Southern African Music Rights Organisation aims to end exploitation of female talent
The organisation is calling for an end to patriarchy in the music industry and wants women to move up the ladder and occupy more meaningful positions.
This year, Women’s Month must go beyond symbolic gestures and achieve something tangible for women in the creative music industry.
So says chairman of the Southern African Music Rights Organisation (SAMRO), Nicholas Maweni who added that while women have been acknowledged as great interpreters of music, the field of composition was still unfortunately dominated by men.
SAMRO reported that under 20 percent of its members are women, and pointed out that women earned less than five percent of the total royalties paid to members.
Many enjoyed music sung by female artists. However, often these songs have been written by men.
Mr Maweni said it was ‘highly probable’ that over the years, men have registered works created by women as their own.
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“As a result, these unscrupulous men continue to reap the financial benefits from the work of women, while the real female composers and authors don’t receive anything. We know very little about these women as there is little shared or published about them.
“Women continue to lag behind for various reasons including patriarchy, and the fact that their work is not properly recognised as being on a par with the work created by men. This is primarily because the gate-keepers in the industry continue to be predominantly male.”
Sixty-four years after the women’s protest against passes on August 9, 1956, they are still fighting for their emancipation, – Nicholas Maweni
Mr Maweni said to this day, female composers were not considered as talented and capable as their male counterparts.
SAMRO is calling for an end to patriarchy in the music industry and for women to move up the ladder and occupy more meaningful positions.
SAMRO was also asking women to approach them if they had ‘clear and valid evidence’ to re-register their
music.
The organisation would also like all broadcasters to play music composed or performed by women during women’s month.
“We need more female composers and it’s not about tokenism, it’s about talent,” said Mr Maweni.
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