- This story matters because South African music has no shortage of talent, but many creators still lack access to practical knowledge around ownership, publishing, royalties, contracts and metadata. CAPASSO’s CSI programme...
- CAPASSO’s first CSI funding cycle shows that South Africa’s music rights economy cannot only be built from boardrooms and royalty statements. It has to begin with education, capacity and community-level support.
- CAPASSO’s inaugural CSI Programme is not just funding music projects. It is investing in the floorboards of the industry: education, rights literacy, entrepreneurship, community upliftment and the knowledge creators need...
For many South African creators, CAPASSO has often been understood as part of the music business machinery that sits behind the song.
The Composers, Authors and Publishers Association of South Africa is where rights, licensing, mechanical royalties, metadata and distributions become real. It is the administrative backbone many artists only think about once the music has already travelled.
But CAPASSO’s inaugural Corporate Social Investment Programme signals a meaningful shift.
The organisation is not only collecting from the ecosystem anymore. It is investing back into the ground that makes the ecosystem possible.
With an annual R2 million budget allocated to the initiative, the 2025 funding cycle supports 10 music-development projects, with grants ranging from R20,000 to R200,000 per project. That structure matters. Instead of one large visibility spend, the funding is being spread across practical, community-facing initiatives that deal with the difficult parts of the music industry: education, entrepreneurship, publishing knowledge, community upliftment and long-term creative development.
That is where the real story sits.
South Africa does not suffer from a lack of talent.
It suffers from a knowledge gap.
Too many artists know how to make a song move before they know how to protect it. Too many writers understand melody before they understand publishing splits. Too many producers can build a hit from a laptop in a back room, but still walk into the industry without knowing how ownership, royalties, contracts and metadata actually work.
That is why this programme matters.
When CAPASSO CEO Jotam Matariro says the organisation’s purpose extends beyond the administration of royalties, he is pointing directly at that gap. You cannot build a sustainable rights economy if the people creating the music do not understand how to participate in it properly.
The education deficit
The most important thing about the inaugural recipient list is how practical it feels.
These are not abstract culture projects designed to look good in a corporate report. They are grounded in workshops, incubators, songwriting camps, entrepreneurship programmes and capacity-building spaces.
Look at the shape of the cohort.
Khulane Morule’s Khuli Chana Hub for Creatives points to a veteran-led model of mentorship and infrastructure. That matters because artists who have survived the highs and lows of the industry often understand what emerging creators need better than anyone else. They know where the traps are. They know how quickly visibility can disappear if it is not supported by structure.
Sibukeli Babazi Mthembu’s Ukukhula Komculo Workshop Series: The Maskandi Artist Incubator is equally important. Maskandi has a large, loyal and culturally powerful audience, but genre-specific education around digital monetisation, publishing and industry structure has not always received the same mainstream attention. A dedicated incubator for Maskandi artists recognises that music-business education cannot only be built around pop, hip-hop or amapiano.
Thuso “Jovislash” Mamorare’s KO 21 Music Workshops also speak to the value of taking industry knowledge directly into creative communities. The point is not only to teach artists after they have already signed bad deals or lost leverage. The point is to reach them before the mistake becomes expensive.
That is the shift.
This programme is not only funding music.
It is funding the conditions that help music survive.
The 10 funded projects
The 10 recipients shaping the 2025 CAPASSO CSI funding cycle are:
Shama Maqhawe Sibusiso Zamisa — The Creative Pulse: Secunda Edition
Brendon Tayler — Mokima Music & Publishing Songwriting Camp
Katlego Calvin Mashilane — The Music Entrepreneurship Program
Khulane Morule — Khuli Chana Hub for Creatives
Lebohang Mlangeni — The Ekurhuleni Music Workshop 2026
Mlungisi D. Moyo — YeahWeLit Development Project
Sibukeli Babazi Mthembu — Ukukhula Komculo Workshop Series: The Maskandi Artist Incubator
Sindisiwe Sibiya — The Amathonga Music Festival & Creative Development Workshop
Thuso “Jovislash” Mamorare — KO 21 Music Workshops
Sphesihle Nzama — Music Industry Capacity Building Workshop
What ties these projects together is utility.
A songwriting camp is not only about writing a better hook. It can be a place where producers, composers and writers learn how to document ownership before a song leaves the room. A music entrepreneurship programme can help artists understand that talent is only one part of a career. A capacity-building workshop can be the difference between a creator being paid fairly for their work or watching their contribution disappear into confusion.
That is not glamorous.
But it is essential.
The music business is built in the boring details: split sheets, registrations, contracts, publishing conversations, licensing knowledge, metadata accuracy and the confidence to ask the right questions before signing anything.
Building resilient infrastructure
The recipient list also shows that CAPASSO is looking beyond the usual Johannesburg and Cape Town centre of gravity.
From Secunda to Ekurhuleni, from Maskandi-focused development to music entrepreneurship and community-based workshops, the programme recognises that the music industry is not only built in polished studios and corporate boardrooms.
It is built in townships, small towns, regional scenes, community halls, rehearsal rooms, home studios and local festivals.
That matters because the next major South African sound is not guaranteed to come from the usual places. It may come from a township producer who finally learns how to register a composition properly. It may come from a young Maskandi artist who understands digital rights before their song goes viral. It may come from a songwriting camp where collaborators learn how to protect everyone in the room before the song reaches the market.
CAPASSO’s move is strategic because it understands a simple truth: a stronger rights ecosystem begins before the royalty statement arrives.
It begins when creators know what they own.
It begins when artists understand what they are signing.
It begins when communities are given access to the kind of industry knowledge that has too often been locked behind expensive seminars, closed networks and major-city privilege.
Why this matters
The South African music industry is currently in a global moment. Amapiano, Afro-tech, gospel, Maskandi, hip-hop and alternative sounds are travelling further than ever. But global attention does not automatically create wealth for the people who make the music.
Visibility is not the same as ownership.
A viral song does not guarantee fair payment.
A hit does not become a career unless the business underneath it is protected.
That is why CAPASSO’s inaugural CSI Programme feels important. It is not trying to solve the entire industry overnight. But it is investing in the exact floorboards that need strengthening: education, capacity, community upliftment, women-centred development, entrepreneurship and music-business literacy.
The message is clear.
If South African creators are going to win in the next era, they cannot only be talented.
They have to be informed.
They have to be organised.
They have to know their worth before the industry tries to name a price for them.
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