Veteran highlife artiste, Rex Omar, has given a detailed breakdown of how the Ghana Music Rights Organization (GHAMRO) keeps track of airplay of songs of artistes registered with the institution to help allocate their due royalties to them.
Rex Omar noted that the system of distribution has been totally changed, hence, they no longer look at the number of albums the artiste has or how long they have been registered with the institution to decide how much to pay them. “Now, the number of your songs that are played will determine how much money we will give you”, he said.
Interviewed on Showbiz Xtra by host, Doctar Cann on Happy FM, he explained how the GHAMRO keeps track of songs that are played on radio and TV stations all across the country. He revealed that the GHAMRO is now affiliated with an Irish company that logs all radio stations and their activities, and that is how they are able to keep track of the songs that are played.
“It shows us which song was played from which artiste, the time it was played, how long the song was played, the radio station that played the song and every other detail so at the end of the day, the system will aggregate the number of songs of each artiste that were played and then from the logging, we know which artistes to pay and how much to pay them”, he expunged.
Also talking about the distribution, he told Doctar Cann that, “Last December, we logged over 131 radio stations across the country and we know that some people’s songs are played at parties but not on radio so with the money we got from that, in order not to disrupt the system and have people complaining that we are only paying those whose songs have been logged, we decided to give 60% to every registered musician so that the 40% goes to those whose songs were logged”.
Rex added that the GHAMRO has signed another contract with a South African company called CAPASSO which collects royalties from digital platforms and hands it over to them(GHAMRO), hence, he assured that artistes will be receiving good money and the issue of royalties not being paid will soon be a thing of the past.
By: Maureen Dedei Quaye
Follow us on Twitter: @happyfmghana
Follow us on Instagram: @happy989fm
Like our Facebook page: happy98.9FM
Listen to us on 98.9 FM and on our affiliate networks;
Neesim 100.1FM – Northern, Savannah and North East Regions
Akonoba 92.7FM – Bono, Ahafo and Bono East Regions
Visit http://www.happyghana.com for more update