19 Apr 2015

Copyright Society of Botswana (COSBOTS) has declared distribution of royalties for the third occasion at Thapong Visual Arts Centre last Saturday, April 18. 

A news release from COSBOTS states that distribution gathered the largest ever congregation of musical artistes in Botswana. 

The release states that royalties to be distributed amount to P3.88 million, showing positive growth for collections compared to the previous distributions. 

The first ever distribution of royalties stood at P1.9 million, whilst the second distribution was at P3.4 million. Once the distribution process has been completed, royalties would be credited to members via electronic funds transfer (EFT).

The release also states that the large turnout reflects the growth of COSBOTS as an organisation, which now has in excess of 800 artistes as full members. 

It also states that the slight in delay in distribution, is due to overwhelming number of works that needed to be verified so as to make correct payments to the right artistes.

The release further states that the purpose of the workshop was to declare the third distributions of royalties by COSBOTS, having done the first in February 2014 and the second in September same year.

Also, it says the workshop was also intended to educate music artistes on the processes and procedures involved in distributing royalties. It also intended to enable interaction on issues to create better understanding and appreciation of distribution processes and procedures.

Further, the release states that the workshop highlighted that the process of distribution was based on a number of factors being put in place, to successfully reward artistes for public use of their creative works.

It is also stated that money to undertake distributions is derived from license fees collected through licensing of all persons or organisations the use of musical works like radio and television stations. Other organisations include venues that facilitate live performance, clubs, retail outlets, hotels, restaurants and any other organisations that play music in public, irrespective of whether entrance fees are paid or not.

Meanwhile, COSBOTS has encouraged artistes to cooperate and inform the organisation when they are invited to perform at functions to assist in licensing of events. Artistes are also required to continuously provide their changes in details, such as bank accounts to avoid returning of royalties which result in tedious and time consuming process to identify and re-activate transfers. ENDS