Spacey wrote:
Riaan
I understand what you mean about becoming a member etc. But if that counts for me, as a composer (others paying royalties for performing my songs), why does that not count for me performing their songs?
Its just the way its structured to make it work in practice. If SAMRO had to collect royalties (to pay to you, the composer) from the dozens of pub musos in say Cape Town, that would be very difficult to do (and administer). So they collect it from the venues (who are fewer, and easier to administer). A pub must be licensed to sell alcohol, zoned for business use, etcetc. So this is another licence they need - a licence to play music (live or recorded) over a speaker system to their customers. It actually comes from legislation passed by parliament (duty on venues, not individual musos). Its simple mechanics - they can collect it efficiently from fixed premises venues, but not as easily from roving musos!
All these pubs, rstaurants, etc who play mp3s in the background (or the DSTV music channels) need to be licensed. If they host live musos (backtrack or full ive, they need a different category licence; E1 or E3, etc).
Also, remember that 'membership' of SAMRO (for composers) is free. So the collecting of royalties is something entirely different.
Its the taking of money from broadcasters and live venues, and distributing it to 'members'. So being a 'member' is not what contributes money to composers. It is what makes you eligible to recieve money if a broadcaster (SABC, Multichoice) or performer (disco,pub, Barnyard Theatre, etc) 'performs' your music by either playing your disc or performing (or hosting a performance of) your song live.
