Kenyan artistes, MCSK lock horns over royalties

Kenyan artistes are accusing the Music Copyright Society of Kenya (MCSK) of unfairly paying out royalties and misappropriating members’ money.

Alex Apoko popularly known as Ringtone, led hundreds of MCSK members in a demonstration during the Monday awards at Carnivore. He said the society was betraying its members by using the revenue collected to hold the awards as opposed to staging a fully sponsored event.

“MCSK is misappropriating members’ money as we have never met as members and agreed to have an event funded by the society,” he said.

Ringtone, who was among the first artistes to join MCSK, added that the most aggrieved are the new members, who earn low royalties despite the massive airplay they receive.

“Each of the 50 artistes who performed today were being paid Sh50,000, yet there are members here with royalties as little as Sh2,000 and since they are upcoming musicians no one wants to pay them to perform,” stated Ringtone.

Jaguar, who was awarded as the highest earner, admitted that there were challenges in the society and in how musicians are benefiting but called for unity among artistes to try to make things better.

“The society is slowly improving, as I can remember when we started none of us used to get anything. Artistes ought to fight from within by proposing for inclusion in the board membership in order to change things,” he said.

The “Kigeugeu” hitmaker admitted that his breakthrough came after he released a song that received a lot of airplay and the society started honouring him.

'CANNOT CHANGE ANYTHING BY PROTESTING'

“We cannot change anything by protesting and accusing the society of not being of any help, if anything we will kill it completely and it is us musicians who will suffer. We need to be united and discuss the way forward,” he added.

Other musicians blamed the society for allegedly spending a lot in paying out foreign musicians while the local artistes were poorly remunerated.

SautiSol’s Bien Aime Baraza told Nation.co.ke that he was glad MCSK was organizing such events but added that he was concerned that revenue allocation was not transparent.

“There is a problem when we pay a lot of money to foreign musicians, much as their music receives a lot of airplay (here), … (but we) Kenyan musicians are not paid anything when our music is played in other countries,” said Bien.

He gave an example of SautiSol’s latest hit “Sura Yako”, which he said was among the top ringtones used by Vodacom in Tanzania and yet the band receives no royalties from there.

“We are not fighting MCSK, in fact we are saying they are trying but a lot needs to be done to promote accountability and benefit Kenyan musicians,” he added.

In a quick rejoinder, the CEO of the society, Maurice Okoth, said the money collected is divided among the members using a software programme, and is based on the number of times a member’s song has been played.

“We have no interests in member’s money, in fact they are our bosses and we serve them independently. We are transparent and I think it is malicious for artistes to go picketing without attempting to solve the issue first,” said Mr Okoth.

MCSK Chairman Michael Maganzo also stated that the society has rules that it abides by and that every member is aware that they operate within the laid-down rules.

“The society is voluntary and we only accept artistes who are willing to work with us and so when a member is aggrieved he or she should come to us,” said Mr Maganzo.

The MCSK Awards, now in their third year, are held annually to honour musicians and showcase their talents through performances.

This year’s top earner was singer Jaguar.