Zeljko Joksimovic, the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest runner up for Serbia and Montenegro, together with many other Serbian songwriters and composers have stated their disatisfaction with the royalties distributed by SOKOJ, the state owned company for the protection of the rights of authors, composers and arrangers in Serbia.

Companies such a SOKOJ are responsible for collecting royalties on behalf of the songs' creators (from radio stations, bars etc where the songs are being played). A number of well known Serbian song creators have expressed their disatisfaction about the small amounts of money they have received for the public use of their songs, amongst them Zeljko Joksimovic andKiki Lesandric.

Zeljko Joksimovic received a total of 300.000 dinars (about € 3.700), something that he considers to be unfair. "I will soon begin to seriously fight against injustice within the SOKOJ. The fact that some popular composers have millions, while other composers much less is not fair. My song Lane moje got so little money for its three-year emitting that it seems that it had never been emitted at all." Zeljiko told Blic.

Also, Kiki Lesandric, the composer of Romale Romali (Serbia and Montenegro national final 2006) complained bitterly about the amounts received: "I am again dissatisfied with the way in which money was divided within the SOKOJ even after the recent changes within the SOKOJ management. I do not feel comfortable as an author, not to mention as a member of the SOKOJ management board. One of last year's most popular hits Romale, Romali earned a ridiculously small amount of money", Kiki Lesandric said.

A special thank you to Mihailo Stevanovic for his contribution to the article.