The Recording Industry of Kenya (RIKE) is to start certifying Kenyan music and issuing unique Identification numbers to each song released, as part of helping Kenyan artistes track and earn more royalties from abroad.
Recognised by the world body International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), RIKE was established in 2020 and has been setting up structures for effective operations.
IFPI is the international body that represents the interests of the music recording industry in the world, lobbying for music policies and tracking the music industry economy.
"RIKE is a lobby group representing record producers or executive producers. Simply put, anyone who owns the final Master Rights of a song is a member of our association. Just the same way Collective Management Organisations (CMOs) collect royalties on behalf of artists, we do the same, only that our job is to lobby the government for the formulation and implementation of better policies of the music economic industry, such as IP protection and fight against piracy of the content of our members,” Angela Mwandanda RIKE, National Coordinator, told Showbuzz .
Piracy remains one of the major challenges in Kenya's content creation industry, with a study showing that the country loses Sh30 billion annually to piracy, with music topping the list.
Beyond the advocacy, RIKE, being an arm of the world body IFPI, also issues unique identification numbers known as ISRC (International Standard Recording Codes) to each song. With ISRC, an artist's song is then recognised worldwide, making it possible for artists to track their music globally and earn royalties.
“We administer ISRC recognized worldwide. In simple terms, it's like an ID number for every music an artist releases. ISRC is essential in tracking an artist's music airplay and streams of their music from whichever part of the world your music is played. With that code, every single song that goes out to the public has an ID. With that, an artist can accurately know how much royalties are owed to them to demand from CMOs. Because we haven't had this ISRC for years, it's one of the reasons CMOs in the country have been able to give artists flat figures of Sh1,500 as royalties, because artists can’t know exactly how much their music has collected in terms of royalties. Kenyans these days are consuming a lot of their music, and so the structures need to work for artists to fully earn what is rightfully theirs. With ISRC, a producer can also help track their royalties beyond Kenya,” she adds.
Without an ISRC, especially in this digital era, tracking streams, downloads, and airplay is nearly impossible, which causes artists to haemorrhage royalties. Streaming platforms such as Spotify, Boomplay, and digital retailers require an ISRC to distribute music.
"Finally, the other aspect of our job is to develop music charts where we will now be able to determine, ratify, and certify when an artist has sold Platinum, Gold, or Silver records. In the US, you have had many artists achieve platinum record status, which indicates selling over one million units of downloads/streams of albums or singles. For example, Michael Jackson’s Thriller album is certified as 33x Platinum in the US, meaning he has sold over 33 million copies of that album,” she explains.
It's based on these numbers that the US hosts the famous Grammy Awards to honour artists on both aspects of popularity and excellence.
In the Kenyan context, the music charts, she says, will be different.
Music charts in the West are crucial in building the reputation of an artist and amplifying their brand by attracting mega endorsement and partnership deals, negotiating deals, potential investors, and increasing recognizability.
