Deal sheet
- Status
- In force and operating. The performer leg was announced by SoundExchange on 18 November 2024 with quoted statements from Michael Huppe for SoundExchange, Pfanani Lishivha for SAMPRA and Stefanie Taub for the AFM & SAG-AFTRA Fund, and is described as retroactive to the 2022 distribution period. SAMPRA's international representation table as at 31 December 2025, published August 2026, still carries SoundExchange at entry 29 and AFM SAGAFTRA at entry 4, so both legs remain listed by SAMPRA more than a year after the announcement. The agreement document itself has not been published by either party and was not obtained.
- Type
- Licensing
- Parties
- SAMPRA, SoundExchange, AFM & SAG-AFTRA Intellectual Property Rights Distribution Fund
- Amount
- ZAR Not disclosed
- Rights covered
- NEIGHBOURING RIGHTS IN SOUND RECORDINGS ONLY. This agreement covers the performance and communication-to-the-public rights in sound recordings, known in South Africa as needletime. It does not touch musical works, so no publishing or songwriter right is affected, and it does not touch ownership of any master.
NOTHING IS OWNED, ASSIGNED, ADMINISTERED OR DISTRIBUTED UNDER IT. A reciprocal representation agreement between two collective management organisations is a collection mandate. Each society is authorised to collect in its own territory on behalf of the other society's rightholders and to remit. No copyright in any recording changes hands, no catalogue is assigned, and neither party acquires any right to exploit, licence onward or distribute any recording.
WHAT THE 18 NOVEMBER 2024 ANNOUNCEMENT COVERS: the performer leg. SoundExchange's newsroom release states the agreement enables United States performers to be paid neighbouring rights royalties collected in South Africa for the first time, and that it is retroactive to the 2022 distribution period.
THREE PARTIES, TWO DESTINATIONS. SAMPRA collections attributable to United States featured performers route to SoundExchange. Collections attributable to United States non-featured performers, meaning session musicians and backing vocalists, route to the AFM & SAG-AFTRA Intellectual Property Rights Distribution Fund, which is named in the release.
THE RECORD COMPANY LEG IS OLDER THAN THE ANNOUNCEMENT. SAMPRA's own annual review for 2022 lists at entry 26 "SoundExchange, USA, Record Companies" on its international representation table stated as at 31 December 2022. The reviews for 2024 and 2025 list at entry 29 "SoundExchange, USA, Performers & Record Companies". SoundExchange appears on neither the 2020 nor the 2021 table. On SAMPRA's own member-type column the record company leg predates the announced performer leg by approximately two years and was never publicly announced by either organisation.
UNITED STATES DISTRIBUTION SPLIT, for context on where inbound money lands: SoundExchange's release states that of royalties it distributes, 45 per cent goes to featured artists, 5 per cent to non-featured artists through the AFM & SAG-AFTRA Fund, and 50 per cent to rights owners.
- Territory
- SOUTH AFRICA AND THE UNITED STATES, each society collecting only in its own territory.
THE TWO COLLECTION POOLS ARE NOT SYMMETRICAL AND CANNOT BE MADE SO BY CONTRACT. Section 114(a) of title 17 of the United States Code limits the exclusive rights of a sound recording copyright owner to those in clauses (1), (2), (3) and (6) of section 106, and states that they "do not include any right of performance under section 106(4)". Section 106(6) covers public performance "by means of a digital audio transmission". United States terrestrial radio therefore pays nothing for use of the recording. South African law does create a needletime right that radio pays. A South African performer played on United States AM or FM radio has no right to collect; a United States performer played on South African radio does.
NO TREATY UNDERPINS THE ARRANGEMENT. Per the WIPO Lex contracting-party registers read on 26 September 2026: neither South Africa nor the United States appears on the Rome Convention list of 100 contracting parties. The United States ratified the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty on 14 September 1999, in force 20 May 2002. South Africa signed the WPPT on 12 December 1997 with no ratification recorded and no entry-into-force date. The obligation between the two societies is contractual, not treaty-derived.
NO AFRICAN COUNTERPARTY. SAMPRA's international representation table as at 31 December 2025 contains no African collective management organisation. COSBOTS (Botswana) and GHAMRO (Ghana) appear on the tables as at 31 December 2020 and 31 December 2021 and on none of the tables for 2022, 2024 or 2025. The desk could not establish from any published source why those entries ceased.
