SA Singer Gets R400K – What Artists Need to Know about MausTrack & Royalties

SummerRaine June 25, 2022

3 minutes read

What Artists Need to Know about MausTrack

Singers, instrumentalists, writers, producers & other professionals in the music industry could be losing out on thousands. Even possibly hundreds of thousands of rands in royalties due to them. If they don’t have a proactive and smart approach to royalty monitoring and management, it can lose a lot of money!

MAUStrack cocreator, DJ and producer Mark Stent, says that one artist, a singer who has requested to remain anonymous, recently received more than R400 000 due to them. This happened by using Radiomonitor, the platform at the heart of MAUStrack.

Radiomonitor tracks more than 190 radio and TV stations in SA. Also thousands of others across 120 countries globally. It aims to assist labels, publishers, artists, composers and CMO’s & Performing Rights Organisations. A CMO is a Collective Management Organisation such as SAMRO, SAMPRA and CAPASSO.

“MAUStrack is an easy-to-use but powerful interface. Conceptualised by myself, Jarrod Assenheim from Radiomonitor & David Gresham Records. It presents data in an easy format, making it super straight-forward for even the most inexperienced artists to track royalties due,” says Stent. “From there, artists and other contributors can use MAUStrack’s partners to claim what is owed to them.”

Assenheim highlights that it’s important to note exactly what royalties the various CMOs collect and to ensure you are a member of each. “Sure, some might consider it a bit of a slog to register, but membership is free and it’ll be well worth your while if your songs are getting airplay.”

Stent and Assenheim highlight some of the key South African CMOs and their roles:

SAMRO: Focused on performance royalties that include radio and TV airplay.

This is for composers and publishers. If you’ve written or co-written a song or melody, you get paid in accordance with your agreement with your co-writers. Every time your music is played on a licensed station, you will get paid. Usage rates vary widely, from around R15 a spin to R300 a spin on the larger stations.

It’s important to note that some stations are unlicensed, or don’t make enough advertising revenue to pay a license fee, so this could mean you’ll get no remuneration even if your song is played.

SAMPRA: Focused on neighbouring rights or “needle time”.

They pay the label, the singer and musicians who played on the track. The label typically takes half of the fee and the balance is split between the featured artists (mostly singers) and non-featured artists (mostly musos). The number of stations in the SAMPRA pool is relatively small.

CAPASSO: Focused on mechanical royalties.

Each time your music is transferred to a new, licensed medium, you get paid a royalty fee. I.e., if your song gets used in a TV show, you get paid for when the audio track is transferred to the video.

Stent & Assenheim point out that there are two other CMOs – RAV (RISA Audio Visual), that collects for music videos on TV, and IMPRA that collects neighbouring rights – that are well worth looking into after signing up for the first three.

A key factor in a smart approach to royalties is accurately capturing metadata, which is critical in getting paid correctly. It’s also crucial to always include this metadata when submitting music to any radio, TV or other platforms.

What Artists Need to Know about MausTrack – MAUStrack also provides and easy interface to register your music with CMOs and accurately capture metadata, including

Artist Name
Featured Artist(s)
Title
ISRC Code
Label Name
Release Date
Composers
Lyrics
Publishers and
Country of Origin

MAUStrack allows users to formally capture profit splits, which can only be modified based on mutual agreement using the system. This assists them to ensure that they get paid fairly as agreed.

“Success in the South African music industry depends in a large part on how creative, innovative, appealing and busy you are as an artist, but it definitely doesn’t end there.”

Stent concludes, “You must do your homework thoroughly. Cross the T’s and dot the I’s in every bit of admin that you do. For every agreement you sign. Invest in cutting-edge tools to monitor what is due to you. You could earn a substantial, steady income stream from your art. That’s what MAUStrack is here to do.”