SAMPRA Online Registration

If you have been following my blog posts over the past two weeks or so, you might have noticed that my focus was on music collection societies in South Africa.

Well I’m not done just yet and on this post I will touch on another organization called SAMPRA. But this is not an ultimate guide post instead I will be focusing on SAMPRA Online Registration specifically for recording artists and labels.    

But we before we get into that, some of you might be asking the following……

What does SAMPRA do?

SAMPRA is short for South African Music Performance Rights Association and is a collection management organization of copyright owners of music sound recordings.

In simple English that means SAMPRA administers the Needletime Rights (I will explain this to you just now) on behalf of recording artists and record companies or labels.

Most (If not all) SAMPRA members as explained are performing artists and labels that also belong to RISA,  so their job is to collect royalties from broadcasters (SABC, Multichoice, etc.) and distribute them to members.

Do confuse this with SAMRO though. But just in case you’re confused, I wrote an article previously explaining the role of SAMRO in the SA music industry.  So you can read that too in order to get a better understanding.

What are Needletime rights?

According to SAMPRA needle time rights are record labels and artists rights and these royalties are paid to the recording artist each time for a public performance of released recordings. And to the record labels’ for the public performance of any sound recordings which have been released commercially.

SAMPRA also states that the following falls under “Recording Artist”:

• Lead Vocalists
• Backing Vocalists
• Music Producers
• Musicians (Pianist, Drummer, Guitarist, etc) and anybody who made a contribution to the recorded performance is classified as a recording artist.  

If you would like to know on how needletime royalties are allocated, I would advise you to click on the link I provided above in the opening sentence of this section to find out more.

Okay now back to the focal point of this blog post, so let’s find out…..

How SAMPRA Online Registration works

Instead of explaining to you word for word on sampra online registration, I’ll make it easier by taking you through the process in visual form.

In order to register online, you have to visit the sampra website (I had to state the obvious). I know that most of you prefer using mobile phones to access the internet.

But I would recommend that you use a normal PC (Desktop or laptop) or a Tablet to complete the registration.

Below is the screenshot of the sampra home page. When you get to this page, click on “Apply for membership”.

Once that is done, the website will take you to the next page like the one below. You will see “online forms” on your left and you have the option of applying as recording artist or record company.

For recording artist application, you will need to add your personal details including your banking details and next of kin. Take your time and make sure that you have all the details before you click the submit button.

If you’re applying as a record company, the process is the same but you have to supply the details of your business partners or directors as well as the copyright information as shown below.

The notifications of works form should also be completed alongside your sampra membership application. You can find it on the same page, see below.

Conclusion

Sampra online registration is straightforward and simple and won’t even take you 15 minutes. There is no need to visit their offices and collect the forms, it’s 2020!

Sampra will notify you regarding the status of your application via email or post. If you have any questions and thoughts, please leave your comments below.

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