PETALING JAYA, Nov 8 ― Veteran composer, singer and musician Datuk Wah Idris said it is impossible for performers to survive on royalties alone as musicians are clueless to how much they should expect from the collection.

“To become a performer in Malaysia is about survival of the fittest and how to sell your product,” he said.

Wah, a Music Authors Copyright Protection (MACP) member is best known for the 1998 Commonwealth Games theme Standing in the Eyes of the World sung by Ella. He receives royalties as a composer.

But he pointed out questions were raised on whether royalties were distributed fairly.

“Sometimes it’s a question mark — how the royalty rate is decided or how they define that this song has been played a certain number of times.

“Artistes abroad are paid well from royalties — that’s fair, because the songs are played all over. In Malaysia, we don’t know how the system works.”

As to how the figures are derived, Wah says musicians and composers were in the dark.

“It depends on how many songs you write, how often it’s played on radio ... things like that. But we don’t know the figure,” he said.

“When (the cheque) comes, everyone says thank you very much — but we don't know how MACP came to that figure.

“It is of critical importance to raise awareness and educate musicians. There’s not enough awareness especially among the younger talents about this.”

Wah said collection management organisations (CMOs) must be transparent when collecting and distributing royalties.

“With transparency, we’ll be more comfortable allowing the organisations to collect and distribute money. Even the public will feel more comfortable paying the licenses.”

Wah said musicians and CMOs must play their roles to strengthen their relationship and create a better eco-system within the industry.

“Musicians are simple people. We just want to make a decent living doing what we love,” he said.