Blog

an Antique trumpet on an old wooden table

On 5th February it was Grammy’s night. We were thrilled to see that the recording of our client Terence Blanchard’s opera Fire Shut Up In My&nbsp;[…]

Grammy for Terence Blanchard!!

Young Man with a Tablet Computer and Earphones near the House outdoor

We are currently making an inventory of where individual countries stand when it comes to artists’ individual remuneration for streaming. This in view of EU Directive 2019/0790, article 18 which recognizes the right for artists to receive a “appropriate and proportionate” remuneration for this type of exploitation. All EU member states were required to implement the directive in their local legislation by 7 June 2021. This week we’re focusing on Germany.In June 2021, the German parliament approved a number of legislative changes. Article 3, §4 and §21 of the Urhebergesetz provide for a direct compensation right for authors and artists that cannot be waived or assigned to third parties (with the exception of CMOs, etc.). This compensation does not concern uses for platforms such as Spotify, iTunes and Deezer, but rather platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, etc. The legislative changes have been processed in GVL’s representation agreements late 2021. It is unclear yet if (and to what extent) the German collective @GVL have already received royalties from YT and FB.GVL did receive considerable license amounts for other online uses in 2021: €8,3M in total (2020: €7,4M).

Ze Germans online

grayscale photo of man and woman leaning on vehicle

In the next weeks, Zanoise will be zooming in on where individual countries stand when it comes to artists’ individual remuneration for streaming. An very hot topic triggered in European countries by EU Directive 2019/0790, article 18 which recognizes the right for artists to receive a “appropriate and proportionate” remuneration for this type of exploitation. This week we are starting with Spain, a country that still is far ahead in this area.Since 2006, there has been an inalienable right in Spain for artists with regards to exploitation revenues linked to their recordings (article 108 of the Spanish Intellectual Property Law). When an artist signs a recording contract, it is presumed by Spanish law that the artist assigns the exclusive exploitation rights to the record label. However, the artist automatically retains an inalienable right to equitable remuneration with respect to the use of his recordings on radio and television as well online. This includes streaming platforms. The recording artists’ equitable remuneration can only be administered by a management collective, i.e. @AIE in case of Spain. In 2021, AIE collected an impressive amount of more than EUR 5.6 million (up by some 180% compared to 2020) from Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Google Play but also from audio-visual platforms like Netflix, Filmin and Movistar.

Music streaming means cash flowing in Spain!

Girl listening to music streaming with headphones. Close up portrait.

Most people associate neighboring rights (NR) with radio/TV airplay royalties. Streaming income is often seen as belonging to the record labels’ domain. However, a growing number of NR collectives (most notably the artists-only-ones!) have been very successful in lobbying for a separate right for artists to receive streaming royalties directly. Many of the developments have been triggered by the local implementation of EU Directive 2019/0790, article 18 which recognizes the right for artists to receive a “appropriate and proportionate” remuneration for this type of exploitation. Although article 18 lays the foundations for the implementation of a mechanism improving the remuneration of artists, at the same time it leaves it up to the member states how to arrange this.In the next weeks, Zanoise will zoom in on where individual countries stand when it comes to artists’ individual remuneration for streaming. This week we are starting with Spain, definitely far ahead in this area.Since 2006, there has been an inalienable right in Spain for artists with regards to exploitation revenues linked to their recordings (article 108 of the Spanish Intellectual Property Law). When an artist signs a recording contract, it is presumed by Spanish law that the artist assigns the exclusive exploitation rights to the record label. However, the artist automatically retains an inalienable right to equitable remuneration with respect to the use of his recordings on radio and television as well online. This includes streaming platforms. The recording artists’ equitable remuneration can only be administered by a management collective, i.e. @AIE in case of Spain. In 2021, AIE collected an impressive amount of more than EUR 5.6 million from Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Google Play but also from audiovisual platforms like Netflix, Filmin and Movistar.

Artists tapping into streaming royalties!

Piano music pianist hands playing. Musical instrument grand piano details with performer hand on white background.

You will recall that further to the legal dispute between RAAP and PPI, the EU Court of Justice ruled that the application of Directive 2006/115/EC 6 does not allow member states to exclude non-EU rightsholders (e.g. US artists) from neighboring rights payments.Following the court’s decision, the Netherlands have changed their legislation thus enabling US artists to collect neighbouring rights going forward. In other countries legislation hasn’t been changed and thus the local collecting societies have not seen fit to change their distribution method. So materially almost nothing seems to have changed for US artists. However, in France some measures have been taken.According to French law only phonograms fixated in the European Union (and other countries which operate basically in the same way as France) are eligible for neighbouring rights remuneration. The result is that phonograms from the US are This arrangement leads to exclude from the benefit of this distribution, regardless of nationality, holders of rights who participated in the fixation of phonograms in third countries which are not parties to these conventions, or which have expressed reservations thereto.The equitable remuneration being collected, according to article L 214-1 of the CPI, on all the phonograms exploited in France, the sums received by Adami for the use of non-eligible phonograms are considered as “irredistributable” within the meaning of Article L 324-17, 2° of the CPI. They are allocated to the resources of the artistic action aimed at financing actions provided for in the first paragraph of Article L.324-17 of the Intellectual Property Code.However, given the uncertainty surrounding this allocation, a provision for the same amount has been counted. The sums concerned and provisioned in 2020 represented €6,311,789 and those provisioned in for the 2021 financial year, €4,848,062.

Adami holding reserve funds for US claims

Old typewriter with text that contains spelling mistakes, a concept

Data geeks can have a lot of fun browsing through the portals of performing right organisations (PRO’s). There, one can find works that have been registered, lists of unmatched works, lists of missing cue sheets and also files containing unidentified works.And if nobody identifies and corrects the mistakes, the monies collected for unidentified songs will be held for years until they are liquidated (or added as a lump sum to distributable amounts. Often songs end up on unidentified lists because of simple typos.Look for instance at the ways the name of the famous film/TV composer Alexandre Desplat is spelled in just one PRO file:ADESPLAT ADESPLAT ADISPLAT ALEXANDER DEPLAT ALEXANDER DESPLAT ALEXANDRE DESPALT ALEXANDRE DESPIAT ALEXANDRE DESPLANT ALEXANDRE DESPLAT J ALEXANDRE DESPLOT ALEXANDRE DEXPLAT ALEXANDRE PLAST ALEXANDRRE DESPLATSome misspellings, like DEXPLAT, look weird in first instance, but are easy to understand if you consider that on most computer keyboards the X and S are situated next to one another. This also applies to DESPLOT, where the O finds itself close to the P and L keys. Less logical is the N in DESPLANT as the N key isn’t close to any other keys used to type DESPLAT. Other mismatches are caused by the use of the composer’s first initial which is then merged with his last name.In cases like these one would expect the PRO’s to use string metrics in their matching processes, preferably at the point where the data enters the database. A basic script based on Jaro-Winkler’s metric would already deal with the most obvious mismatches and if machine learning technologies were added even bigger steps might be taken.Quite a nice business to be in for companies like Noctil, Winpure and others.

Zanoise blog

Grammy for Terence Blanchard!!

Ze Germans online

Music streaming means cash flowing in Spain!

Artists tapping into streaming royalties!

Adami holding reserve funds for US claims

Metadata PRO's