MUSIC CREATOR
ARTIST, COMPOSER, LYRICIST, PUBLISHER
Do you compose music of any kind, write lyrics, perform vocals or play instruments in studio and help record music? Congratulations! You’re a Music Creator!
Do you compose music of any kind, write lyrics, perform vocals or play instruments in studio and help record music? Congratulations! You’re a Music Creator!
Music creators are a group of people who make the amazing, moving, thoughtful, powerful works that SAMRO vigilantly administers.
Composers make magic out of musical notes. We’re talking anything from composing music for songs to those soundtracks you hear on movies or jingles – all the way up to orchestral symphonies. If you pour your heart into writing and creating original music - you’re a composer!
As a composer, there are a number of rights that vest within your compositions. SAMRO administers what is known as Performing Rights, and control what happens when your music is performed in public. Mechanical Rights are another form of music right that come into play when your music is reproduced. In South Africa, Mechanical Rights are administered by the Composers, Authors & Publishers Association (CAPASSO). From 2014 onward, composers need to join CAPASSO as members in order to enjoy the benefits from their Mechanical Rights.
SAMRO administers the music copyright related to Performing Rights and collects licence fees which are then distributed as royalties on your behalf. Which means if someone wants to use your words either to perform in public or to play or broadcast it – they need a usage licence.
Lyrics give meaning to music. If you weave words into melodies and create lyrics that accompany music, it makes you a music author and you are entitled to be paid royalties whenever your music is used.
Music Publishers are the guys who get your musical works to the big world. This is where your works might be used in an advert, movie or as part of another recording – such as when a DJ samples a chorus line from a song. Music Publishers usually help music creators get their fair share whenever their works is used in those platforms.
To be a SAMRO member, a publisher must have a catalogue of music works that have been commercially published or recorded. And the author/s of the music works must be members of SAMRO or one of our international partners.
Get started with your membership by clicking on the below link to complete our online application. Please note that you will need to upload a copy of your ID or Passport.
Alternatively, kindly download the membership application forms by clicking on the following link. Please complete all the documents and submit this with a copy of your ID or Passport to customerservices@samro.org.za.
To keep everything above board, the Board checks out the submissions of every Music Creator. We verify that your music is active and ensure that licence fees collected from those licensed platforms get to you. If you’re a music publisher, we check to see that the people you represent are also members of SAMRO or our international affiliated societies.
As a Music Creator, you need to meet a few requirements before we can approve your membership. You need to complete a few forms and supply us with the required documents.
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1.1 Authors:
You must have completed the prescribed application form, the SAMRO Deed of Assignment, and also as have formally notified all musical works in which you have an interest on the official SAMRO Notification of Works form. Your musical work(s) should have achieved significant performances so as to accrue royalties to warrant performing right administration by SAMRO.
To become an Associate Member, you must have earned at least R100-00 (one hundred Rand) in royalties within the 3 (three) preceding years.
1.2 Publishers
You must be registered with the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (“the CIPC”). The publisher must have applied for SAMRO membership by completing the prescribed application form, and the SAMRO Deed of Assignment. Copies of the deeds of assignments between the Publisher and their authors/composers must be supplied to SAMRO. In the case of representation of foreign works, copies of the sub-publication agreements must accompany the application documentation.
To become an Associate Member, you must have earned at least R1000-00 (one thousand Rand) in royalties within the 3 (three) preceding years.
Your rights as an Associate Member:
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For an Associate to become a Full Member, the following point system will be used:
1.1 The following point system, for the number of active years, shall be used for an associate AUTHOR member of SAMRO to become a full author member:
1.2 The following point system, for the number of active years, shall be used for an associate PUBLISHER member of SAMRO to become a full publisher member:
2.1 The following point system, for documented musical works, shall be used for an associate AUTHOR member of SAMRO to become a full author member:
2.2 The following point system, for documented musical works, shall be used for an associate PUBLISHER member of SAMRO to become a full publisher member:
3.1 The following point system, for the lowest yearly earning, shall be used for an associate AUTHOR member of SAMRO to become a full author member:
3.2 The following point system, for the lowest yearly earning, shall be used for an associate publisher member of SAMRO to become a full publisher member:
Your rights as a Full Member:
Performing Rights are the rights to perform music in public and is part of copyright law. The users of the musical works have to, by law, pay the creators of those musical works for the public use of their music.
Performing Rights belong to the person or people who own the music. That’s music composers, lyricists or music publishers who wrote, created or produced it.
They earn royalties when the music is either performed in public, or broadcast on mediums such as TV or radio. And even when it’s used in a telephone message service or played in an elevator - SAMRO makes sure that playback time is payback time.
‘Mechanical Rights’ is a fancy name for the royalties that composers, lyrists and music publishers earn when their music is copied and transformed into things like cassettes, CDs, DVDs, MP3s – even ringtones – for public use. In other words when it is reproduced by a device or machine.
In the past, Mechanical Rights were managed by both SAMRO and NORM (National Organisation for Reproduction Rights in Music), but recently the game changed. In order to make life simpler for music creators and better serve members, SAMRO and NORM decided to work together to establish a new organisation to manage Mechanical Rights through one administrative body. Thus, CAPASSO was born – the Composers, Authors and Publishers Association
This new body, CAPASSO is responsible for licensing your music and collecting fees from Music Users like radio stations and advertising agencies, DJ’s and anyone who makes copies, cover versions or compilation CDs.
Needletime Rights royalties make sure performers and recording artists get paid when their music is played in public. These are the people who were in the studio playing the instruments, or singing the lyrics when the recording was made.
Even if they didn’t write the song or the lyrics, their talent contributed to the final product. So they should get paid any time the song is played on the radio or anywhere else in public for that matter.
In South Africa, Needletime Rights are administered by the South African Music Performance Rights Association (SAMPRA).