A day after daring their followers to unsubscribe from their YouTube channel, Bien Aime now says that Azimio broke the law by using their song without permission and that action must be taken.
Speaking to Milele FM, Bien said there is no bad blood but Azimio needs to pay them for using their song.
‘Mimi niko biashara na mtu yote anataka kumtumia mziki wangu for their own benefit ni lazima first of all nikubali. Hatukuulizwa na wameenda ahead kumtumia mziki. I think hiyo ni kuvunja Sheria. Politician hawezi ingia Kwa duka achukue mkate na maziwa na aende. Hatuna mbaya na mtu yeyote’, Bien said.
Loosely translated as; “(We are in business and I have to give consent for politicians to use my songs. It’s not personal.)”
Bien further added that Sauti Sol’s legal team is currently in talks with the coalition and he doesn’t mind getting up to Ksh1 billion as compensation.
‘Mwisho wa mwezi baba hatanilipia rent na maji. Ni muhimu wakenya waelewe. Ningependa hata ifike hata 1 billion manake pale Kuna reputational damage. Ukisema Sauti Sol wako Azimio nimepoteza mashabiki wote ambao wako pande ingine.’ Said Bien.
(At the end of the month Raila will not cater for my bills, it’s critical for Kenyans to understand that. Compensation should be up to Ksh 1 billion as there is even reputational damage. We have also lost some of our subscribers in this confusion.)
After threatening to sue Raila Odinga’s Azimio Coalition, boy band Sauti Sol lost almost 2,000 YouTube followers.
As a result, Sauti Sol, who was in second place on YouTube in Kenya with 905,000 followers slipped to 903,000 subscribers. Otile Brown is the artiste with most followers on YouTube in the country.
Bien Aime, one of the band members, responded to the news by encouraging individuals who were no longer interested in their music to unsubscribe from their YouTube channel.
Sauti Sol took to Instagram on Wednesday morning to lecture Kenyans about intellectual property rights after being harassed on Twitter.
“Time will reveal. Wale wanashuka washuke saa hii. Stage yao imefika,” Bien wrote on Instagram.
According to Music Copyright of Kenya CEO Ezekiel Mutua, the Azimio coalition did not break any copyright laws by playing their hit song ‘Extravaganza’ when presenting Raila’s running mate.
Sauti Sol claimed in a statement on Monday evening that they did not license the music to the Azimio la Umoja campaign.
“We did not license this song to the Azimio la Umoja campaign neither did we give any consent for its use in the announcement of their Vice-Presidential candidate. We are disappointed by the Azimio la Umoja Campaign’s blatant disregard of our right to control the use of our copyright,” Read part of their statement.
The Kenya Copyright Board however thought Azimio was wrong to use the song without consulting Sauti Sol.
“It is in the public domain that Azimio has obtained a public performance licence allowing it to play both local and international music at its rallies and events. However, the use of sound recording as a soundtrack with visual images in a film, video, television show, commercial or other audio-visual production is not part of those users authorised by a public performance license.’
