Blaq Diamond seals victory over Ambitiouz Entertainment

Award-winning Afro-pop duo Blaq Diamond has successfully prohibited YouTube and its former record label Ambitiouz Entertainment from taking down its music from their YouTube platform.

This comes after the musicians, whose names are Ndumiso Mdletshe and Siphelele Dunywa applied for a court order against the record label following the removal of their hit song Qoma from YouTube in October last year.

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HIGH COURT GRANTS BLAQ DIAMOND AN ORDER AGAINST THE LABEL

As such, the Johannesburg high court ordered Ambitiouz Entertainment not to remove their music from streaming sites and YouTube after being involved in a bitter legal dispute with the popular music duo for some time.

The court order states: “Having read the papers filed on record, heard counsel and considered the matter, the following order is made; pending final determination of Part B attached to this application, any person or entity acting in concert with the respondents, are hereby interdicted from removing and or deleting the account of the applicants’ YouTube channel. 

“That it be ordered that the second respondent be interdicted from raising any copyright/ownership dispute against works of the applicants with any other digital streaming platform (DSP) inclusive of the first respondent, Spotify, iTunes, Deezer, authored by the applicants from June 15 2022, pending final determination of Part B.” 

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BLAQ DIAMOND’S LAWYER ANNOUNCE THE VICTORY ON TWITTER

Taking to Twitter, the duo’s lawyer Jade Naidoo announced and celebrated the game-changing court victory, claiming they had won the case with costs.

“Congratulations to my client Blaq Diamond for successfully interdicting YouTube and Ambitiouz Entertainment from removing their music from YouTube and all DSPs. We won with costs. This is an industry game-changer! This is for all musicians being exploited by record labels!” she wrote on Twitter.

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BLAQ DIAMOND REPORTEDLY EXPLOITED BY AMBITIOUZ ENTERTAINMENT 

Ambitiouz Entertainment has been allegedly exploiting artists and making their lives tough once they leave the label. According to SowetanLIVE, the lawyer representing the group revealed that her clients were exploited through their three contracts.

“The second part is to go have a trial to declare their contracts invalid and unconstitutional because they are exploitive. They are not getting payment for their music that is used in advertising and other platforms. In other words, my clients were working for free. They have three contracts; for publishing, artist management and exclusive management agreement,” she added.

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As part of the decision, the record label has been ordered to pay for the costs associated with the application, including the fees for two counsels.

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