SAMRO Awards R2.5 Million for the Creation of New Works

PRESS RELEASE – SAMRO Awards R2.5 Million for the Creation of New Works

There’s nothing more inspiring than hearing a new song that transfers one to new places. However, when listening to a song, one only hears the final product and not the long process involved in its creation. The journey from a simple idea to a final recording or a video requires constant focus, attention and hard work from the music creators and the broad service chain that supports this endeavour.

The Southern African Music Rights Organisation (SAMRO) serves music creators around the world by helping them collect their dues in the form of royalties. As part of its corporate social investment SAMRO feels it is vitally important to keep encouraging the creation of new music works and helping its constituency to compete in an aggressive international music industry.

SAMRO’s Music Creation Support Fund (MCSF), which was initiated in 2021, helps musicians to create new works or to take works that have not been published yet, to the next level. In April 2022 SAMRO Members were invited to apply for a micro-grant of R25 000.

SAMRO received nearly 600 applications and we are grateful to the independent adjudication committee for their diligence and hard work to ensure every applicant receives a fair assessment. Applications were assessed on the quality of the music creation idea, the proposed final product and the creator’s capacity to complete the project.

‘We collect licenses from music users for this very reason,’ said SAMRO CEO Mark Rosin, ‘to encourage and sustain music creativity by distributing the relevant royalties to our members. As part of our relationship with CISAC, the international umbrella body, we put aside a small percentage of our profits towards Corporate Social Investment, and the MCSF continues SAMRO’s mission to support its members and keep the creative wheels moving.’

The 100 SAMRO members who will be receiving their grants in the coming months are: