A musician dies, is buried and everybody goes back to their routines. Then somebody asks the question nobody thought about while the musician was alive. “So, what happens to the music?”
It sounds simple but it isn’t. While I can point out the important matters here, please consult a legal practitioner for proper legal advice.
There may be songs, master recordings, unreleased material, music videos, publishing income, Namibian Society of Composers and Authors of Music (Nascam) registrations, studio files, social-media pages, streaming accounts and distributor accounts.
There may even be money still coming in from songs recorded 10 to 30 years ago. Crucially, dying does not make copyright disappear.
Namibia’s Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Protection Act of 1994 says copyright in a musical work generally lasts for the author’s lifetime and for 50 years from the end of the year in which the author died.
There are also special rules for works that were not released in public during the author’s lifetime.
The more interesting part is where the law expressly says that copyright can be handled like normal movable property by assignment, testamentary disposition or operation of law.
In plain Vrede Rede Primary School English, copyright can form part of what a person leaves behind. It can pass through a will or through the law governing the deceased estate.
That means a songwriter’s catalogue (complete collection of work) can be an asset of the estate.
But don’t confuse the song with the recording. Because they are separate rights, the family may inherit the songwriter’s rights in the composition without necessarily owning every master recording.
Depending on who did or paid for what, old studio agreements suddenly become very important after somebody dies. This already adds to the complications.
Then there is the digital wardrobe. Most musicians today do not just leave CDs and old cassettes.
They leave Google accounts, Facebook pages, Instagram, YouTube channels, streaming profiles, digital distributors, cloud storage, email accounts and hard drives.
These are assets, and they contain assets saved on them. Here, local law struggles to keep up.
The copyright law ensures your family inherits the ownership of your music, but it cannot force a tech platform to hand over your passwords.
Even with legal authority over the estate, your family’s access to your digital accounts is blocked by strict terms of service, which are usually governed by foreign laws.
Namibian law knows exactly what to do with a physical asset, but it has a massive blind spot regarding digital accounts.
Most of these laws were written long before streaming revenue or cloud storage existed. When the rules are this outdated, your family has to rely on a complicated, messy web of older legislation just to figure out their next steps. It proves that without a clear plan, a musician’s life’s work can easily become an administrative nightmare.
The Administration of Estates Act of 1965 is important here too because it deals with the administration of deceased estates.
It requires a person who has possession or custody of property, books or documents, maybe even a USB flash drive with unreleased songs, to report and retain them until an executor is selected or further direction is given.
It also insists that the belongings of a deceased person may not be dealt with without authority.
A musician’s family, therefore, should not simply start changing passwords, deleting accounts or transferring money because they believe everything belonged to the deceased. First establish what the asset is, who owned it, and who has the authority to deal with the estate.
So, yes, your music will outlive you as an artist. The right thing to do is to leave instructions.
Keep a catalogue of your songs. State who wrote each one. Record who owns each master. Keep contracts. Keep Nascam and distributor information and, if possible, keep a complete Excel sheet with all song details such as international standard recording code information.
Keep copies of important recordings. Tell someone where the files are. Give someone you trust a master password that can open the way to your digital legacy. Make sure your will deals properly with your copyright interests.
And perhaps most importantly, don’t leave your entire musical legacy behind a password that only you know. Because the biggest threat to a dead musician’s catalogue may not be piracy, but that nobody knows where the keys are.
