SoundExchange and the South African Music Performance Rights Association (SAMPRA) today jointly announced a reciprocal agreement that will see United States and South African performers paid royalties for the use of their recordings in the United States and South Africa, respectively. This agreement is a result of SoundExchange’s efforts to ensure American creators are treated the same as their South African counterparts in the country. It marks the first time U.S. performers will be paid neighboring rights when their music is used in South Africa.
SoundExchange is the largest neighboring rights collective in the world, collecting royalties on their behalf of more than 470,000 creators through more than 65 agreements with counterpart organizations outside of the U.S., covering 88% of the global neighboring rights market. The company actively advocates throughout the world to strengthen existing agreements and to forge new agreements to prevent the diversion of royalties due to U.S. performers.
Retroactive to the 2022 distribution period, the multi-lateral agreement between SoundExchange and SAMPRA will benefit performers from both countries whose music is played in a variety of applications (referred to as “neighboring rights”) in the United States and in South Africa.
The agreement, which also includes the AFM & SAG-AFTRA Intellectual Property Rights Distribution Fund, will also benefit non-featured artists (studio musicians, backup singers, etc.), who will also see South African royalties deposited into the Fund administered by The American Federation of Musicians (AFM) and the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA). This is similar to how, in its U.S. collections, SoundExchange distributes 5% of collected royalties to non-featured artists through the Intellectual Property Rights Distribution Fund, 45% to featured artists, and 50% to rights owners.
“The successful execution of this agreement is directly tied to the advocacy SoundExchange demonstrates around the world on behalf of the creators we represent,” said Michael Huppe, President and CEO of SoundExchange. “I am pleased that our case for fairly paying creators for their work resonated so deeply with SAMPRA and has resulted in a significant step forward for U.S. performers.”
“The conclusion of this reciprocal agreement demonstrates SAMPRA’s commitment to properly administer neighboring rights in South Africa. With this agreement, we now have reciprocal agreements with all major neighboring rights CMOs across the globe” said Pfanani Lishivha, CEO of SAMPRA.
“As the AFM & SAG-AFTRA Fund continues our work to expand global collections on behalf of non-featured artists, we are gratified to add our newest partner, SAMPRA, to the many other international organizations the Fund collaborates with to ensure that non-featured artists are fairly compensated for their contributions to the music landscape,” said Stefanie Taub, CEO of AFM & SAG-AFTRA Intellectual Property Rights Distribution Fund.
