Sauti Sol lose 2K subscribers after public spat with Raila
Sauti Sol have reportedly lost 2,000 YouTube subscribers after their tiff with Azimio presidential candidate Raila Odinga over unauthorised use of one of their songs.
Sauti Sol have been in the eye of storm for publicly complaining that their song Extravaganza was used without their consent during the unveiling of Odinga’s running mate, Martha Karua.
“We did not licence this song to the Azimio la Umoja campaign, neither did we give any consents to its use in the announcement of their vice-presidential candidate. Furthermore, our authority to use the composition, which is one of our most distinct compositions was neither sought nor given. This is blatant copyright infringement as directed by Section 35 CAP 170 of the Copyright Act of Kenya,” the group said in a statement.
To this Mr Odinga responded by stating that playing the song was a show of love for the musicians’ work.
“We would like to assure our celebrated musical team @sautisol that we love them & appreciate their music so much.The group has carried our country’s flag so high in international fora & every Kenyan appreciates this. Playing their song yesterday was a show of love for their work,” ODM tweeted.
On Monday, the award-wining band had a total of 905k subscribers, having joined YouTube on April 9th, 2012. However, the numbers have since gone down to 903k subscribers.
Earlier, the Kenya Copyright Board (Kecobo) had asked Odinga and Sauti Sol to solve the squabble amicably, saying the use of sound recording for synchronization was an infringement that violated Kenya copyright laws.
But the Music Copyright Society of Kenya (MCSK) Chief Executive Officer Ezekiel Mutua sided with Azimio saying the group had signed their rights to the society to administer copyright on their behalf.
“This is a totally misleading and misguided statement by Kecobo. We licensed the Raila Odinga Presidential campaign using the existing tariffs gazetted by the government. Our members, including Sauti Sol, have assigned their rights to MCSK to administer copyright on their behalf,” he said.