FAQ Music Users

What does SAMRO do with the Licence Fees it collects

Throughout the year SAMRO issues licences to music-users within its operational territory and collects the appropriate fees for the public performances of music. Most of those licensees are required to send SAMRO returns of the musical works performed. These returns are analysed daily by SAMRO's staff, and the results captured on computer.

At the end of every year the collected licence fees are distributed to the composers whose music has actually been used and to their publishers, less the costs of administration, amounting to about 23% and certain deductions for specific purposes, such as the Retirement Annuity Fund for SAMRO's members and the SAMRO's Endowment for the National Arts. The distribution is done on the basis of the daily analysed performances returns in the course of the year. This means that every composer receives a share of the collected licence fees which corresponds to the reported proportion of his or her music which was performed during the year.

If the programme returns show performances of music by a composer of whom SAMRO has no record, the corresponding performances are noted and data kept as work in progress for a period of four years. If, within that period, SAMRO discovers who the composer is and where he or she lives, the accumulated fees are paid. If at the end of that period the composer has still not been identified, those royalties are brought back into account for distribution with the distributable income during the first year thereafter.

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