DVLA must pay 1% fee to musicians for every car registered – Fredyma champions

Entertainment analyst and sound producer, Fredyma, has suggested a creative way royalties can be collected from drivers for musicians.

He posited that because every car has a radio installed in it for passengers to enjoy good music, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) should pay royalties to the creative industry.

Per his suggestion, this percentage should be paid into a creative arts fund for further disbursement to musicians.

Suggesting a way to address issues of royalty payment in the creative scene during a discussion on Happy98.9FM’s Xtra, he said, “Every car has a radio so why doesn’t the DVLA deduct an amount of 1 per cent from every car registered and pay it into a fund for creative arts.”

Fredyma added that pubs and beverage manufacturers can never make any money without music but “we earn nothing from them. When you go to the bar and there is no music, you can’t sell or enjoy a beer,” he told Doctar Cann.

Ras Caleb Appiah-Levi, Presidential Aspirant for MUSIGA, adding his voice to the discussion stated, “even the telcos should start paying artistes for using their songs as caller ring tones. The telcos are even making money off us and the government must step in. We don’t want a situation where we’ll ask TV and radio stations to close down and ask bars not to play our music because we are not receiving any royalties.”

He describes the creative arts industry as a profitable space and expressed his surprise and worry over why industry players suffer a poor ending.

The debate for a structured system in Ghana to allow for creative persons to benefit from their works has once again been revived.

This comes after the recent deaths of some notable names in the history of Ghana’s creative arts, and also after their poor living conditions reached the media.