Purpose Statement

Values

Convenience
Excellence
Trust
Relationships

SAMRO Overview

The Southern African Music Rights Organisation (SAMRO) was established in 1961 with the objective to protect the intellectual property of composers and authors, as well as to ensure that composers and authors talents are adequately credited both locally and internationally for music usage. The organisation is the primary representative of music performing rights in Southern Africa.

SAMRO plays a vital role in the administration of works, distribution of royalties and promotes copyright law of composers and authors works, through the collection of license fees from television broadcasters, radio stations, in-store radio stations, pubs, clubs, retailers, restaurants and all other businesses who broadcast music.

The organisation functions as a collective administration society that negotiates music user licenses. Its main role is to administer the SAMRO was created and is controlled by composers, authors and publishers of music. It has a board of directors that is elected biannually by members.

SAMRO now also administers "Needletime" Rights: musicians now have the right to receive payment for the exploitation of their recorded performances, thanks to “needle time”.

Under the concept (“Needletime”), aspiring artists, background singers,instrumentalists, and well-known hitmakers alike, would be compensated for use of their work when it is broadcast or communicated to the public, when they assign their Needletime Rights to SAMRO.

SAMRO is a member of the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC), which gives the organisation access to fully represent the interests of South African composers, authors and publishers internationally. The association is affiliated to over 200 global collecting societies for public performance or mechanical reproduction rights. SAMRO has a membership base in excess of 7000 composers and authors of all nationalities in Southern Africa.

SAMRO plays a vital role in adding value to the music industry and positively impacting the livelihoods of all our composers and authors.

We are a world-class African society with a commitment to solid management, cost-effective services as well as quality business ethics and values.

Legislative Framework

History

Electronic and digital means of performance have, however, largely displaced sheet music, so that these sales are now-a-days very small. To some extent the royalties on the sale of recordings have replaced those on the sale of sheet music. Moreover, modern methods of communication like broadcasting can use a single recording to entertain an audience of thousands or millions. This considerably limits the sales of recordings, and therefore the royalties earned. As a result of these developments, the composer's principal source of livelihood today is the performing right royalty, a fee payable by anyone who performs his/her music in public.

The Principle of Collective Administration

To reward and respect the value of an author’s (composer and/or lyricist) musical works, the owners of this property (known as intellectual property) in the world of music, most countries around the world have Copyright Acts, and South Africa is no exception. There is no formal registration requirement or any requirement for the work to be marked with a copyright claim in order to secure copyright protection in South Africa. Your work is protected by a copyright at the moment you create it in a tangible form (written copy, recorded music, filmed movie, digital data saved on a computer disk). SAMRO is such a society, and its territory of operation currently embraces the Republics of South Africa and Botswana and the Kingdoms of Lesotho and Swaziland.

Copyright lasts for the lifetime of the composer and for 50 years after his/her death. During this post mortem period SAMRO distributes any royalties to his/her heirs. In other words, these royalties constitute the composer's "insurance" for his/her dependants. Numerous Southern African composers' families have benefitted in this manner. The heirs of Solomon Linda, composer of "Wimoweh/Imbube", continue to benefit from performances of this world-renowned song.

Types of Royalties administered by SAMRO

Performing Royalties – Paid either directly (to songwriters and composers) or indirectly (through publishers) when the work is publicly performed live, broadcast, film or communicated through a diffusion service.

Mechanical Royalties – Paid by users of music who require the right to mechanically or digitally reproduce or manufacture music embodying the work onto various types of media (e.g., cassette tape, CD, cellular phones, hard-drives, etc.) for public distribution.

Needletime Royalties – Paid out to performers for the broadcast of their recorded performances. If you are an artist who has made a commercial recording which has been broadcast or played in public then you may be due for these royalty fees.