South African Afro pop duo from Ladysmith KwaZulu-Natal, Blaq Diamond has applied for a restraining order against their former record label Ambitiouz Entertainment. Which they signed to when releasing their debut album Inqola, which became their first iTunes number one.
This follows after the removal of their hit song Qoma (featuring Big Zulu) from YouTube.
The record label is also threatening to delete their YouTube channel account.
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This is war declared if you ask us. Blaq Diamond is fighting for both their music and their YouTube channel not to be removed.
The Love Letter hitmakers want the court to prevent “any person or entity acting in concern’’ from removing and/or deleting their YouTube channel and song as reported by the latter.
Additionally, the interdict is to prevent any further copyright or ownership battle for their songs IIanga and Fireworks with any other digital streaming platform such as Spotify, iTunes and Deezer.
Blaq Diamond told the court that they constantly suffer financially as a result of the consistent removal of their songs. This is with Qoma and the entire YouTube channel set to be permanently removed from YouTube on November 1.
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The duo said that they make approximately R30 000 per month from each streaming platform. They also said:
“Because the takedowns are still up and our music currently suspended unlawfully, the opportunity to generate these fees has gone irreversibly… I humbly submit that any person or entity removing and/or seeking to have our account removed, taken down and/or deleted from YouTube is gratuitously infringing our rights to advertise our creative arts, from which we earn our living.”
News of a contractual dispute between Blaq Diamond and Ambitiouz comes a few days after Ndu Browns shared photos of a beautiful, customized Ford Mustang on social media last week.
CONTRACTUAL DISPUTE
According to Sunday World, the popular record label says the duo “unlawfully” terminated its contracts. This includes them continuously getting paid for gigs behind the stable’s back.
Their first contract with Ambitiouz was signed in 2017 and renewed in 2020. Before Blaq Diamond left the company in January this year without concluding their contract.
The record label reported that in the letter it has seen, the artists said in addition to surrendering their royalties. They would “sign over all the sales, streams royalties, and publishing” of their music released under Ambitiouz to the label.
This also included all the monies for their BET Isono soundtracks, the music featured on How To Ruin Christmas and their Russian Bear endorsement deal.
However, Ambitiouz owner and founder, Kgosi Mahumapelo rejected their offer and said he would sue them for breach of contract. This is because the contract had not been terminated by mutual agreement.
“He held a zoom meeting with them and gave them a sales report which showed that they have R1.6-million in the kitty but the loans they obtained from the stable were more than that amount.
“He also told them their demands for him to take royalties from their songs did not make sense as he was entitled to 50% of the royalties generated from their songs anyway,” said an Ambitiouz executive.