Issue of local musician royalty arrears resolved - Rosol

KUALA LUMPUR: About 1,000 local music industry practitioners can heave a sigh of relief when the issue of royalty is finally settled with a payment of RM500 per person in January next year.

Deputy Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Rosol Wahid said the initial payment involved RM11.7 million which has been in arrears in 2018 and the following payment would be given based on music usage report obtained from local television and radio stations.

“The royalty will be paid to those who are under the patronage of two music royalty collection licensing bodies, which is the Recording Performers Malaysia (RPM) Berhad and Performers’ Rights and Interest Society of Malaysia (PRISM) Berhad, which was in arrears as the bodies could not achieve a consensus on the appropriate method to distribute music royalty.

“The payment is seen as a relief to local music industry practitioners following the COVID-19 pandemic in the country when the income of many were affected,” he said in a media conference after chairing a meeting on the distribution of royalty to local music industry practitioners here yesterday.

Earlier, the media reported that the distribution of royalty to recording singers and musicians under the two music royalty collecting licensing bodies would be paid at the latest by December.

Meanwhile, the music royalty collection licensing bodies present namely Music Authors Copyright Protection (MACP) Berhad, Public Performance Malaysia (PPM) and RPM Berhad did not agree with the proposal of the music consumer association to implement a royalty payment moratorium on the grounds that they were affected by COVID-19 pandemic.

PPM chairman Rosmin Hashim said the licensing body felt it was unfair to authors of music as they were also affected by COVID-19 but their songs were still being played at business premises such as hotels and restaurants.

“However, the licensing body agree to negotiate with the music consumer association among them hotels. shopping centres and restaurants to set a more reasonable rate of royalty payment during the COVID-19 pandemic which affected their business.

“The music consumer association has to be fair to music industry players as they also lost their source of income due to the COVID-19 outbreak,” he said.

-- BERNAMA