How the British Music Industry fits into the Copyright System

How is copyright law is applied by the creators of a work to be exploited, by promoters? How is it applied by promoters between themselves?

1. THE WRITER AND THE COMPOSER

They can avoid assigning their rights to publishers especially when they have a long experience in the business, but this is quite rare. Most of the time, the copyright is licensed or assigned to them.

a. IN THE ABSENCE OF PUBLISHERS

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Performing rights.

Writers and composers can licence their copyright in musical and literary work to a radio station or a TV program so they can play sounds recordings of their work, which is the only good way to promote it. Advertising companies can also be licensed the copyright.

Where does the money come from? It comes from the royalties due to authors for the exploitation of their musical and literary works, more precisely of their performing rights. Every diffusion of the works on TV, radio or public places makes the authors of the copyrights eligible to be paid royalties, which are first, negotiated. Before it comes to the writer and the composer, the money is collected by the Performing Rights Society (PRS). This, indeed, cannot be effectively done by the authors especially when the income is generated from overseas use of the work. Authors generally receive at least 6/12 of all the income generated from the exploitation of performing rights

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Mechanical rights. The right to copy and manufacture the literary and musical work emanating directly from copyright is commonly called mechanical copyright and the exploitation of this right by other people than the author gives right to the payment of royalties to the author. The latter usually license these rights to the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society (MCPS), so this society can collect the mechanical royalties and authorise TV, radio, advertising agencies, and film agencies to use the recording of the music and the lyrics .

b. WHEN THEY LICENSE OR ASSIGN THEIR COPYRIGHT TO A PUBLISHER

When a publishing company is a copyright assignee or licensee, it can make use of its mechanical right and therefore receive the royalties collected by the MCPS. The authors usually receive 70% of the mechanical royalties. Publishers also receive income from the sale of the sheet music they make, and give the authors 10% to 15% of the retail selling price (Musicians Union website). They tend to ask for a copyright assignment for a length of time to be negotiated.

2. PRODUCERS OF A SOUND RECORDING

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Producers employed by a record company :

They are paid a basic salary and may be paid for each record produced. However, a famous producer may also be paid a royalty on the sales of the records produced. In this case, the royalty has to be paid by the artist or by the record company

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Independent producers

As mentioned in the first part, they look for a record company so the performer sign an agreement with it. Once the contract is signed, they assign or license their copyright in the sound recording to a record company. Then, the performer pays them royalties out of his/her own royalties coming from the sales of the records. The average rate is 4% but it varies according to the producers reputation .

3. THE PERFORMERS

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Sound recordings:

Performers are in direct contact with record companies. Generally, records companies require to be assigned or licensed:

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the copyright in the sound recording of the studio performance if they dont already have it and

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the recording rights of the live performances there can be.

Once they have these rights, record companies are entitled to:

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receive the income coming from the public performance of recordings through background music (hotels, restaurants, airlines) or its inclusion in a film or a soundtrack.

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receive the income coming from the reproduction of the sound recording that they authorise to those who want to exploit it (in order to sale it for example).

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Receive the income emanating from the reproduction and sale of the sound recording of a live performance.

The performer is paid a royalty, which corresponds to 8% to 12% the retail selling price of records. This money can be collected by the phonographic Performance Ltd (PPL) before it goes to record companies. PPL can also control and licence broadcasting and public use of the recordings and issue licenses.

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Films:

Record companies often produce promotional videos and therefore own the copyright in the film. They can either keep it or licence or assign it to the Video Performance Ltd (VPL), which can control and license the broadcasting and public performances of these videos and collect the money emanating from that. When records companies receive the money directly or through the VPL, they use 50% of the performers royalties to recoup the cost of the making of the video .