By Anthony Lewis/Observer writer—
NOTING that foreigners continue to be the largest recipients of money paid out in royalties to creatives — including artistes and songwriters — when compared to locals, Olivia “Babsy” Grange, minister of culture, gender, entertainment, and sport, has suggested that drastic measures should be explored to create a balance.
The minister said, while more needs to be done to improve local productions, the implementation quota system may be necessary.
“I know the radio stations love to play foreign music and I also know that we have to work on improving our productions and our outputs in order to balance… And, of course, the Government has a role to play, too. In Canada, there is a minimum quota for playing local content and this is something that we also need to look at,” said Grange.
Grange was addressing the Negril Entertainment Association’s (NEA’s) inaugural western conference, held in conjunction with the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment, and Sport, which was held at Swept Away Negril last Saturday.
Saturday’s conference saw Lydia Rose, general manager of the Jamaica Association of Composers, Authors and Publishers (JACAP), explaining the three methods used to determine payout to creatives. Among them are the playlist used at an event, physical audits, and payment by analogy.
Formed in 1998, JACAP is a non-profit copyright collecting society that manages performing and recording rights in musical works.
In 2015, JACAP collected $94.6 million in royalties. Of this sum, some $39 million was available for payout after administrative and other costs were subtracted. Thirty-two million dollars was paid to overseas societies in comparison to $7 million to JACAP members.
“We actually have a digital system called BMAT (Barcelona Music and Audio Technologies) that actually tracks all the media houses and what they play in Jamaica. So, if it is that an event happens and we don’t have a physical playlist, we use a system called analogy where we use what is played on the various radio stations to pay out. That is because a study has been done and it has been shown that what is popular on radio commonly is what is played in the dancehall,” explained Rose.
She also stated that JACAP utilizes information in the digital realm.
Olivia “Babsy” Grange, minister of culture gender, entertainment and sport, addressing the audience attending the Negril Entertainment Association’s inaugural western conference held at Swept Away Negril on Saturday. (Photo: Anthony Lewis)
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