When Nyashinsky recorded the song ‘Wach Wach’, he got the beats from Kenya-based Nigerian producer Sam Eli Are. The producer went ahead to produce several other of Nyashinsky’s songs in the album ‘Lucky You’.
However, the two are currently entangled in a court battle over copyright infringement. Sam claims that he should have been partly paid by Nyashinsky after he signed a deal with Tecno Mobile as a brand ambassador, since the song ‘Wach Wach’ was used in the commercials.
According to the court case, Nyashinsky claims he signed a general brand ambassadorship deal, and did not particularly ask for more money to make the commercials. Even though it’s not verified, the deal is said to have been worth about Sh12 million.
Fast forward, rumor has it that new song ‘Kudade’, which has several artists like Fathermoh, Ndovu Kuu, Harry Craze, Johnny Johnny, Lil Maina and Fancy Fingers, is already entangled in ownership wrangles.
This is where the split sheet comes in.
Producer Sam is able to follow up on his royalties as a producer before he signed the split sheet when he produced the song for Nyashinsky.
Nyashinsky owns the master rights for the song 100 percent. However, the publishing rights is owned by both Nyashinsky and Sam on a fifty-fifty basis. This is all signed in that small document many artists ignore called the split sheet.
In layman language, publishing means if the song is used in an advert, a movie soundtrack or a game, the money earned from that has to be shared equally between Sam and Nyashinsky.
In more layman language, the master rights means the song is fully owned by Nyashinsky. This is mainly the rights owned by those who fund the production of the music.
If the ‘Kudade’ gang have signed the split sheet, they have less to worry about. But if they didn’t, they will be in for trouble, unless they sign a different agreement before it’s too late.
As an artist, never leave that studio without signing the SPLIT SHEET….’IRREGARDLESS’ of how good you feel about the song.
Class dismissed.
JOHN MOSH MUCHIRI
