Taking royalties from Churches not an abomination - GHAMRO

• The music rights society is of the view that collecting royalties from churches should not be regarded as sinful

•Some gospel artistes have doubted the approach and system GHAMRO have adopted to collect royalties from church

•According to GHAMRO, churches have agreed and negotiated on the fee to be paid every year

Chief Operating Officer of GHAMRO,

Read full articleAbraham Adjartey, has stated that it isn’t an abomination to collect royalties from Churches in Ghana.

According to him, the decision was not born out of malice adding that it has legal backing in Section 49 of the Copyright Law, Act 690 of 2005 and regulated under L.I. 1962 of 2010.

In an interview with Graphic Showbiz, Mr Adjartey said:

“It is rather interesting the opposing views we are getting from the sector, but that should not have been the case. The truth is that there’s nothing abominable or sinful about collecting royalties from the churches. Besides, the churches are not even against it after many engagements with them, but unfortunately, it is some Gospel artistes who feel that what we intend to do is abominable. Perhaps, the gospel artistes should be enlightened about the legal functions of GHAMRO so it doesn't look like we are witch-hunting the Church or God’s people.”

It can be recalled that some gospel artistes, including Patience Nyarko and Eric Jeshrun have spoken against the enforcement of the law adding that it will destroy the relationship between them and the churches.

“If the Churches ask Gospel artistes to stop recording or singing their songs or even ask every artiste who has commercially recorded songs belonging to them (church) to pay royalties to them, that money will be so huge that Gospel musicians cannot pay,” Patience Nyarko is reported to have said in an interview with Accra-based radio station Onua FM.