GHAMRO pays ¢11,000 to Celestine Donkor as royalties

With many musicians complaining about the inefficiency of the Ghana Music Rights Organisation (GHAMRO) and the little money some receive, the manager of Gospel singer, Celestine Donkor, has made public, how much they’ve been given so far.

In a post, Kofi Donkor, who is also the singer’s husband, revealed that as of Thursday, January 20, 2022, they have been given GH₵11,000 as royalties.

According to him, this is the highest amount of money they have received from the organisation since they joined the industry.

“I am happy to announce that at 2:44 pm today, we got our final payment (of royalties). So between my artiste and myself, we have received in excess of GH₵11,000,” Mr Donkor said.

This follows his initial complaints about receiving a paltry sum of money as royalties in 2020. At the time, a screenshot attached to his post revealed that he was given GH₵390 by GHAMRO.

“I have executively produced five albums and two singles. This is what I got for almost two years.

“My artiste has five albums, two singles with our label. She has eight features with other Ghanaian artistes all registered with GHAMRO,” Mr Donkor wrote.

However, after the post, he received a clarification from GHAMRO that the amount was only one of three payments due him and his artiste.

MORE:

• Teshie motor rider arrested with a loaded gun, dollars in random traffic check

• Anas Aremeyaw Anas’ emotional message to Ghanaians

• Former Attorney General bags Masters Degree

To thank GHAMRO for following through with their promise, Mr Donkor shared the amount they have received in total.

He added that although this is impressive, GHAMRO can do better.

“I think it is only fair that I appreciate the hard work of the GHAMRO administration and Board for this,” he added.

GHAMRO’s new royalty collection system

Meanwhile, in September, 2021, GHAMRO announced new measures to aid in their royalty collections.

The Chairman, Rex Omar, revealed that his outfit had signed a deal with a new digital royalty collection body, Capasso.

According to him, Capasso collects the digital royalties for artistes and right owners as part of GHAMRO’s efforts to digitalise its operations to enable creators earn their due from their works.

Speaking in an interview with JoyNews’ Mapitso Sebidi, Mr. Omar explained that this deal ensures that the digital rights licensing company provides monitoring systems to help track songs of Ghanaian right owners on digital platforms.

He stated that his outfit has even received royalties for some artistes who are yet to register with GHAMRO.

“We have some good money sitting down in dollars. Now the money comes with the name attached, so you can’t give somebody’s money to somebody. As I am talking, Sarkodie as an artiste, has not assigned his right to GHAMRO even though we are holding his money for him.”