A battle over alleged unpaid music royalties for songs played in well-known restaurants across South Africa has led to a criminal case being opened by the South African Music Performance Rights Association (Sampra).

Sampra laid criminal charges against Life and Brand Portfolio — a popular restaurant group — for allegedly failing to pay the licence fees for music their restaurants have played inside venues over the past four years.  Life & Brand Portfolio owns restaurants such as La Parada, Tiger’s Milk, Harbour House, Grand Africa, Lucky Fish and Chips, Live Bait, The Lookout and Old Town Italy.

“These restaurants have been unlawfully playing music belonging to recording artists and record companies at their stores. They have refused to pay the applicable licence fees that would enable them to comply with the prescribed legislative provisions,” said Pfanani Lishivha, CEO of Sampra.

“This effectively means that the artists whose music is used by these restaurants will not be able to earn ‘Needle time Rights’ royalties even though these restaurants are making money in their restaurants as a result of using their intellectual property.”

Sampra, a nonprofit organisation, said the licence fees collected from music users are paid to recording artists and record companies as ‘Needle time Rights’ royalties. 

“Life & Brand Portfolio is, however, adamant in its stance of using music illegally and therefore depriving recording companies and artists of their right to earn income from their music. We have now opened a case against Life & Brand Portfolio for their illegal and unethical conduct as we cannot stand by and watch Life & Brand Portfolio exploiting the works of our recording artists. We have a duty to ensure that recording artists get what is due to them,” continued Lishivha.

“Life & Brand Portfolio are content with seeing artists dying as paupers while their businesses thrive from their exploitation of artists’ talents and skills. We have resolved that over the next few months, we will be pursuing legal action against all music users who refuse to pay Needletime Rights licence fees. Businesses that want to benefit from the blood, sweat and tears of artists without paying the applicable licence fees are unethical and their directors deserve to be jailed for exploiting artists,” said Lishivha.

“Litigation is not our preferred approach when it comes to licensing music users. It really is a last resort. We cannot, in good conscience, allow businesses to exploit musicians while we stand by and watch. Musicians also have families to support and financial obligations to meet. If we do nothing, we would have failed an extremely vulnerable group of people,” said Lishivha. 

According to Times Live, Life & Brand was given an opportunity to comment, however, it did not respond to questions sent to the group.

The criminal case opens another front in the longstanding dispute over music licensing fees paid by businesses that play recorded music. As the legal process unfolds, scrutiny will likely intensify on the obligations of commercial music users.