The recent case in which court ordered defunct Warid Telecom to pay Obsessions group Shs 60m, was a serious wake up call to musicians to demand the worth of their compositions.
Musician Cinderella Sanyu, aka Cindy, is the latest to stand up for her works. The singer dragged Spice Vas Africa, a mobile telecom support company to court over failure to pay for use of her songs as caller tunes. Cindy wants a cool Shs17m that she alleges has accrued through exclusive fees, revenue share and minimum guarantee agreements.
Spice VAS Africa is a leading mobile value added services company that has worked with musicians including Bebe Cool, Juliana Kanyomozi, Maro, and Judith Babirye on similar arrangements. However, the company has in the past few months lost all the above artistes to Sms One, another service provider in the same sector.
Spice signs contracts with artistes and sells their music to telecommunication companies, who in turn sell the same in form of caller tunes to their customers. A source close to Cindy told us that the singer’s lawyers have already filed a suit in the Commercial Court and they are ready to face Spice’s lawyers in court.
But not all is lost for Spice as they still have artistes including Grace Nakimera, Silver Kyagulanyi, Jamal Wasswa and Julie Mutesasira still signed to them.