Minister Grange Urges Songwriters to Support JACAP

Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture, Hon. Olivia Grange, has encouraged Jamaican songwriters to register their work with the Jamaica Association of Composers, Authors and Publishers Limited (JACAP).
“How many of you are in a position, after you write a song and its recorded, to go to the record shops all over the world to check if somebody has used that song and you are not getting royalties? How many of you are able to do that?” she asked.
“You really can chart your own path, if you put the right mechanism in place, if you register every time you write a song, if you go and seek a good publisher who can market your work, and if you ensure that your brethren who write it with you get his credit,” she explained.
The Minister, speaking at JACAP’s 10th anniversary open house programme at Connelly Avenue, Kingston on Thursday (December 17), also urged the songwriters to make the best use of their earnings from their works.

Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture, Hon. Olivia Grange, making her remarks at the Jamaica Association of Composers, Authors and Publishers Limited’s (JACAP) 10th anniversary open house, at Connelly Avenue, Kingston, on Thursday (December 17).

“You may earn well for years and then you stop earning a lot. So when you earn well and the money comes in, you must invest it. You must put some aside for the times when things are not as great and when you won’t be getting as much air play,” she said.
The Minister also stated that the whole industry is changing and stakeholders will have to plan and know how to secure their future and their children’s future.
Chairman of JACAP, Steve Golding, noted the need for a culture of copyright compliance in Jamaica.
“A culture of compliance not only shows that we respect ourselves, as a people, but it sets us in a good light, internationally, just as our music and our sports have done,” Mr. Golding said.
JACAP was established in March, 1998 and commenced operations in January 1999, as a national non profit organisation to take over the local operations of the Performing Right Society (PRS) London agency, in the collection of music copyright in Jamaica.