Ugandan Singer Bruno K is standing his ground in his long-running battle with Black Market Records, making it clear that he won’t rest until every shilling owed to him is fully paid.
The label which managed him for about a year was rumoured to have locked him into a five-year deal. That claim later fueled a heated legal fight over royalties and copyright. In the end, the court ruled in Bruno K’s favour, ordering the company to compensate him.
The Commercial division of the High Court, presided over by Justice Patricia Mutesi, found that Black Market Records, an American-based music promotion company that opened offices in Uganda in 2020, unfairly benefited from the songs composed by Bruno K.
“I’m satisfied that the Plaintiff’s copyright was infringed when his songs were struck down from YouTube, when his YouTube channels were taken down, when false claims of copyright infringement were made against him and when his songs were distributed without his consent and benefit. It is my considered finding that the 4th Defendant infringed on the Plaintiff’s copyright and unlawfully exploited the Plaintiff’s songs. It did this by making false copyright infringement complaints against him and by distributing his songs to its profit without the Plaintiff’s consent and without remitting royalties due to the Plaintiff to him,” the judge ruled.
As a remedy, the judge awarded 100 million Shillings to Bruno K as general damages and another 30 million Shillings as aggravated damages.
The ruling was made in April, 2025, and almost a full year later, the black market hasn’t heeded the court’s ruling.
Bruno K estimates the unpaid money to have grown to nearly 200 million, yet he feels he’s in no rush to collect. He reasons that time is on his side and that the longer the delay, the more the interest piles up.
“As long as the record label still operates in Uganda, it will eventually pay me my money. They can take all the time they want; that’ll enable me to get a substantial amount of funds.” Bruno K stated in an interview with Galaxy Television.
