Abraham Adjartey
The Chief Operations Officer (COO) of the Ghana Music Right Organisation (GHAMRO), Abraham Adjartey, has revealed that the collective society will soon get the churches to pay performing rights fees for the songs performed in their churches.
He said the organisation has indeed taken steps to ensure that churches pay for the music performed in their churches.
BEATWAVES gathered that GHAMRO had already engaged some of the churches and they had agreed and negotiated on the fee to be paid every year.
Payment of royalties by the churches will be done quarterly after GHAMRO has determined the fee they should pay.
According to him, churches are public places where public performances of music authored by others were often played, therefore there was the need to bring them within the reach of the Copyright Act 2005, Act 69.
The COO mentioned that the songs used for church services are commercial music hence churches must be licensed and billed for the usage of such copyright content.
He indicated that music was key and essential to every aspect of human life and could not be left out, therefore users ought to conform to the act and pay their royalties.
Section 37(1) and (2) of the Copyright Act states clearly that any artistic work used in a public place shall be entitled to copyright royalties.
“(1) Where in any public place, by means of broadcasting, cinematography, jukebox or other apparatus, a sound recording or audio visual work is used, the authorised performer and producer of the sound recording or audio visual work shall be entitled to royalty in accordance with this Act.”
“(2) An owner of copyright is entitled to collect royalties for the live performance of the copyright work or for the public performance of the recorded copyright work.”
Meanwhile, a group of aggrieved musicians have welcomed the decision of the GHAMRO to collect royalties from churches for using music for commercial purposes without royalties to the owners.
The musicians, in separate interviews with BEATWAVES, said churches that use music in running their commercial ventures have a responsibility of ensuring they are licensed and in effect pay royalties to remunerate the hard work of the owners of the musical works.
They advised GHAMRO to take legal action against music users which include churches among others for nonpayment of royalties.
By George Clifford Owusu