Manager and husband of Ghanaian gospel diva, Celestine Donkor, Kofi Donkor, has disclosed that online music streaming service, Boomplay owes his artiste a year of unpaid royalties.
Kofi Donkor hinted that Boomplay might be closing its Ghana office on Friday, and has demanded unpaid royalties from the streaming platform before they shut down their operations.
“Boomplay, pay us our royalties before you shut down the Ghana office on Friday!” he stated in his post.
“They haven’t made a payment in over a year. Additionally, I’ve heard that they intend to close their Ghanaian office. We must withdraw our funds immediately,” he revealed.
Royalties of other artistes such as Kofi Sarpong, Okyeame Kwame, Sista Afia, Tinny, King Paluta, Sista Afia, Epixode who have signed on to Boomplay have not been paid.
Investigations have indicated that Boomplay has no agreements with artistes directly. Rather, it has agreements with distribution platforms and distributors for the songs that are submitted on the platform.
This means royalty payments are made to distributors who in turn pay artistes based on their percentage share agreements.
Findings indicate that there have been some challenges with some distributors and distribution platforms, a reason for the non payment of some royalties.
Sources have established that some licensing agreements with some platforms have ended and that there have been a confusion over agreeing to new licensing agreements which are still being discussed.