AIRCO REACHES OUT TO ARTISTS | The Weekly

?The Association of Independent Record Companies (AIRCO) has embarked on an initiative to sensitise artists and help them grasp the nitty-gritty?s regarding royalties in the music industry.

This was unveiled at the Performing Art Centre of Free State (PACOFS) where local artists and record companies gathered.

AIRCO?s program manager, Mandla Maseko, said the purpose of the campaign is to create an information-sharing platform which will provide artists with all the necessary information required to lodge claims for their music royalties.

?We are here to help artists understand the many aspects of royalties. This is a lucrative industry and a cruel one at the same time; artist must be aware of such things. This is a ?dog-eat-dog? industry and artists must be wary of the contracts they enter into.?

One Free State artists, Ayanda Roda, complained that record companies frustrate artists by withholding certain vital information from them.

?The SABC has signed an R8-million contract with AIRCO to revive the music industry. We are here to discuss money that is already in the bank account of AIRCO.?
AIRCO entered into an agreement with the SABC, under which the former is to supply the public broadcaster with its members? cinematographic films (music video) for broadcast on SABC television. In return the SABC will pay the appropriate amount to AIRCO.

The association?s chairperson, Dodo Monamodi, said the agreement means the owners of music videos that are used by the SABC will now get their royalties.

?AIRCO is driven by values of Ubuntu, transparency and consultation at all times. We are here to deliver the good news.

?AIRCO is now an official record company association that collects license fees for the music videos and determines how it will allocate and distribute payments of copyrights to owners who have authorised us to issue the videos on their behalf,? said Monamodi.

Representatives of PACOFS as well as the Free State department of arts and culture were conspicuously absent at the event.

Source: http://theweekly.co.za/?p=11744

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