The Problem With Getting Arrested For Samro DJ Licenses

I’ve been getting a lot of calls/texts regarding Samro (South African Music Rights Organisation) Dj License. When I first heard of this idea I really loved it as I thought it would do a lot of good for the songs that are big on dance floors, but hardly get any radio spins (meaning underground, independents, etc.) – but then again I remembered that there is no way the correct data will be passed to Samro.

So the same fat cats who are getting big royalty cheques now will just get bigger ones and the small fish will stay exactly where they are because all other credible data (radio playlists, TV cue sheets, etc.) supports the notion that only the majors and big players‘ music is played by Djs, besides which DJ remembers all the tracks he just played on a 2 hour set? I know I don’t.

Getting back to Samro Dj License, first of all just that word doesn’t exist as you will not find such a form on the Samro website… And as for being arrested if you don’t have it? the CEO of Samro [Sipho Dlamini] was on 5FM My House show with Euphonik and confirmed that Djs can not be arrested for not carrying such a license.

I quote: “I am surprised that somebody was arrested because my understanding is that there is a process that police have to go through before they can arrest you. There is a warrant of arrest that has to be issued by a judge… but I am not a police officer and I am not a lawyer, so I am surprised that a DJ was actually arrested and handcuffed for not paying this license.”

Samro do however have forms for venue licenses on their website. I would like to highlight one thing about the Samro license though, they can issue you a public performance license to Dj the music using ORIGINAL CDs, not USBs, CDRs… as far as I know the only people that can do that is SAMPRA.

So come on Djs that use 100% original CDs lets see you queue up for the license at Samro… any takers?

By the way: If only Sampra had responded to my questions at the time of publishing this article then I would have included more info on their views and how they can help because most Djs I know use Laptops, USBs and CDR.

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