The Namibian Society of Composers and Authors of Music has so far paid one point six million dollars from the total two-coma-three million dollars owed to content creators for the 2023 royalties.
Nascam is responsible for protecting the rights of musicians and producers as well as ensuring that funds from royalties paid by broadcasters are distributed fairly amongst musicians.
The Chief Executive Officer of Nascam, Albert Nicanor, is urging musicians to register their work and update their bank details to be eligible for royalty payments as it is one of their biggest challenges.
"It is their obligation to make sure they register their works. We have a huge number of works that are their creations, their work, which has not been registered with us. Not just with us but also streaming platforms. When they do a video, they do not immediately register their works. They are supposed to, on a regular basis notify us that they have created new works and then we upload this on our database so that they can earn royalties."
Nicanor says that amongst their challenges are broadcasters who do not make royalty payments, which is their main source of revenue.
70 percent of the royalties are redistributed to the creators, whereas Nascam keeps 30 percent for administrative purposes.
He says that the same applies to jukebox owners, who are also expected to make annual payments and keep records of the content they use in order for artists to receive their royalties.
"We have collected data for 2023, and that data is now being processed, and that is the data we make distribution on. For the last year. So, we do distribution retrospectively. Meaning every year, like for this year, we are starting to collect the data, and we will only be able to pay next year. Meaning that what we have paid last year is still a continuous payment, we are not done with all payments for last year."
Broadcasters and jukebox owners who fail to pay royalties will have their licenses revoked and will not be permitted to use content from members of Nascam due to the contract being terminated.
He also urges content creators to come up with innovative ideas such as making use of digital platforms to maximise their income.