South African musicians and creatives must retain ownership of their work, says SAMRO.
The proliferation artificial intelligence (AI) technologies is threatening the originality and authorship of South African musicians.
This is according to the Southern African Music Rights Organisation (SAMRO), a copyright asset management society, in an e-mail interview with ITWeb.
SAMRO was established by the South African Copyright Act, and aims to protect the intellectual property of music creators by licensing music users, collecting licence fees and distributing royalties to music creators. It represents more than 150 000 Southern African music composers, lyricists/authors and music publishers.
According to SAMRO, South African musicians and the broader creative industry face significant financial losses due to piracy and untracked sharing of music on various unlicensed platforms.
The Recording Industry of South Africa estimates that music industry growth is being held back by piracy, resulting in losses of between R500 million and R690 million annually.
“This trend requires urgent action through better tracking, licensing innovation and educational initiatives,” SAMRO tells ITWeb.
The organisation says it is taking steps to ensure local musicians do not continue to lose out due to untracked sharing, piracy and informal digital distribution. It plans to modernise its systems by integrating advanced music recognition technologies, and partner with global digital databases to better detect and match music usage across platforms like YouTube, TikTok and streaming services.
SAMRO has also entered into licensing agreements with major digital and social media platforms to ensure royalties are collected even when music is shared through non-traditional channels.
Amid the threats posed by AI, the organisation says South Africa does not have AI-specific legislation that regulates the modalities of platforms that offer AI-powered services for copyright registration and ownership verification.
This, as South Africa is actively developing a comprehensive National AI Policy that seeks to balance innovation with ethical responsibility, ensuring AI technologies contribute positively to the country’s socio-economic development.
Earlier this year, the framework entered a gazetted review phase, with broad public input being collected before potential elevation to a full AI policy.
“In SAMRO’s view, forthcoming legislative amendments relating to AI should clearly articulate how AI platforms are trained and how creators are adequately compensated for the training of AI models for these types of services.
“Legislative guidelines will be instrumental in ensuring the appropriate protections and safeguards are in place for the benefit of those utilising these services.”
SAMRO and other collective management organisations (CMOs) are proactively engaging with relevant lawmakers to initiate discussions aimed at ensuring proposed regulations are thorough and robust.
“Our active involvement seeks to safeguard the rights of our members and prevent any potential compromises.”
It adds: “As technology advances, it influences the means and methods of traditional creation modalities, and the music industry is not immune from the rapid advancement and transformation resulting from broad adoption of AI technology.
“Some of the challenges that musicians face, as a result of the proliferation of AI technology, include threats to originality and authorship, royalty and rights confusions, economic displacement and equitable access.”
However, it says while AI is disruptive to the music industry, there is also excitement in its capacity to be a transformative lever for democratisation in the industry.
“For some in the music industry, AI has the potential to enable musicians to produce, mix and master high-quality tracks without expensive studio time, lowering the barrier to entry for emerging and independent artists. Others may leverage AI-powered platforms, algorithms and technologies to help them reach global audiences through better music discovery on streaming platforms.
“What remains vital is that South African musicians and creatives retain ownership of their work even when AI is integrated into the creative process.”
Asked about the impact of the illegal sharing of music on digital platforms such as WhatsApp, SAMRO says the capacity and benefit to share music via social media channels can be two-fold.
It explains that for many, these channels are viewed as vital tools for rapid and direct distribution, thereby by-passing traditional “gatekeepers” and enabling them to share their works directly with fans, creating organic success stories.
Secondly, it adds, the opportunity to “go viral” presents a low-cost marketing approach that has seen many artists and songs explode to become national/international hits, while simultaneously building stronger artist-fan relationships which can drive support and loyalty, and ultimately revenue.
“What is often overlooked is that this approach may also present some negative attributes whereby untracked usage ultimately leads to lost revenues.”
It explains that peer-to-peer platforms often bypass official tracking systems, making it impossible for CMOs like SAMRO to collect and accurately distribute due royalties.
This implies that musicians will lose out on potential income from their musical rights, including their performing right, administered by SAMRO.
The other disadvantage of relying on peer-to-peer platforms is the high probability of piracy and copyright infringement, with little recourse for enforcement or takedowns, SAMRO states.
“Music piracy is a long-standing challenge for the local music industry. The advent of digital sharing has only exacerbated this issue and South Africa ranks among BRICS countries with notably high music piracy rates, reflecting widespread consumption via illegal channels.
“The economic impact of piracy cannot be emphasised enough, with some reports indicating that circa 24% of South African internet users download music illegally, contributing to substantial unreported consumption and increased lost revenue to local musicians.”
