Should DJs pay to play music?

The biggest debate in the local music industry now is between DJs and musicians. Who will blink first? GRAPHIC | NATION

What you need to know:

  • Two music bodies are saying that disc jokeys should pay to play music but the DJs insist that they help promote the artistes and if this rule is enforced, they will stop playing Kenyan music.
  • Xclusive asks how the Sh15,000 figure was arrived at and what mechanisms were in place for that decision to be met.
  • According to DNG, the decision was made by the board, went through due process and deejays were involved. They could not agree on exactly how much but settled on an “agreeable” amount

In February, the Kenya Association of Music Producers (KAMP) and the Performers Rights Society of Kenya (PRISK) announced that users of sound recordings and audio visual works for commercial purposes would be required to apply for licences.

The two bodies also came up with a joint initiative called pay for play to encourage everybody using sound recordings and audio visual works to comply with Section 30A of the Copyright Act. By law, they are required to take up a licence if they are to use this works for profit.

Two weeks ago, through their Marketing and Communications Consultant Davidson “DNG” Ngibuini, KAMP also announced that the fee would amount to Sh15,000 annually.

What followed after the announcement was a barrage of disapproving tweets and social media updates from deejays, many of them terming the announcement disrespectful and one that could potentially kill the local music industry.

DJ Xclusive for instance wondered why they should pay the fee yet they are stakeholders in the music industry and equally as important as musicians. Xclusive says that artistes are quick to forget that deejays are the first people they run to whenever they release their singles.

“Why were deejays not included in this decision-making process?” he poses.

AGREEABLE AMOUNT

He adds: “Clubs pay for the licences to play local music, not forgetting that they are the biggest beneficiaries. KAMP, PRISK and MCSK should come up with one licence to cover everything instead of each body issuing their own. I can pay for the licence but I don’t have to play Kenyan music, I might decide I like lost school music, there is a market for that.”

Xclusive thinks this is a ploy to get money from deejays whom they see making a lot of money from the music industry. Most artistes, he says, only make money through live shows and this is because the MCSK does not know what it is doing.

Xclusive, who found out about the fee via Twitter, says KAMP and PRISK did not sensitise people on this issue. He wants to know why this fee is being implemented and how it is going to be collected. He is asking for transparency.

“DNG says they had a meeting with the Deejays Association which is yet to be registered, we were not involved” he states.

DNG denies that no civic education has been done.

“We expected resistance and we are dealing with it. We are actually being courteous because we have already done the civic education, now it’s just a matter of implementing it. This law was established in 2001 and no one can change it,” he says.

For artistes to generate returns, Xclusive adds, they need to learn how to create quality content instead of resorting to measures such as this to get money.

Xclusive asks how the Sh15,000 figure was arrived at and what mechanisms were in place for that decision to be met.

According to DNG, the decision was made by the board, went through due process and deejays were involved. They could not agree on exactly how much but settled on an “agreeable” amount; “Because Kenya does not have the infrastructure to monitor over 5,000 deejays across the country, so they decide to charge a blanket fee.”

SELFISH INTERESTS

Xclusive still won’t have it. “There is nowhere in the world deejays are charged to play music. If I sell my mixes then fine, I will pay the artistes. But I’m using a musician’s music to promote him. For me to pay that money what I’m I getting out of it? At the moment, nothing.”

Other deejays equally peeved as DJ Xclusive are Nruff, Slimd, and Rolex.

Many of the deejays Buzz contacted for this story declined to comment led by DJ Stylez, who handles communication for the Kenya Deejays’ Association. DJ Gordo, the association’s chairman, says he will share his thoughts about paying for play only after they meet with KAMP and PRISK.

Just recently appointed as the marketing and communication consultant, DNG hit the ground running trying to engage and enlighten deejays on why this fee should be implemented and paid.

And as the “face” of PRISK and KAMP, he has been bearing the brunt of some angry deejays’ messages on social media.

“People are up in arms and running their mouths but some of them are not even real deejays, which means they are not part of the Deejays’ Association. Then how do they expect to get information? We have been in talks with deejays like Joe Mfalme and DJ Stylez,” he says.

DNG says that deejays are resisting for no good reason. According to the Copyright Act, artistes have a right to receive remuneration for their work and KAMP and PRISK argue they are just enforcing the act as per their mandate. DNG stresses that this licence is not just for local works but foreign as well.

Addressing some of the deejays threats to stop playing Kenyan music, DNG says any deejay planning to do so has selfish interests. He states that any forward thinking deejay would be open to engage with them in the interest of moving forward.

“We are no longer reliant on traditional distribution, there is the Internet now, and if a song gets enough buzz it will eventually reach the intended target,” says DNG.

Deejays can also pay this fee in monthly instalments at Sh1,250 a month. That amount, DNG feels, any deejay worth the title and rents deejay decks almost every other weekend at Sh5,000 shouldn’t be complaining.

MORAL LAW

Musician Dan Aceda, who weighed in on the issue in an online post, is surprised by the hostile reactions of deejays. He says:

“…In my view anyone who uses work for commercial gain owes the owner of the work fair compensation. It’s just moral law. In this case deejays use music for commercial gain. They are paid to play. Until now, none of this cash was shared with the owners of the material that the deejays use to perform and it’s wrong…”

Although Aceda sees some merit in some of the deejays’ argument like double taxation, he is yet to hear a rational discussion. Still, he thinks this might bring professionalism to the industry and separate the real deejays from quacks.

A meeting between the deejays and the two organisations was to take place last week on Wednesday but at the request of the deejays, it was postponed to an unconfirmed date this week.