The South African Music Performance Rights Association (SAMPRA) has launched a mobile app aimed at helping its members with quick access to news, updates, information, real-time support, membership applications and the registration of works.
The SAMPRA said the development of the app was driven by the desire to ensure that the association could reach its members through strong digital infrastructure. The mobile app is available for download on the App Store. A version via Google Play will be added soon.
“We want our members to know that we value them and that we will keep adding convenient platforms that they can use to access the organisation,” SAMPRA CEO Pfanani Lishivha said. “Our purpose as an organisation is very clear to all of us and over the past few years we have purposefully entrenched a culture of continuous improvement in team SAMPRA.
“We believe that technology is an enabler of change, of progress and of innovation. With this app, we want our members to get a glimpse of the Fourth Industrial Revolution through us. The SAMPRA app is Africa’s first CMO [collective management organisation] app and we are thrilled to be giving our customers our critical services in the form of an icon on their mobile devices.”
SAMPRA said the app was intended to create customer convenience so members could gain access anytime and anywhere.
“Research has shown that app use and engagement can go as high as 90% where an app user believes that the app adds value to their daily lives,” SAMPRA said. “One of the key features of the SAMPRA app is the Live Chat option, allowing members to engage directly with a SAMPRA consultant in real time.
“This means that members, especially artists, will no longer need to go to SAMPRA offices. Artists can also expect features like the ability to upload images and documents, a direct Email Us option, the ability to update their personal information, and be assisted with royalty queries.
“SAMPRA has created internal processes that will support the functionality of the app. A dedicated team has been assembled to handle all app-related queries, which will significantly shorten the time that a customer takes to perform certain tasks. This will ultimately improve our aim to increase customer-organisation engagement.”
SAMPRA is a CMO that administers neighbouring rights on behalf of recordings artists and record companies. This is done by licensing music users such as radio broadcasters, retailers, pubs, clubs, restaurants and other businesses that use music as part of their business models. The licence fees collected from these establishments are then processed and paid as music royalties by SAMPRA.
SAMPRA is a collective licensing society of copyright owners of music sound recordings. Its mandate is to collect and distribute royalties to the members of the Recording Industry of South Africa (RiSA) whenever their recordings are broadcast, diffused or communicated to the public.
SAMPRA issues licences to South African radio broadcasters who use sound recordings (records, tapes, CDs) in SAMPRA’s repertoire in their transmissions. SAMPRA also licenses shops, restaurants, pubs and clubs and other music users who render sound recordings in SAMPRA’s repertoire audible in public. The SAMPRA licence enables music users to play literally millions of sound recordings on their business premises.