- Announced
- 2024-11-18
- Primary document
- Official newsroom
- Sources
- SoundExchange newsroom, "SoundExchange & SAMPRA Reciprocal Agreement Unlocks South African Performance Royalties for U.S. Creators", 18 November 2024. Read in full from the official newsroom of a named party on 26 September 2026, HTTP 200. Establishes the date, the retroactivity to the 2022 distribution period, the naming of the AFM & SAG-AFTRA Intellectual Property Rights Distribution Fund as recipient for non-featured performers, the 45/5/50 United States distribution split, and direct quotes from named officers of all three organisations. · Wire distribution of the same release, 18 November 2024, HTTP 200. Materially identical text. Used to confirm the newsroom copy had not been silently revised. · SAMPRA Annual Review 2022, 83 pages. International representation table stated as at 31 December 2022 lists at entry 26 "SoundExchange USA Record Companies". No AFM SAGAFTRA entry. Narrative states thirty-one (31) agreements; the table lists thirty. This is the document that dates the record company leg two years before the announcement. · SAMPRA Annual Review covering 2024. International representation table lists at entry 4 "AFM SAGAFTRA USA Performers" and at entry 29 "SoundExchange USA Performers & Record Companies". First appearance of the Fund on any SAMPRA table. · SAMPRA annual review published August 2026, containing audited annual financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2025 and the independent auditor's report. Repeats AFM SAGAFTRA at entry 4 and SoundExchange at entry 29. Note 12 discloses licence fees: Communication to the Public R139,321,594 (prior R130,298,814), Radio Broadcast R77,933,700 (prior R91,201,286), Foreign income R1,854,418 (prior R1,619,241), total R219,109,712 (prior R223,119,341). Every running header in this PDF reads "ANNUAL REVIEW 2023" while the contents and audited figures are for the year to 31 March 2025. · SAMPRA Annual Review covering 2021. Negative check: no SoundExchange entry on the international representation table. Lists COSBOTS (Botswana) at entry 7 and GHAMRO (Ghana) at entry 12. · SAMPRA Annual Review covering 2020. Negative check: no SoundExchange entry. Lists COSBOTS at entry 7 and GHAMRO at entry 11. Together with the 2021 review this fixes the earliest possible date for the SoundExchange relationship. · United States Copyright Office, title 17 chapter 1. Section 106(6) grants performance of a sound recording "by means of a digital audio transmission". Section 114(a) states the section 106 rights in a sound recording "do not include any right of performance under section 106(4)". Primary authority for the asymmetry finding. · WIPO Lex contracting parties, WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty, 115 members. South Africa: signature 12 December 1997, no ratification, no entry into force. United States: ratification 14 September 1999, in force 20 May 2002. · WIPO Lex contracting parties, Rome Convention, 100 members. Negative check: neither South Africa nor the United States appears. · SoundExchange corporate site, used for the organisation's own description of its section 114 designation and cumulative distributions.
Read this before citing: ESTABLISHED FROM PRIMARY DOCUMENTS: the announcement date of 18 November 2024; the identity of all three named organisations; the retroactivity to the 2022 distribution period; the 45/5/50 United States distribution split; the presence of SoundExchange on SAMPRA's international representation tables as at 31 December 2022, 2024 and 2025 and its absence as at 31 December 2020 and 2021; the presence of AFM SAGAFTRA from the 2024 table only; the statutory asymmetry under 17 U.S.C. 114(a); and the treaty status of both countries.
NOT ESTABLISHED: the text of the agreement, which neither party has published and which the desk did not obtain. Term length, termination and notice provisions, administration or handling fee, currency conversion basis, distribution frequency, and any matching or claiming standard are all unstated in every source checked and must not be inferred from this record.
NO DEAL VALUE EXISTS IN ANY SOURCE. The ZAR currency tag on this record refers to the currency of SAMPRA's audited accounts, not to a consideration. SAMPRA's audited statements for the year to 31 March 2025 disclose foreign income of R1,854,418 against R1,619,241 restated for the prior year, an increase of 14.5 per cent, being 0.85 per cent of total licence fees of R219,109,712. That line is an aggregate across all foreign counterparties with no breakdown, so no SoundExchange-specific figure can be derived from it and none is asserted.
THE RECORD COMPANY LEG DATING RESTS ON A MEMBER-TYPE COLUMN. The inference that a record company relationship existed by 31 December 2022 is drawn from the "Member Type" value SAMPRA itself publishes against the SoundExchange row. SAMPRA has not stated when that relationship commenced, and no commencement document was obtained. The desk treats the change in that column across four of SAMPRA's own reviews as evidence of the sequence, not as a dated contract.
SAMPRA'S OWN COUNTS DO NOT RECONCILE. In the review published August 2026: page 11 states 71 international agreements, page 20 states 37 and lists 33, page 21 states 34 and lists 32. In the review covering 2024: the narrative states 33 and lists 33, then states "twenty-seven (29)" and lists 29. In the review covering 2022: the narrative states thirty-one (31) and the table lists thirty. No count in this record relies on a narrative figure; all counts are taken from the tables as listed.
TWO REVENUE BASES ARE UNRECONCILED IN THE SAME DOCUMENT. The business review states revenue grew from R282.2 million to R295 million while note 12 of the audited statements shows total licence fees falling from R223,119,341 to R219,109,712. The desk has used the audited note throughout and has not adopted the narrative figure.
MEMBERSHIP FIGURES DIFFER ACROSS SOURCES. The 18 November 2024 release describes SAMPRA as representing 11,000 record companies. The review covering 2024 states "more than ten thousand (12 000)". The review published August 2026, after a stated deduplication exercise, gives 74,542 performer members and 7,540 record company members, totalling 82,082.
