Alexander Bagonza alias A Pass has come out in a tweet to demand Ugandan websites that upload his music without paying him to delete all his music.
He has even gone ahead to start his own hashtag #removeallmymusic.
This has been supported by many of his fans who believe that A Pass along with other musicians put in a lot of money and effort to produce, record and even shoot music videos.
Having their music uploaded for free and not paying them brings them losses yet those offering the music earn certain commissions for the views, listens and downloads.
In well developed countries such as USA, Spain, South Korea among others, a copyright and intellectual law is in place to avoid such scenarios.
No one is allowed to copy, re-make or use their works without their permission.
Musicians are paid by websites and apps such as Spotify, Audiomac, apple music, YouTube and Tidal when their music is uploaded or downloaded by listeners.
It should be noted that one has to pay a certain amount to listen to songs on these apps such as Spotify (pay 10,000 Uganda and per month) and apple music (pay 30,000 Uganda shillings per month).
Artists also have to make contracts with these companies or websites so as to get some form of payment from them.
This has enormously contributed to the wealth of musicians globally.
In 2020, Nigerian superstar Davido earned around $25,000 (90 million Uganda shillings) from the listens and downloads of his music on numerous websites.
This idea of copyright and intellectual property law has been one Ugandan musicians led by Ykee Benda former president Uganda Musicians Association (UMA) have been trying to push and have parliament put in place.
In 2019, Big Tril talked of the same idea on how musicians are poor because people listen to their music for free instead of buying it.
Many Ugandans rather abused him and due to anger deleted his music.
Others have gone ahead to tell A Pass and his fellow musicians to produce quality music and sound if they want that sort of entitlement on their music.
All in all, this is one never ending debate in Uganda that is just causing a rift between fans and their favorite musician.
We hope some agreement or law can be made which is both beneficial to the musicians for their hard work and the listeners who simply want to enjoy good music.
