Metro TV pays musicians

Metro TV, the station with the heart, has given credence to its slogan, by initiating a policy to pay musicians who are featured on their programs for the use of their musical works, starting this August, 2007.

The adoption slogan for the campaign is “if you can play, you can pay”, and it states that for every week of booked airplay on Metro ‘Ad cycle’, the featured artist and songwriter will receive a royalty payment of GHC 30 per the Music Video.

Similarly, if any music video is played voluntarily by Metro TV as‘filler’, GHC 5 will be credited to the song.

Another commendable action is that Metro TV will also pay Appearance fees ranging from GHC 30 to GHC 50 depending on the stature of the artist, for any interview on Metro programs.

This occurred when several key musicians and industry players, including Osibisa’s Mac Tontoh, Gyedu Blay Ambolley, Carlos Sakyi, Felix Bell, Paa Kwasi Holdbrook Smith, Kwasi Arkaah, paid a courtesy call on the CEO of Metro TV, Mr. Talal Fatal, to thank the station for their initiative, on advancing the cause of Copyright in Ghana.

Totally disillusioned by the current dysfunctional state of the industry, they commended Metro TV for this revolutionary move which will ensure musicians whose works are actually used on Metro TV network will rightly benefit form their sweat and tears.

They called on all music users including Radio and Television networks to emulate this positive action; they have also called on Musicians and other copyright owners to insist on payment anytime their musical property is used.

Mr. Fatal further added that Systems being put in place to ensure success of the initiative, include rigorous and detailed logging of all musical works used by Metro TV for its top rated entertainment programmes such as Advertising Cycle, KSM’s Thank God it’s Friday, Morning Ride, Allo Tigo, Music & Copyright, among others.

The first batch of cheques will be issued to deserving musicians on the 1st of August and at Karma Conference Centre, and will cover musical videos used on the “Ad Cycle’ over the past three months.

One notable feature of these landmark payments is that they will be paid every Quarter, and shared at the ratio of 60% to the composer and 40% to the performer.

This is the first time a composer is benefiting directly from the use of his/her creative work, and the 60% is only an interim measure, till new copyright societies come into being and establish appropriate tariffs.

It will also go a long way to ensure musicians and songwriters receive equitable remuneration for the use of their works.

Over the years, due to the virtual absence of logging systems, many deserving musicians have not benefited from use of their works, as bulk monies collected on their behalf, so called ‘Blanket Licenses’ are shared among thousands of musicians, many of whose are currently not featured on broadcast networks.

The Musicians are determined to embark on a sensitization tour of all Media Networks in the country to demand payment for use of their copyrighted musical works, which constitutes intellectual property owned by them.