Johannesburg – The Southern African Music Rights Organisation (SAMRO) on Monday revealed that it has distributed R22 million in accumulated unclaimed royalties to members.
SAMRO said the unclaimed royalties were a result of outdated or incorrect banking information.
The project to track and trace members, who needed to update their banking details, began in April 2021.
Commenting on the milestone achievement, SAMRO CEO Annabell Lebethe said the organisation embarked on a large-scale process to contact thousands of members to request that they update their banking details.
The initiative was further enhanced by the launch of the digital unclaimed royalty’s platform in November 2022.
The digital platform enables members to check if they have accumulated royalties because of outdated banking details.
The platform also allows members to update their banking details in order to receive their payouts.
“To date, the project has achieved a total distribution of R22 million,” said SAMRO CEO Lebethe.
“SAMRO is committed to achieving optimal business operations and enhancing member distribution through efficiency and effectiveness.”
To ensure accuracy and transparency, SAMRO said it strongly encourages all members to regularly update their banking details and closely monitor the Unclaimed Royalties platform to check if they have accrued royalties due to them.
The platform is on the SAMRO website.
It is worth noting that 1 011 members have already engaged with the digital platform and 32% of those members have successfully updated their banking details in the last six months, resulting in a significant improvement in the organisation’s ability to pay members with accrued royalties,” said Lebethe.
“Of the 1 011 members, 68% are yet to submit their updated banking details and we urge them to do so to finalise the process.
