Singers Demand Royalty For Their Voice

A conglomerate of popular singers such as SP Balasubramanyam (SPB), KJ Yesudas and P Susheela among many others joined hands and announced that all singers are entitled to royalties.

The musical legends were addressing the press in Chennai, on August 19, on the royalty issue.

"Our intention is not to fight with anyone. Royalty is the money we demand for our voice. We don't intend to fight for this because it's our right. We are entitled to royalty by the government," said SPB speaking to reporters here.

"We want to ensure our future generation at least is not deprived of royalty because they deserve the due credit for their contribution," he added.

Singer Hariharan said under the copyright act, all singers are all eligible for royalty.

"Our rights are protected by Indian Singers Rights Association. A copyright act was passed in June last year and based on it all songs since 1963 are due for royalty," he said.

In July, Young music scorer of South Indian film industry, GV Prakash had claimed against few audio companies for stealing the royalties from lyricists, where he had got a huge support from Tamil industry.

Prakash had tweeted, "Royalty is the basic right of a creator and it stays with him or her! Trying to steal that from them is cheap." He had also requested senior composers and lyricist to support the cause.

Some of the other singers present include SP Charan, Naresh Iyer, Vani Jayaram, Mano, Karthik, Srinivas, and Tippu among many more.

IANS