This is an interesting read indeed. 

First off; I think KRA as a machinery is getting too greedy and wants to wrap around its fingers on every avenue of earnings - even when the person does not have regular income.

Take in this case an artist whose career probably shines for only 1 year - and KRA takes almost 30% !!!

I hear KRA also wants to go after landlords - forgetting all the building material taxes and loans which might take the builder years to recover - stunting growth for new comers in the industry and encouraging incumbents who have clout.

As usual when the rules are restrictive; its the small man that suffers gets enforced; the corporations will find a loophole.

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With regards to Safaricom-ContentProvider-Artist percentage:

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Back to the issue tackled above with KRA; I also think being a noble idea; Safaricom should ease on their take and ensure artist gets more stake.

I understand that the Capital investment for the technology is borne by Safaricom - however, once the program takes off; the technology runs on maintenance.

An artist will have a popular song for a few months; while Safaricom will continue to benefit from other popular songs in future once that artists song is long forgotten by the trends and pop.

That means a continued revenue assurance for Safaricom; and a very small window for the artist (who probably spent 100s of thousands in production and video promotions).

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Looking at it internationally - iTunes

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http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_does_iTunes_pay_an_artist_for_a_song

The amount received from sales through the iTunes store will vary depending on the particular circumstances of the artists. If signed to a record label that is responsible for distributing their music they will have an individual contract that will state the percentage they receive; this can be as low as 10% of the sales value (still higher than what is being offered in the Skiza Program) .

An independent artist can organise their own distribution and can receive up to 90% of the sales value, after an initial one off payment to organise the uploads (See links below), but will have to pay all the promotional/advertising costs etc. themselves.

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_does_iTunes_pay_an_artist_for_a_song#ixzz1ttcQgelp 

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