Ghana: GHAMRO could delay artist payments

“Cognisance must be taken of the fact that in August this year, GHAMRO distributed 1 million Ghanaian cedi [$222 000] to music right owners, which was not payment received from the blank levy funds from the government, but internally generated money from collections made by GHAMRO from commercial music users in the country,” GHAMRO public relations officer Prince Tsegah said.

A blank levy is a government tax imposed on imported media devices, the money from which is paid to content creators.

The GHAMRO board assured its members that royalty payments for the December round would be given to artists, as the organisation was in the process of collecting the funds from the government.

GHAMRO was in arrears for the December 2016 tranche of royalties, which were paid to artists in April this year. This month’s round of royalty payment will be the third this year if artists are remunerated before year-end.

Tsegah said in August the organisation would instate the pay-as-you-play system.

“When this system is implemented, right holders will be paid according to how often their songs are played,” he said.

“We are working with various organisations and urging them to provide us logs of the songs they play and how often these are played.”

GHAMRO was at the centre of a controversy this year when artist lobbied against the organisation for failure to give artists their due honorariums.

Former chairperson of the GHAMRO board Kojo Antwi was criticised for being ineffective regarding artists’ payments. Actor and singer Agya Koo claimed at an emergency meeting of GHAMRO members on 15 February that Antwi’s administration failed to account for the royalties it had collected for its members.

A new GHAMRO board was elected on 24 February after the resignation of the 13-member board led by Antwi. An injunction was ordered against the election after Ghanaian artists accused the outgoing board of attempting to manipulate the elections. The election, however, took place anyway.