MMC Publishing offers Malawi solution for royalty transparency amid COSOMA storm
The country’s pioneer music listening and monitoring digital platform, Malawi-Music.com (MMC), has offered to support the Copyright Society of Malawi (COSOMA) and the country’s musicians in resolving royalty-sharing disputes stemming from a lack of proper monitoring.
MMC says it has a comprehensive, locally developed broadcast monitoring system built to bring greater accuracy and transparency to radio airplay reporting – one of the most common sources of friction between artists, broadcasters and revenue-collecting authorities.
“We are ready to help out as we already have in place a broadcast monitoring system that has been tested for many years, which is already trusted by leading commercial clients, positioned to help musicians and COSOMA resolve airplay reporting disputes with verifiable data,” MMC said in a statement signed by the organisation’s head of business development, Dingaani Whayo.
Whayo said royalty disputes in Malawi’s music industry often traced back to the same root problem: the absence of an independent, verifiable record of what was actually played on air, when, and how often.
“MMC Publishing’s monitoring system addresses this gap directly, generating objective, auditable airplay logs that both artists and COSOMA can rely on when reconciling royalty claims,” said Whayo.
He stressed that the system was not new or unproven, revealing that MMC Publishing first presented the technology to COSOMA five years ago, and that it has since been refined and stress-tested in live commercial use.
According to Whayo, reputable companies including Kentam Pharmaceuticals, Nyumba24, Cartrack, Nepman, Komuniq and Johnny Willz Media have used the platform to monitor radio marketing campaigns on behalf of their clients, giving it a demonstrated track record of accuracy well beyond the music royalty space.
“Malawi’s music industry is in the middle of an important public conversation right now about how royalties are calculated and reported, and artists are right to expect answers backed by verifiable data, not just explanations,” Whayo said.
“That’s exactly the gap our broadcast monitoring system was built to close. We didn’t build this overnight – we’ve spent five years refining it and proving it works with real commercial clients, and we believe it’s ready to help COSOMA and musicians move that conversation from debate to evidence.”
Whayo brings over a decade of experience in Malawi’s music and digital media industry to the initiative, including early work on Malawi-Music.com, one of the country’s first platforms for distributing Malawian music online. He is also a songwriter and producer in his own right, recording under the name St Bosseratti/3rd Degree for artists in Malawi and the wider region – a dual perspective he says informs his push to bring independently verifiable airplay data to musicians and COSOMA alike.
“For musicians, the system offers a way to independently verify that their work is being tracked and credited accurately,” Whayo said. “For COSOMA, it offers a ready-made data source that can strengthen the integrity of royalty distribution and reduce the disputes that arise from incomplete or inconsistent station-level reporting.”
MMC Publishing says it is now prepared to make the system available at scale to support COSOMA and the broader music community, and is inviting artists, artist associations and industry stakeholders to engage directly on how the technology can be put to use.
MMC Publishing is a Malawi-based digital publishing company that develops and manages intellectual property across music, software and artificial intelligence, building technology-driven tools – including its broadcast monitoring system and AI solutions – to help creators and rights holders track, protect and get properly credited for their work.
Royalty row deepens
The offer comes as COSOMA faces mounting pressure over how it calculates and distributes royalties, with stakeholders and music fans questioning how top beneficiaries are determined, arguing the organisation’s explanations have lacked concrete metrics.
COSOMA has also come under fire for social media posts perceived by critics as mocking rather than addressing accountability concerns over how trends and local airplay translate into payouts.
Separately, more than 300 Malawian filmmakers have issued an ultimatum demanding leadership resignations at the organisation, alleging they were unfairly sidelined and told their films lacked local market availability.
Gender and representation concerns have also taken centre stage in the row, with female artists raising alarm over low representation in top-tier royalty distributions. COSOMA has responded by clarifying that allocations follow strict performance guidelines rather than gender quotas.
Questions have further been raised over the Blank Media Levy royalty distribution, after a planned meeting scheduled for Wednesday failed to take place, deepening accusations that COSOMA has ignored stakeholder concerns.
Prominent female artists with large local and international followings, including Miracle Chinga and gospel music diva Theresa Phondo, were reportedly among those overlooked in recent distributions.
Lesser-known and collaborative musicians have also voiced frustration that airplay does not consistently translate into their individual royalty returns.
Self-proclaimed hip-hop artist IKK has been among the most vocal critics, accusing COSOMA of disrespecting him after he received only K4,000 in royalties, and alleging the organisation manipulates figures to favour artists of its own choosing over those genuinely performing well on the ground.
