Raphael Vassallo
Maltese artists, composers and registered copyright owners have demanded access to the audited accounts of Malta’s licensed collecting society, PRS For Music UK, after serious doubts were shed on its payment claims last week.
“We now demand audited accounts from PRS UK,” Howard Keith of Jagged House management company told MaltaToday. “All we are asking for is the rightful distribution of what has been collected every year, according to copyright law.”
Similar reactions came from Ira Losco, Ivan Grech (Winter Moods), Ray Mercieca (The Characters, The Rifffs), Chris Scicluna (Chris & Moira) and David Vella of Temple Studios.
Their latest demands come in the wake of an official explanation by PRS’s managing director Jo Prowse, who last week claimed that around €260,000 had already been paid out in royalties to Maltese artists for 2007 alone.
“Of the total collection for 2007, over half (52%: greater than that reported in your articles) was paid to Maltese songwriters and composers for the use of their music on Malta,” Prowse wrote in a letter to this newspaper last Sunday. “This is in line with local music usage as determined by recent market research.”
But this answer appears to have infuriated local artists registered with PRS (UK).
“What PRS has reported back actually makes things even worse,” Howard Keith, who represents Ira Losco, The Rifffs, Tribali, Airport Impressions and Red Electric, said in response.
“Since they have now confirmed that at least half a million euros have been collected annually (in some cases more, in other less), of which 52% has been distributed back, we are left with no option but to ask: where is all the money, if all active writers for the last 10 years officially state that none has received any justified royalty income from PRS as a result of their airplay, TV and live performances?”
It is a question that reverberates across the entire Maltese music industry, with Winter Moods’ Ivan Grech also contesting PRS’ claims about the monitoring systems used to calculate payments to local artists.
“We are told that the amounts are calculating using accurate logs,” he said this week. “But what logs are they using? How do they gauge what is being played on radio and on TV?”
Elsewhere, Paul Abela – among Malta’s most prolific and established popular composers – has also added his voice to the growing chorus of discontent.
“If PRS is correct, there should have been payouts of up to €4/5,000 to 59 registered members for 2007,” he said. “In my case, I haven’t seen any of it. This is not realistic, when you consider that my music is played so often nowadays. I used to get more for my work 10 years ago... even 20 years ago.”
Abela is also concerned about future payments: especially for 2008, when his original composition ‘L-Ahhar Bidwi f’Wied il-Ghasel’ was recorded and released by renowned Italian artist Claudio Baglioni.
“Last year, when Baglioni recorded my piece, it was played around 20-30 times a day on the radio,” Abela said. “But how can I expect to get paid royalties, when many local radio stations do not even fill out a playlist?”
Popular music is not the only genre that appears to be affected. Classical composer Karl Fiorini, also registered with PRS UK, confirmed yesterday that he has not received any royalties to date for those of his works played locally, either on radio or at the theatre.
“I haven’t been paid a cent for local performances,” he said, adding that the situation is markedly different in other countries. “When a composition of mine was performed in Germany, the German collecting society (Gema) collected the fee and transferred it to PRS (UK), which in turn paid me my royalties. It took around two to three years to get the money, but it came in the end.”
Since 2007, PRS For Music (UK) has been legally obliged to submit its annual accounts to the Malta Copyright Board. MaltaToday this week submitted a formal request to the Copyright Board to view PRS’ accounts for 2007, but no reply was forthcoming by the time we went to print.
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