Atom popularly known for his hit single “Ye Wo Krom” was in the news days ago for saying that Apple paid him over $20,000 for using his song at Worldwide Developers Conference somewhere in June 2016.
According to reports, the musician told Sammy Flex on Pluzz FM that he made his lawyer contact Apple after he saw on social media networks that they’d used his song at their event without his consent.
Atom said his lawyer took up the issue and eventually they got a settlement from Apple in the figures between $20,000 and $50,000.
The settlement he said was for using the song without contacting him first, and the process took about 45 days.
It looks like Atom lied about Apple paying the huge sums of money. According to Mel Kwasi Davis, boss of Events Republic, Atom deceived Ghanaians. Speaking on Happy FM, he said Atom was approached before the song was played at the event.
“Bozoma Saint John came to Ghana for a vacation and was sampling some Ghanaian songs. She wanted to take some of our music to the world. It’s my cousin who is a silent partner of Events Republic who is related to Bozoma. It was Gideon, Paa John and others who help her pick a couple of songs. Later she asked for Atom’s number, and so she handled those negotiations.
Even Atom and his team didn’t know how to charge, so Apple gave him an offer. Even people whose names were mentioned on that stage were compensated.
This was on June 15th and only for Atom to come on the radio to say Apple used his song, and he demanded compensation. Bozoma’s cousin called me and asked what was happening because of the reports he heard.”
After Y3wo Krom had been played on that stage, the song became the number one most downloaded song in West Africa. The plan was to pave the way for Ghanaians to be on some Apple-sponsored events around the world. As I sit here, I can’t say if Apple will like to deal with us anymore.”
Efforts to reach the musician react to this accusation proved futile.
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