Mzansi artists sceptical of getting Samro royalties from TikTok, Netflix & Facebook

Veteran kwaito artist Eugene Mthethwa is one of many South African artists who have expressed scepticism at the newly announced deal by Samro to collect royalties on behalf of its members from TikTok, Facebook and Netflix.

The Southern African Music Rights Organisation (Samro) announced earlier this week that it has started collecting royalties on behalf of its members from social media platforms and the streaming service after concluding licensing agreements with the popular digital platforms.

In a statement, Samro said this was a major step towards adapting its licensing and royalty payments to the ever-changing technological landscape.

With the #JerusalemaChallenge having blown up on Tik Tok and Facebook, Master KG is one of the SA artists who will be laughing all the way to the bank along with many others, such as Kamo Mphela and squad, whose song Amanikiniki also blew up on social media.

If executed as planned, Mzansi artists stand to benefit greatly from the deal. However, not all artist are convinced they will benefit from the deal.

Trompies' Eugene was one of the first people to vocalise his opinion that artists would most probably not benefit from the Samro deal.

In a lengthy Twitter thread, the Trompies member explained his view under minister Nathi Mthethwa's announcement tweet.

“The rights that they base this agreement on, are non-existent rights until such time as The Copyright Act is amended to provide for them. The fact that they are in the Bill does not endow them with any additional qualities to allow Samro/Capasso to purport to licence such “rights” at present.”

Eugene explained that the root of the problems artists face lie fundamentally in artist rights in SA, something the government has to intervene in to address.

Read the rest of his tweets below:

While receiving royalties should be seen as a win for artists, the TL was split when the news broke.

Some on the social media streets took to the TL in celebration and full of hope for better days to come, while others were not convinced that the deal would actually benefit them.

Here are some reactions: