The Zimbabwe Music Rights Association (ZIMURA) has clarified that churches are legally required to obtain copyright licenses for any copyrighted music performed during their services.
The announcement was made by ZIMURA spokesperson, Alexio Gwenzi. Gwenzi stated that the requirement, based on the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act, applies to any entity—including places of worship, cover bands, and venues—that publicly performs music created by others.
Gwenzi noted that several large churches already comply with the law, citing Prophet Emmanuel Makandiwa’s United Family International Church (UFIC) as an example. He added that if one performs another person’s intellectual property, they would be infringing on that person`s copyright and should thus pay for it.
Gwenzi described ZIMURA as a non-profit collective management organization tasked with licensing music users and distributing collected royalties to composers and publishers. He explained that church licensing fees are scaled and typically range from US$30 to US$100 per year, depending on the size of the congregation and the extent of music usage.
The spokesperson also addressed recent controversy surrounding a separate US$150 per-show tariff for cover bands, which was suspended by the Ministry of Justice earlier in the year pending a review. Gwenzi defended the tariff, stating that bands earning significant sums should account for composer royalties in their pricing.
On the topic of payouts, Gwenzi stated that royalties are directly tied to how often a song is used. He revealed that in the most recent distribution, one of the highest-earning artists received approximately US$5,000.
