Representatives of the producer and composer CMOs travelled to South Africa on a study visit to South African music industry companies. The associations included the Kenya Association of Music Producers (KAMP) and Music Copyright Society of Kenya (MCSK) respectively, and the Recording Industry of Kenya (RIKE)
The visit was sponsored by South African Music Performance Rights Association (SAMPRA), the CMO mandated to license the economic rights of producers and performers and Southern Africa Music Rights Organisation (SAMRO), the CMO mandated to administer the economic rights of composers, authors, and publishers.
The delegation was led by Hon Dan Wanyama, Member of Parliament and Chairperson of the Parliamentary Departmental Committee on Arts and Culture. The visit was supported by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), the global voice of the recording industry, working to promote the value of recorded music, campaign for the rights of record producers and expand the commercial uses of recorded music globally.
The visit sought to afford the Kenyan CMOs new perspectives to enhancing their operations, governance, and independence and critical regulatory and policy practices that will facilitate sustainable licensing practices in the interest of right holders. The visit follows the recent efforts between Kenya and South Africa to stimulate trade against the backdrop the memoranda of understanding, including on broadening trade, signed by the two countries in 2021, and which included agreement to increase the volume of trade between the two countries that averaged over US$ 580 million and largely in favour of South Africa.
Presidents William Ruto and Cyril Ramaphosa in November 2022 expressed commitment to implementing the bilateral agreements by initiating reciprocal visa free entry deal effective January 2023. Implementation of trade agreements between the two countries is critical to the recorded music business, acting both as an impetus to improved representation of right holders by collective management organisations through bilateral arrangements as well as in incentivizing recorded music investors or record companies in both countries to invest in respective partner countries.