By Ahmad Muto
Singer and songwriter Nince Henry has expressed frustration with the what has become popular opinion that caller tunes and online music sales should become the new cash cow for local artistes.
He rubbished the idea illustrating with his own experience. According to him, there is a platform called CRBT (Caller Ring Back Tones) that handles the call back tunes using artistes songs. However, he was shocked one time when he earned a gross of over sh100m that was taxed ruthlessly leaving him with a net income of only sh6m.
“There is a platform called CRBT that handles the caller tunes, my aggregator was SMS One. I received my report from them one time and the total for three months was sh108 million. However, when they broke it down, taxes deducted, I was left with only sh6m. I was shocked,” he explained.
He also added that telecom companies operating locally are no saints, saying there is one network that is ‘everywhere you go’ that takes as much as 70% from the artiste.
Nince Henry also added that YouTube earnings depend on the size and geographical distribution of an artiste’s audience, explaining that Eddy Kenzo whose audience is spread across the globe receives more than an artiste who is only known in Uganda.
He made the revelation while appearing on Late Nites with JK on a local TV station on Wednesday, August 11, 2021.
The last time a local artiste came out protesting over caller back tunes, it was singer Free Boy in May this year who took on MTN and Airtel for alleged copyright infringement over the use of his song Kwata essimu since 2020.
