The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Music Rights Organisation (GHAMRO), Jackson Brefo, has stated that churches are legally required to pay royalties for copyrighted music played or performed during church services. Speaking to Kwame Dadzie on Joy FM’s Showbiz A-Z, Mr Brefo explained that Ghana’s copyright law does not exempt churches from paying royalties when they use or publicly perform musical works.
He said the law applies to anyone who uses or causes an author’s work to be performed publicly, adding that although the legislation provides for fair use in certain circumstances, churches are not specifically listed among those exemptions.
According to him, some established orthodox churches have been more responsive to GHAMRO’s royalty requirements, while the organisation continues to face challenges with some emerging charismatic and Pentecostal churches.
He mentioned the Church of Pentecost, Assemblies of God and the Methodist Church among denominations that have been complying with the royalty system.
Mr Brefo further said greater compliance by churches could contribute to increased revenue from gospel music royalties. He therefore encouraged gospel musicians to engage church leaders and encourage them to meet their legal obligations by paying royalties for the music used during services.
The issue of churches paying royalties is not new. In July 2017, then GHAMRO Chairman Rex Owusu Marfo, popularly known as Rex Omar, said the organisation was taking steps to ensure churches paid for the use of musicians’ intellectual property.
He reiterated the position in March 2020, arguing that churches should be licensed and billed for copyrighted music used during worship services. Section 37(2) of Ghana’s Copyright Act, 2005 (Act 690), states that a copyright owner is entitled to collect royalties for the live performance of a copyrighted work or the public performance of a recorded copyrighted work.
GHAMRO is the collective management organisation responsible for administering the rights of music rightsholders in Ghana.
Its responsibilities include licensing music users, collecting royalties on behalf of copyright owners and distributing the proceeds to the rightsholders.
