Cape Verde music royalties lean on a customs levy: since 2017, a charge on imported recording devices has funded the country’s two collecting societies.
Those societies are the Sociedade Cabo-verdiana de Música (SCM), which pays songwriters plus performers and producers through neighbouring rights, and the authors’ society SOCA. How the levy moves, and why it was frozen in 2024, explains more about a Cape Verdean royalty statement than any tariff sheet.
How the levy reaches a songwriter
Private copy compensation means a fee on devices that can copy music, paid to rights holders instead of licensing every home copy. Cape Verde created its version in Law No. 118/VIII/2016 of 24 March 2016.
The route, as the culture ministry set it out in July 2024 (Expresso das Ilhas, Dulcina Mendes):
- Customs collects the levy on imported devices that record and play back protected works.
- It is deposited quarterly with FAACIC, the state’s autonomous culture fund.
- Under a 2017 protocol, the ministry passes it to SCM and SOCA to distribute to members.
Paraguay also collects its levy at customs; Cape Verde adds a ministry in the middle.
The first transfer arrived in September 2017. Through the last quarter of 2023 the two societies received 184,105,970 escudos, about 1.67 million euros at the fixed rate of 110.265 escudos to the euro.
For the first quarter of 2024, each society got 5,926,542 escudos. For the fourth quarter of 2025, the transfer was 9,050,639 escudos, or 4,525,320 each (Expresso das Ilhas, 29 January 2026).
Why the money stopped in 2024
The ministry suspended 2024 transfers during an audit by the General Inspectorate of Finance, which found irregularities in how the money had been distributed. It released the first-quarter payment in July 2024, on conditions.
The release restated what the 2017 protocol requires: quarterly reports, proof of how each payment was applied and distributed, and a copy of the internal decision setting how much goes to members and how much the society keeps.
At SCM’s general assembly that month, president Daniel “Nhelas” Spencer admitted some difficulty operating since the suspension (Expresso das Ilhas / Inforpress).
Set against what SCM pays out
One quarter of levy money, 5.9 million escudos to SCM in early 2024, is more than half of what the society said it would distribute for all of 2025.
- 10,606,611 escudos (about 96,000 euros) for 2025, announced on 30 December 2025 and processed with WIPO Connect, the World Intellectual Property Organization’s software for collecting societies (Inforpress).
- 1.2 million escudos from the December 2024 municipal election campaigns, the first such payout, split 720,000 to authors and 480,000 to neighbouring rights across 18 rights holders and 46 works (Expresso das Ilhas).
- More than 30 million escudos in unpaid copyright fees as of May 2025, nearly three times the 2025 payout (Inforpress).
Radio is the weak link. In January 2026 Spencer named Rádio Nacional and Rádio Televisão de Cabo Verde as not paying, and said other stations ask why they should if the national broadcaster does not (Inforpress).
What to do if you write or record Cape Verdean music
- Register every work and recording with full credits. SCM distributes through WIPO Connect, and its president says distribution depends on documentation first.
- Ask for the members-versus-society split. The protocol requires each society to give the ministry that decision in writing, so it exists to be requested.
- Check reciprocity before counting on diaspora income. SCM’s first reciprocal deal was with Portugal’s SPA, which collects for Cape Verdean writers played in Portugal. Elsewhere, confirm an agreement exists first.
- Keep master income on its own track. Streaming royalties for your recordings come through your distributor, not the levy, and euro statements convert at the fixed rate.
Other Lusophone markets are still building this plumbing: Mozambique is writing rules for three societies. Until those systems pay reliably, the line an artist controls is the master.
InterSpace Distribution reports that income track by track. ISRC means International Standard Recording Code, and the ISRCs and songwriter credits delivered with a release are the same metadata a society needs to match a recording to its work.
