24 Music Week 28.06.13 REPORT NEIGHBOURING RIGHTS “This way there is no centralised structure and a
minimum tariff [for Neighbouring Rights royalties] has not been established by the Government for deals between radio and artist societies,” he explains. “Fragmentation could lead to very low fees - more or less like it is for BMI/ASCAP in the US for writers’ rights, but with fewer legal safeguards.” So how does this fragmentation and lack of
standardisation in Neighbouring Rights affect the market? Premier Muzik International’s Olivieri describes how differences between territories manifest themselves on the ground, during day-to- day business for rights collectors. “We’re signed to every major territory in the world as far as collecting royalties are concerned,” he says. “Each society has their own rules and regulations and their own take on the Rome Copyright Treaty, resulting in some countries paying regardless of citizenship, some only paying if it was paid by a qualifying country, others simply paying blank copy levies and others paying if a song was released in the USA within 30 days of the original release.” Sena’s Bos explains his experience with
frustrations regarding differences in professionalism between territories when collecting Neighbouring Rights: “There are a significant number of countries where substantial amounts of monies are collected but are not distributed [fairly]. “National [domestic] artists and labels get
preferential treatment over international artists and labels, and then there are still unexploited territories like South Korea, the former eastern European countries, Africa and China.” The issue of countries having an obvious
preference for paying their own artists and labels performance royalties is a constant frustration for those who collect from abroad - particularly in an era when British repetoire from the likes of Adele, One Direction and Mumford & Sons is ruling international airwaves. While unlocking the full value of some
territories can be a tricky task, some of the difficulties of managing Neighbouring Rights come simply from the tremendous amount of work that goes into chasing royalties around the world; making sure performances of tracks are monitored across territories, as well as maintaining relationships with the individual national collection societies that will receive your Neighbouring Rights royalty in the first instance. Much like in the world of publishing, many
performers can miss out on big money due to something as simple as incomplete or incorrect data. “There’s a lot more work involved in
Neighbouring Rights than in copyrights simply because you don’t just register the song once and then all of a sudden all the societies in the world know what it is,” says Premier Muzik’s Olivieri. “If there are 20 mixes of a song, it’s got to be
registered 20 times and it’s got to be monitored continuously because each different source that plays that particular song will have to register it and, many times, it’s registered wrongly. “If it’s X and Y featuring Z, chances are only one
artist will get punched into the system,” he explains. “In certain cases you might have Beyonce featuring Lady Gaga, Lady Gaga featuring Beyonce, Beyonce and Lady Gaga – it’s all the same thing it’s just written incorrectly or partially [in databases] and even something like that can cause hiccups.
MARKUS BOS, SENA “The thing is, you’re dealing with information,
so as soon as you punch in something, if you have one letter wrong, it won’t come up,” he adds. “Conjunctions are a huge mistake in the copyright system as well as the Neighbouring Rights system.” Christophe Piot at Premier Muzik’s partner firm All Right Music adds: “The business won’t exist if the rights are not well managed. We see [our work as] a service that is greatly required in this field. We know that Neighbouring Rights income is important and everyone should be entitled to its share, but it’s not always an easy task. “One would think that you just sign up and all
the money flows in each month, but that’s not the reality. The constant linking of repertoire is key to getting as many royalties as possible. It needs to be inputted daily, and weekly - not yearly.” PPL’s Leathem says that more and more music
execs are becoming switched-on to the possibilities, particularly in an era where performers are holding onto more and more of their copyrights. “A lot of performers, management, accountants
and lawyers are very aware of this income stream and are making sure their performers are getting as much income as they can,” he says. “It’s just a further set of rights that you’ve got to handle as part of a complex music industry. It depends who you are, and awareness is patchy, but I think it’s been high on the agenda for a few years now.” Leatham suggests that international collection is
actually “very simple and straightforward” and that any caution or confusion about Neighbouring Rights is usually the result of an industry that has gotten used to making most of its money by selling plastic in stores. “The move away from CDs being the main
income stream has meant that you have to earn money in different ways, whether it’s your
“There are a number of countries where significant amounts of [Neighbouring Rights] monies are not distributed [fairly]”
Neighbouring Rights income, live, sponsorship or something else – it’s part of a wider number of things that are making money,” he says. “In essence it’s important to bear in mind that the job of international collections is quite straightforward but you are handling a lot of data. Obviously each territory has a slightly different way of doing things and you have to get used to that but that again becomes just part of the job.” Performers looking to properly exploit their
Neighbouring Rights have four options: (i) they can either join their national collecting society directly, such as PPL in the UK - who will then chase down royalties abroad; (ii) they can sign up to a company or agency that boasts its own collection and management service, knocking down doors across the world in their name; (iii) they can rely on their label to chase Neighbouring Rights for them; or (iv) they can try and become a member of all the individual collection societies in each international territory where they believe their music is being played directly. The latter is obviously fraught with complication - not to mention hours on the phone. So why not turn to your label? While larger
record companies could have significant resources to push for collections themselves, the depth and breadth of Neighbouring Rights management means that artists and managers may find they need a dedicated, experienced body to guide performers through the process of registering their music and then collect on their behalf. Domino Music Group’s Henry Thomas argues that labels can provide a Neighbouring Rights service to their own artists, but not many do because of the time and resource commitment - a problem that Domino’s Double Six company addresses directly. “If you look at the small number of labels providing the service for themselves, they all have people in the office who deal specifically with Neighbouring Rights full time,” says Thomas. “The difficulty with looking after performers is that it often requires separate registration, sometimes at different societies.” Fintage House CEO Niels Teves suggests that having a label collect Neighbouring Rights could also cause a conflict of interest on some levels pointing to
RIGHT Flying Dutchman: Afrojack is among the artists represented by Sena for
Neighbouring Rights
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