It was payday for musical artists in January 2024, with some musicians walking away with pay cheques worth millions of Kwacha. A good year at work for these songbirds, but apparently, not so much for producers.
These are the people behind bringing songs to life – working with artists in the studio and generally directing the outcomes.
But as some artists were raking home millions, Percy “Propee” Manyozo, a music producer under Propee records, shared that he received a measly K2,678 as royalties from the Copyright Society of Malawi (Cosoma).
Propee ignited debate on social media on whether or not music producers should be receiving more money in form of blank media levy royalties. Surely their works are worth more than a mere 2k!
Manyozo who has produced songs for big artists in the country such as Piksy, Maskal, Dan Lu and Nepman said policies need to change especially on the entry point of registering a song.
He added that in some countries, a song cannot be registered for royalties without the consest of a producer or a contract for a producer.
However, he justified that the money artists pay music producers is for the time that they give the artist and not for song created.
Cosoma head of distribution, Shadrick Kumtengo said music producers own related rights and there is a separate regime for management of related rights.
According to Kumtengo, a producer is an individual or organization that bears the financial responsibility for the production; in Malawi, producers are basically studio engineers.
Manyozo had this to say about the issue:
“It may be right if the producer has signed an agreement with the copyright owner who is the composer of the work and it may not be valid where there is no agreement, and the studio producer has been paid off by the composer. There is no one size fits all when it comes to the creative industry as everything is contractual,” he said.
Dancehall musician Mafia King was one of the participants in the discussion. He stated on his social media pages that he would not give a producer his earnings from an artist because he pays service costs. Mafia King added that the same producers would not compensate artists if they incurred losses and eventualities in their musical journey.
At the payout event in Lilongwe on January 17th, musicians who made over K1 million in royalties were given certificates to recognize their achievements. Some of the artists that received the blank media levy royalties include Eli Njuchi and Driemo.
On the other hand, Cosoma is expected to disburse blank media levy royalties amounting to K139 million to literary authors and publishers.
