How KODA was ripped off royalties over a song he recorded for a South African musician

In what appears to be his stock in trade - helping his fellow Gospel musicians shine and getting payment from the royalties instead - Kofi Owusu Dua Anto, a.k.a KODA, has revealed how a South African musician ripped him off such royalties.

Speaking on Kofi TV as monitored by GhanaWeb on Monday, the ‘Hosanna’ hitmaker declined to name the musician in question to avoid embarrassment.

KODA explained, “the one time I felt funny was when I wrote a song for an artiste who is not Ghanaian. In his country, that's South Africa, when you are the writer of the song, you get royalties because that works well in that country. So, when he was going to register the song, he decided to use his name to register as the writer and not mine.

“I called him out of the blue to ask if he had released the song. The musician responded in the affirmative. So I asked him to send me a copy to listen to [but] he told me to wait. After waiting for some time, he never sent the copy and he made me know that there is more to it which is why he refused to send it.

Later, he called to tell me that when he was registering the song, he forgot how to spell my name KODA. That’s a joke! Can you imagine? So he used his name. That was the one time I felt funny about it. So, I said why didn’t I sing the song myself and after giving you the song you steal the song like that?”

When asked if he sells his songs to artistes whenever he helps them compose, KODA responded that selling a song to an artiste for one-time payment is not the best business model.

“Rather, you need to register the song in your name with any of the publishers and give it free to the artiste, but when he decides to give you a token for the help, that’s fine.

“Once you sell off to the person, the rights go to the person and I don’t know why I would want to do that. Keep the right and arrange for some token so that ten years from now or fifteen years from now, wherever the song is played or remixed the money will still come to you as the original owner,” KODA suggested.

When asked if an artiste says that he wants to pay for the song, he remarked, “I don’t think it’s a good model. Don’t rip your grandchildren of property.

“Bob Marley died so many years ago. If you use ten seconds of his songs for an ad, his family will deal with you. So leave a legacy for your children. Just don’t overprice, just a token and make sure the song is registered in your name […] make sure the song outlives you and don’t sell your property,” KODA advised.