Artists received Sh80m in royalties, Copyright Board confirms

The Kenya Copyright Board on Wednesday confirmed that artists received millions in royalties distributed by the Kenya Music Copyright Society, Performance Rights Society of Kenya and the Kenya Association of Music Producers.

The Copyright Board said the three bodies distributed a total of sh80 million to their members.

"This is to confirm that the three music collective management organization licensed by the Kenya copyright board in 2019 have distributed royalties from the collection of the second quarter of the year, April-June 2019," the board said in a statement.

According to the copyright board, the amount distributed represented 68 per cent of the total income of sh118 million jointly collected by the three CMOs.

The board said the amount represents a shortfall of 2 per cent from the 70 per cent level set by the KECOBO Board of directors as preconditioned for licensing of the three societies.

The board added that it remained committed to reaching their target in the course of the subsequent distribution this year.

The Kenya copyright board has since received statements and logs from the three CMOs confirming payment of royalties to most members of the three societies.

"The members have received amounts determined in accordance with the distribution rules of each society as set out by members of the respective CMOs during their annual general meetings or at the board level," Edward Sigei, the Executive Director of KECOBO said.

The board said that the amounts collected during the first quarter of this year are being reconciled and will be distributed in due course taking into account that the three societies collected separately.

Earlier on Wednesday, MCSK came under attack from Kenyan artistes and their fans after it was discovered that they offered Sh2,500 each to the musicians as royalties.

The outcry came after popular musicians Khaligraph Jones and King Kaka posted on social media pages of their M-Pesa messages which showed they received  Sh2,500  for their hard-earned work.

But in a series of tweets which they later pulled down, MCSK said they distributed royalties to all their 13,967 members.