From beautiful aesthetics to legal headaches. The South African Music Performance Rights Association (SAMPRA) has filed criminal charges with the Woodstock Police Station against the restaurant group, Life and Brand Portfolio, which includes La Parada, Tiger’s Milk, Harbour House, Grand Africa, Lucky Fish and Chips, Live Bait, The Lookout, and Old Town Italy.
The charges relate to the group’s failure to pay the required licence fees for the music managed by SAMPRA on behalf of its members, who are musicians and music executives. SAMPRA alleges that these restaurants have been playing music belonging to recording artists and record companies without the necessary licences and have refused to pay the applicable fees.
This means that the artists whose music is used by these restaurants will not receive royalties for needle-time rights, despite the restaurants profiting from their intellectual property.
Pfanani Lishivha, CEO of SAMPRA, stated, “We have been trying to negotiate with Life and Brand Portfolio for the past four years to pay the licence fees owed, as they are using our members’ music in their establishments. However, Life and Brand Portfolio has been adamant in their illegal use of music, depriving recording companies and artists of their rightful income.”
SAMPRA represents over 40,000 recording artists and 6,000 record companies, administering needletime rights on their behalf.
Lishivha emphasized the importance of royalties to artists, stating that using intellectual property without permission and licences is akin to stealing from artists. SAMPRA intends to pursue legal action against businesses that refuse to pay needletime rights licence fees, describing such practices as unethical and exploitative.
While SAMPRA has gone in discussions with other non-compliant music users such as Food Lovers, JMVR Group, and Andiccio, the association considers litigation a last resort. SAMPRA encourages businesses to obtain licences for using music legally, and maintains a list of compliant business users on their website.
Lishivha concluded by highlighting the impact on musicians and their families if such exploitation continues unchecked.
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