In general, royalty/royalties means payment to the holder/owner of a patent or copyright or resource for the right to use their property, and receiving royalties on one’s creations such as books, music, songs, lyrics, and recordings, or such individual or original works. But this is exactly what hasn’t happened in Nepal, especially in the broadcasting sector.
Prabhat Rimal, station manager at Radio Kantipur FM 96.1 MHz, says that if all the FM stations and television channels in Nepal provide royalty to the music artistes of the country, the creative community will be an affluent one.
With no concerts happening in town, with the sales of albums going down, with remix songs picking up in the market, and piracy in music increasing, Nepali music industry is on the rocks. In addition, though there is the Music Royalty Collection Society, formed to ensure royalty to all the music artistes, they still are deprived of their rightful shares of the pie, leaving many disappointed while some have shifted to other professions. This may also explain why even promising singers aren’t keen on producing their next albums. Irrespective of how many times singers and musicians chant slogans for their rights, both the government and electronic media houses have remained silent on the issue.
Last year, when Komal Oli took dozens of fellow musicians to the streets to protest against television channels and radio stations broadcasting their songs for free, many media moguls warned them to cease and desist, or else they would stop playing their songs. Many amongst those who protested decided to nod in front of the channels, and when Komal Oli, Ram Krishna Dhakal and Yam Baral dared sticking to what they demanded, their songs were boycotted by TV and FM stations for months. Later, they were left with no other option than to compromise.So, where is the royalty protest heading to now? What are its demands? Who’s taking caring of all the issues? Till some years ago, there were hardly any such issues raised amongst the people working in music. How did it emerge, and how can it be solved? Republica met a few household names of the entertainment world.
One of the reasons why music artistes raised their voices for royalty is because of the growing piracy in music and the downfall in the sales of their music albums, says Komal Oli, who heads the Nepal Sangitik Sangh (Nepali Musical Association).
“Though our songs have been an integral part of people’s lives, we’ve always been overlooked, both by the state and by the media houses,” says Oli in a disappointed tone. “When Ram Krishna, Yam Baral and I dared to ask for what we deserve, various TV channels and FM stations stopped broadcasting our songs. We didn’t give up. But we had to take our movement back because it was a career threat to a lot of young newcomers who pay money to media houses to have their songs aired or covered.”
The role of Music Royalty Collection Society
Founded fifteen months ago, Music Royalty Collection Society is headed by prominent lyricist and filmmaker Yadav Kharel. According to him, the government came up with a law in 2004 that ensured royalty to only lyricists and composers of songs. The law reads, “The government defines lyricists and music composers as the creators of songs, and royalty will be divided accordingly.” However, the regulations were never implemented. In addition, it became unfair to singers who equally dedicated themselves to make musical packages. That was why Kharel suggested that singers themselves form a sister organization in the Society so that royalties could be distributed equally. And this year, some one hundred singers of Nepal founded Nepal Singing Society under the chairmanship of Ram Krishna Dhakal.
Now, with support from Nepali Musical Association and Nepal Singing Society, Nepal Royalty Collection Society is pushing the government to implement all the pertinent acts and regulations as soon as possible.
“In June this year, Nepal will be a member of the Collective Management Society, and will be on terms with other international societies of South Asia. After this, all Asian countries will push the responsible bodies to provide us our royalties,” reveals Kharel, and highlights the objectives, “Anyone, be it at the organizational or personal levels, if they use music for economic advantage, they must pay royalty. If a music program has financial backing from sponsors, then the percentage of royalty must be according to the sum. Radio stations must provide us 2% of the volume for each number played, and television channels should provide 1%. Lastly, a royalty system must come into practice in both department stores and at private parties, too.”The reasons why there has been no development
According to Oli, most of the attempts at forming a system to grant royalty to music artistes failed because the government of Nepal kept changing. She first raised the issue when Girija Prasad Koirala was prime minister. Before there could be any major developments, the UCPN (United Communist Party of Nepal) came to power. When the new Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal heard their issue, it was already too late because his government resigned, and Madhav Kumar Nepal was appointed to head the next government. Now, as Oli says, they will ask Prime Minister Nepal to regulate the stipulated laws and form a committee to address the issues.
Singer Nalina Chitrakar differs by not entirely blaming the government alone, and underlines that there’s no unity amongst singers and musicians themselves.“Trust me, there won’t be any big changes soon,” Nalina says. “It’s all big talks. Hardly anyone has had concentrated on solving the matter legally. Taking to the streets alone won’t do anything other than entertaining the bystanders.”
Likewise, Ram Krishna Dhakal adds, “It’s not that there’s no law for this; it’s just that it hasn’t come into practice. First and foremost, the government’s recognition of lyricists and composers as “the only creators of a song” is unacceptable to us. This has delayed the whole process. Besides, private channels and FM stations are reluctant to start paying royalty because they want it to begin from the government level – that is, from Radio Nepal and Nepal Television.”
What next then?
According to Dhakal, he has already gathered one hundred singers to jointly raise their voice. Komal Oli adds that things will be fine if all the programs that air music for commercial purposes provide certain percentage as royalties to the artistes concerned.She further says that if the problem isn’t solved within this year, she’ll make sure that there will be no songs played by TV channels and radio stations in Nepal.
Yadav Kharel says that although the statutes can’t be amended, he’ll find ways to have all the regulations for the rights of music artistes in operation as soon as possible.
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