It’s true – you can
ask more than one collecting society or PRO to handle your royalties! Read on
and take control of your music.
Hang on. I thought only my local
collecting society could collect my royalties.
In the past, European businesses who wanted to play
background music had to pay various different copyright collection societies
(depending on where they were based) in order to play music to their customers
and staff. These collecting societies had a monopoly on collecting royalties,
but this has changed: Soundreef can now offer both musicians and businesses a
more efficient and transparent alternative to the traditional system.
How come I didn’t know this?
In the US,
musicians have been able to choose who collects their royalties. However, for
decades, artists, publishers and labels in many European countries could only
rely on their national collecting societies. In 2008, the European
Commission confirmed that other companies can compete with national collecting
societies, since it isn’t fair for the collecting societies to have a monopoly
on this kind of business (source).
This means that artists, publishers and labels have the
right to choose who represents them and collects their royalties, and that
music users (such as businesses who play music to
their customers) can choose whom they buy a music licence from.Most
importantly, it means that musicians have gained control of who manages their
work and where – thank you, European Commission!
Unfortunately, since
this issue is complicated, it is difficult to spread by word of mouth, so this
massive change in the music industry isn’t widely understood – you can change that by using the share buttons below!
So how does this work? Does it mean that I
can be registered with both Soundreef AND my local collecting society?
Short answer: Yes!
Longer answer: Yes,
as long as you do the correct paperwork and establish who takes care of which types
of rights for which territories. An artist can work with more than one collecting
society, as long as each society collects for different territories and/or different
types of or rights. For example, you might use one society for concert royalties and another to collect forpublic performance of registered works, or one society for US royalties and another for royalties from Europe.
And how will these societies know how and
where they have to work for me?
You just need to tell them.
For example, in
Italy, if you’re currently a member of SIAE, to establish the limits of mandate
that SIAE holds over your works (that is, to determine which uses of their
music they can collect royalties for), you need to tell them which works and
which territories you want them to stop collecting royalties for. We do this
for you automatically when you register your music with Soundreef. (You can also
do this yourself, by using the form that SIAE has published on their own website.)
Want to try it out? Registration is free!
Not sure whether
your music is suitable, or think your agreements with other collecting
societies might not be compatible with Soundreef membership? Take our eligibility test.
