South African Music Rights Organisation
South Africa's performing rights collecting society, founded in 1961 and owned by its 15,000+ composer, author and publisher members.
- Based in
- Johannesburg, South Africa
- Founded
- 1961
- Website
- samro.org.za
SAMRO (the Southern African Music Rights Organisation) is South Africa’s performing rights collecting society. Founded in 1961 under the South African Copyright Act, it licenses businesses that use music in public — broadcasters, live venues, retailers, promoters and shopping centres — and distributes the licence fees it collects as royalties to composers, authors and publishers. It also administers mechanical and needletime rights on behalf of members.
SAMRO is a not-for-profit membership company, owned and governed by the more than 15,000 Southern African music creators it represents rather than by outside shareholders. It is chaired by Nicholas Maweni and is based in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, in the same building that also houses the Music Publishers’ Association of South Africa.
As South Africa’s primary performing rights body, SAMRO sits at the centre of how songwriters and composers in the country get paid when their work is played on radio, at events or in commercial premises, making it one of the foundational institutions of the South African music economy.