The world is facing a medical emergency far graver than what we have experienced in over a century. The World Health Organisation has declared the coronavirus outbreak as a global pandemic. South Africa’s prompt response to COVID19 is expected to have a long-running effect on the creative industries, specifically the music industry. Although understood and accepted, the lockdown restrictions have unfortunately incapacitated many participants of the music industry.
In efforts to provide a buffer during these uncertain times, CAPASSO has facilitated the payment of close to 29 million rands in distributions that is to benefit approximately 4000 composers and authors. Amid a global pandemic, it is hoped that it will provide some cushion for composers and authors as well as their chosen publishers.
The distributions, which commenced in March 2020, comprise digital, broadcast, transactional as well as phonomechanical royalties.
In addition to this, CAPASSO has also approved further interventions aimed at alleviating the impact of COVID 19 on members. To this end, CAPASSO will also be running additional distributions between the months of April and June. In an internal newsletter the CAPASSO CEO, Mr Jotam Matariro encouraged members to visit the CAPASSO website www.capasso.co.za and submit their notification of works forms in order to get maximum benefit from these upcoming distributions. He stressed the need for members to prioritise their metadata during these times in order to enable the collections of all the royalties due to them.
Speaking on the future of the organisation, Mr Matariro stated that, although nothing was guaranteed, the organisation was committed to continue operating remotely during these trying times and provide members with the stellar service they have come to expect. The organisation will continue to keep members up-to-date on the developments around the scheduled distributions as well as how the organisation is being affected by the effects of COVID 19.