Nairobi News

Bongo flava star Diamond Platnumz is the highest earner of the latest royalties distributed to Tanzanian musicians by Copyright Society of Tanzania (Cosota)

In the recent disbursement by the collective management organization, Diamond, who is currently riding high in his country with his latest hit Enjoy, made Tsh7.7 million (Sh445,256) in royalty payment from broadcasting rights.

Diamond’s longtime nemesis, Alikiba, who was the second highest earner of royalties in 2022, retained his position with a collection of Tsh5 million (Sh289,127). This was a significant deep compared to Ksh369,000 he made last year from broadcasting royalties.

Rayvanny, a former signee of Diamond at his WCB Wasafi Record label, was third earning himself Tsh4.9 million (Sh283,345).
WCB label signees Zuchu and Mbosso Khan were fourth and fifth respectively earning Tsh4.7 million (Sh271,780) and Tsh4.3 million (Sh248,649).

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Nandy, the African Princess, was sixth with an earnings of Tsh3.5 million (Sh202,389), marking a significant increase from Sh128,000 she made last year. Harmonize was seventh with Tsh3.4 million (Sh196,606) followed by chanteuse Mauma Sama with Tsh2.3 million (Sh132,998).

Young Lunya, the only hip hop artiste who made into the list of 10 ten highest earners, closed the bracket with an earning of Tsh1.6 million (Sh92,520).

Last year, Diamond and artistes signed to his label missed out on the distribution with claims that he and his Wasafi team deliberately opted not to register with Cosota.

His manager Babu Tale would however deny the claims stating that Wasafi artistes were all registered by the CMO.

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“This is the first time we are witnessing artistes receiving royalties. Wasafi artistes are all registered with Cosota. Not appearing on the top 10 doesn’t mean they were not included. There were so many artistes Cosota couldn’t have named all of them in one awarding night gala,” Tale said.

This was the second time in history that Tanzanian artistes were receiving royalties generated from broadcasting copyright revenues following directives from President Samia Suluhu Hassan.

During the last distribution in January 2022, Cosota committed to be distributing royalties collected, every six months, a bargain they are yet to keep.

But the progress is one to be applauded compared to the situation in Kenya where despite the existence of three CMOs, some have never distributed royalties in close to a decade now amidst scandals of corruption and looting of the billions of shillings collected annually by the trio of Kenya Association of Music Producers (Kamp), Performances Rights Society of Kenya (Prisk) and Music Society of Kenya (MSCK).

Todate Sauti Sol still hold the record for the highest earnings in royalties in Kenya after they received  Sh400,000 from MCSK in 2019.

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