PETALING JAYA: Hotel and retail associations have urged the domestic trade and consumer affairs ministry to establish a single body to collect music royalties to replace the soon-to-be wound up Music Rights Malaysia Sdn Bhd (MRM).
In a joint statement today, the Malaysian Association of Hotels, the Malaysian Retailers Associations, the Malaysia Shopping Malls Association and others expressed their disappointment over the lack of a replacement body for MRM, saying that royalty collections will become complicated, inefficient and potentially more expensive.
The groups also called for a moratorium to be placed on royalty payments for the rest of 2020, saying they have already settled their payments for the year with MRM and should not be subject to further payments.
MRM was established in 2017 by the domestic trade, cooperatives and consumerism ministry, and represented a single body to which music royalty payments could be made by hotels and retail establishments.