content Service Provider that collects money on her behalf, got 15 per cent of her money from Safaricom.
Njeri’s story brought back to prominence the raging tussle over Skiza Tune payments between Safaricom (the platform owner), musicians and middlemen — Collective Management Organisations (CMOs) and Content Service Providers (CSPs) — tasked with collecting royalties on behalf of artistes.
Core issues that have resulted in legal drama include copyright matters and who precisely is tasked to distribute royalties on behalf of musicians.
The latest court decision on November 1 by the High Court in Malindi over Skiza payments is that Safaricom should pay all royalties directly to Content Service Providers (CSPs).
But this new judgment contradicts an earlier one by the High Court in Nairobi on May 11 that directed Safaricom to pay artistes through CMOs, according to an agreement they had entered into last year.
COPYRIGHT SHAREHOLDERS
But even before Safaricom made the first payment, it was sued, because the court had challenged the existence of CMOs and their ability to collect artistes’ fees. Never mind that the three CMOs represent the broad spectrum of rights owners. Consequently, Safaricom held a series of meetings between CMOs, CSPs and artistes to find a middle ground.
The idea was to get artistes to self-organise and help Safaricom pass the payments efficiently. They organised themselves, signed consent forms and when the contracts came into effect, Safaricom started making the payouts to CMOs and artistes. Since the agreement, Safaricom says it has paid out over Sh300 million.
Fast forward to this year, a case was filed challenging the ruling by the High Court in Nairobi, hence the recent judgment by the High Court in Malindi. In its findings, the High Court in Malindi declared Section 30A unconstitutional because it limits the manner in which royalties are paid. Earlier on, this section had enabled CMOs such as Music Copyright Society of Kenya (MCSK), Kenya Association of Music Producers (KAMP) and Performers Rights Organisation of Kenya (PRISK) to collect royalties on behalf of artistes.
According to rapper Nonini, real name Hubert Nakitare, using CSPs as the middlemen could see artistes taking advantage of each other. When a musician makes his song(s) available to CSPs for uploading on the Skiza platform, Nonini says, he will be the sole beneficiary of Skiza royalties regardless of other right owners on the song — like sound engineers, producers and composers.
“But if Safaricom pays Skiza royalties through CMOs — through organisations like KAMP, PRISK, and MCSK where all copyright shareholders are represented — everybody gets paid. That’s how it works internationally; no one eats the cake alone,” he says.
Nonini adds that CSPs have nothing to do with music. That they are manned by people who have never stepped into the studio — pure businessmen. He therefore supports challenging the court’s decisions and appealing the case, hoping to get CMOs back on board.
Platform owner Safaricom has maintained that it is still eager to work with artistes and ensure that they benefit from their work, but it can do so only within the law.
“The industry is very layered,” says head of corporate affairs Stephen Chege. “Artistes come to us through CSPs, who they give their songs to put on Skiza. We provide the logs to CSPs who then pass them to artistes to check how many times their songs were downloaded and how much they made.”
“There have been problems between artistes and CSPs because they (artistes) feel they are not getting what they are owed. But it’s a transparent process on Safaricom’s end,” he adds.
Chege says they may have to find out who owns what rights to enable them efficiently pay artistes. But he feels the real problem lies with the Kenya Copyright Board (Kecobo) for lacking a database indicating the copyright owners.
“Kecobo, as a regulator, can do better than it is doing right now. It should have a register of all copyright owners in Kenya so that, if I start singing today, I am able to go to them and say: ‘I wrote this song, these are my producers, and the names of all copyright owners are attached’,” says Chege.
He adds that Kecobo should step up and take the lead in self organisation. If it does not have the means, he says, Safaricom could sponsor or work with it to form a database.
“We have provided the platform, we cannot then be the subject of litigation,” he says.
COMFORTABLE ARRANGEMENT
According to the website Hapa Kenya, Skiza royalties are split between artistes and CSPs — depending on the deal they have — the government and Safaricom. In an article by singer Dan Aceda, artistes and CSPs are paid 15 per cent, while 10 per cent goes to the government as Excise Duty and 16 per cent as VAT, with Safaricom retaining 54 per cent.
When asked why Safaricom retains the lion share, Chege says this is a lot of speculation but does not give specific details because there are contracts between them (Safaricom) and the artistes.
“By Safaricom creating the platform, it means it is undertaking a lot of costs. To be able to download these songs, there has to be a network, which costs money. There’s a cost element in the whole equation. As the cost of the portal, network and service is operated over a period of time, we are able to lower that component and it will feed back to what proportions the artistes are getting,” he says.
Nonini believes that with CSPs, artistes are at a risk of being conned of their money. “Don’t just sign anything; hire a lawyer to read contracts for you because they know what to look out for. They can advise you on exit clauses. A lawyer has to be part of your team,” he says.
While artistes like Eunice Njeri spark Skiza royalties conversation because of claims of millions in unpaid fees, Linet Munyali, popularly known as Size 8, has never had problems with either CMOs or CSPs. She says she is totally comfortable with whoever the courts decide the royalties should be paid to.
“The good thing with Skiza is that artistes are able to see the amount of money they made,” says Size 8. She reveals that she has previously received payments through Liberty Afrika, which manages her content for Skiza Tunes. She also has no problem with MCSK concerning her royalty collection.
She says problems crop up when artistes sign contracts blindly. “Don’t sign a contract you’ve not read properly, no matter how broke you are. That’s when you’re most vulnerable and Sh50,000 paid once for the rights to your song sounds like a great deal at that moment but you’ll end up signing your intellectual property rights away,” she says.