PRODUCTION ERROR IN THE PRIMARY FINANCIAL SOURCE. Every running header of the PDF published in August 2026 reads "ANNUAL REVIEW 2023" although its contents, audited annual financial statements and independent auditor's report are all for the year ended 31 March 2025. No annual review covering the 2023 financial year is published on SAMPRA's site at all. The desk has cited this document by its contents and its publication path, not by its header.
NO MASTER OR COMPOSITION IS AFFECTED. Nothing in this record should be read as a transfer, assignment, administration appointment or distribution agreement in respect of any recording or musical work.
On 18 November 2024 SoundExchange and SAMPRA announced a reciprocal representation agreement covering performers, retroactive to the 2022 distribution period. Neither organisation owns, administers or distributes a single master or composition under it. What changed hands is the right to collect on the other side’s territory, and nothing else.
What the agreement actually does
A reciprocal representation agreement between two collective management organisations is a mandate, not a transfer. SAMPRA licenses South African broadcasters and commercial premises for the use of sound recordings, collects the money, and under this agreement now identifies the portion attributable to United States performers and remits it to the appropriate United States body. SoundExchange does the equivalent in the other direction for South African rightowners out of the section 114 statutory digital licence. No copyright moves. No catalogue is assigned. No party acquires a right to exploit anything.
The announcement names three organisations, not two. SAMPRA royalties for United States featured performers route to SoundExchange. Royalties for non-featured performers, meaning session musicians and backing vocalists, route to the AFM & SAG-AFTRA Intellectual Property Rights Distribution Fund. SoundExchange’s release describes the arrangement as retroactive to the 2022 distribution period.
SAMPRA’s own reviews show the record company leg was already running
SAMPRA publishes an international representation table in each annual review, stated as at 31 December of the reporting year. On the table published for 2022, entry 26 reads “SoundExchange, USA, Record Companies”. On the tables published for 2024 and for 2025, entry 29 reads “SoundExchange, USA, Performers & Record Companies”. SoundExchange does not appear at all on the tables published for 2020 or 2021.
Read across the four documents, the member-type column moves from absent, to record companies only, to performers and record companies. That is consistent with a record company leg in place by the end of 2022 and a performer leg added later. The announcement of 18 November 2024 is therefore an announcement of the performer leg. The record company relationship appears to have been running for roughly two years without any public announcement from either side. Neither organisation’s release mentions it.
The reciprocity is structurally lopsided, and the statutes say so
Section 114(a) of the United States Copyright Act limits the exclusive rights in a sound recording to reproduction, adaptation, distribution, and public performance by means of a digital audio transmission under section 106(6). It states in terms that those rights “do not include any right of performance under section 106(4)”. United States terrestrial radio pays nothing for the use of a recording. South African radio does.
So a South African performer whose record is played on United States AM or FM radio earns nothing from that play, whatever this agreement says, because there is no right to collect. A United States performer whose record is played on South African radio earns a needletime royalty, because South African law creates one. The two collection pools are not symmetrical and cannot be made symmetrical by contract.
No treaty underpins it
Neither country is a contracting party to the Rome Convention. The United States ratified the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty on 14 September 1999, in force 20 May 2002. South Africa signed the WPPT on 12 December 1997 and the WIPO register records no ratification and no entry into force. The obligation between SAMPRA and SoundExchange is contractual, created by the agreement itself, and is not the implementation of a treaty duty.
What cannot be established
No money figure attaches to this agreement in any source. SAMPRA’s audited statements for the year to 31 March 2025 disclose foreign income of R1,854,418 against R1,619,241 restated for the prior year, a single line in note 12 with no counterparty breakdown. That is 0.85 per cent of total licence fees of R219,109,712. What share, if any, is SoundExchange’s is not disclosed and cannot be derived.
SAMPRA’s own counts of its international agreements do not reconcile across the same document. In the review covering 2025, page 11 states 71 international agreements, page 20 states 37 and lists 33, and page 21 states 34 and lists 32. In the review covering 2022, the narrative states thirty-one and the table lists thirty. Membership figures also move: the announcement cites 11,000 record companies, the 2024 review says “more than ten thousand (12 000)”, and the 2025 review after deduplication gives 74,542 performer members and 7,540 record company members.
One further point of fact that bears on African coverage rather than on the agreement itself: no African collective management organisation appears anywhere on SAMPRA’s international representation table as at 31 December 2025. COSBOTS of Botswana and GHAMRO of Ghana appear on the tables for 2020 and 2021 and on none of the tables for 2022, 2024 or 2025.
Limits of this record. The agreement itself was not obtained and no party has published it. The terms recorded here come from the announcing party’s own newsroom release and from SAMPRA’s own published annual reviews and audited financial statements. Term length, notice period, administration fee, exchange rate basis and distribution frequency are not stated in any source checked and should not be inferred. Corrections to desk@afrobeatswire.com.
