The Sunday News
Johannesburg – A copyright body claims MTN owes songwriters just under R1m in unpaid royalties for music sold by the mobile network.
MTN sells music via the likes of its caller tone service ‘CallerTunez’. The mobile network also secures music from third party aggregators which include Content Connect Africa (CCA). MTN acquired a stake in CCA in 2014, according to the Financial Times.
But non-profit songwriter and publishing royalty collecting society Capasso (Composers Authors and Publishers Association) says attempts to license and collect alleged outstanding royalties from MTN and CCA have been met with “constant rate disputes and an unwillingness to enter into licence agreements”.
Capasso is accusing MTN of not paying an invoice for 2014 and failing to report its 2015 music usage
“You can imagine the pressure that we’re under as an agency from our members to say look I’m hearing my music everyday – where is my money?” Capasso CEO Nothando Migogo told Fin24 about the dispute with MTN.
“They (MTN) are selling unlicensed work.
“We’ve hit a brick wall. They’re (MTN) just giving us the run-around; (we) can’t get meetings,” said Migogo.
Migogo explained to Fin24 that there are two types of rights with music – the first being copyright in the composition and the second in the sound recording.
Capasso only deals with composition copyright and represents songwriters either by direct mandate or through their publishers.
But MTN has responded to Capasso’s claims by saying that the copyright body’s “allegations are devoid of all truth”.
“MTN has been working with Capasso to settle royalties for the current period, “ Larry Annetts – MTN South Africa’s executive for sales, marketing and distribution – told Fin24 via an email response.
“MTN has never disputed any royalty rates with Capasso or any other collecting society. Since 2014, MTN has required all content providers to obtain all necessary licences and engage directly with regulators.
“MTN requested Capasso to submit a revised and correct invoice in respect of invoices payable. To date the revised invoice has not been sent,” said Annetts.
Migogo, though, said that Capasso’s latest invoice is correct as it is based on usage reports for 2014 and calculated at the same rate at which MTN paid royalties for music usage in 2013.
