Digital Music Licensing is the process of licensing the use of copyrighted music in a digital format to ensure that the copyright owners are compensated for certain use of their work. In a press release, COSBOTS board chairperson, Bakalanga Malikongwa said as part of becoming part of the global landscape of CMOs, they entered into an agreement with the Composers, Authors and Publishers Association (CAPASSO), a South African licensing agency that collects and distributes mechanical royalties on behalf of COSBOTS.
Malikongwa said they were ready to distribute royalties to their members with the first digital distribution set to commence this month, making Digital Royalties officially part of their annual distributions.
“It is our first distribution of digital royalties and we are excited about this great milestone we have reached. This shows growth and the good journey we have ahead of us with our members as well as creatives who expand their work and create content on global social media platforms including YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter etc. CAPASSO’s digital licenses cater for all current and future forms of service types such as legal downloads, streaming, right back tones, video on demands, and online radio,” she said.
Moreover, Malikongwa explained that the world came to a standstill in the past two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic. She said creatives, the arts and culture sector, and some CMOs were hard hit making an income through performances as most activities came to a halt. She explained that the music kept going adding that there was an increase across the world of music consumption digitally saying their agreement with CAPASSO ensured that their members were covered across all spheres.
She also said besides COVID-19, COSBOTS was not exempted from other factors that proved to be challenging to collective management, one of them being that they could not collect on behalf of creative from those platforms. However, she said besides the challenges, they endeavour to ensure fair, transparent, and accountable distribution of royalties.
