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selective focus silhouette photography of man playing red-lighted DJ terminal

On July 29th 2021, <a data-mce-href="https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/in-china-a-virtual-artist-has-signed-to-a-major-record-company-is-this-a-sign-of-the-future/" href="https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/in-china-a-virtual-artist-has-signed-to-a-major-record-company-is-this-a-sign-of-the-future/">Music Business Worldwide</a> wrote that Whet Records, Warner Music Group‘s pan-Asian dance label in China, signed a record deal with the artist Ha Jiang. So …… what’s so interesting about that? Well, just like the world famous Lil Miquela, Ha Jiang is a virtual pop artist/influencer. We assume the record deal has actually been signed by the company who invented her and no doubt the relevant recording royalties (Spotify, Youtube, Tiktok etc.) will flow into their accounts. However, what about the neighbouring rights? Generally, when a recording is played in public, the artist and record company split the neighboring rights royalties due.Now, in the case of Ha Jiang’s recordings, there’s no problem regarding the record company’s share. But is there an artist’s share to be collected, and who would be entitled to it? Obviously, Ha Jiang is not a real person and can’t collect any neighboring rights royalties. So it would have to be the company behind Ha Jiang. However, in most legislations artist neighboring rights are regarded as strictly personal and can’t be assigned to third parties. So in that case, the individuals creating Ha Jiang’s performances would have to step forward and claim the artist share. That may not be too smooth a process. Would be interesting to explore.

Ha Jiang: a real performer?

More and more, investors in music rights are including royalty streams in their acquisitions, a tendency not exactly embraced by record companies and music publishers. Earlier this year Universal said it is no longer accepting Letters of Direction redirecting artist and writer royalties to investors. Definitely a bummer for music investment funds.When it comes to the acquisition of neighboring rights royalties there are some additional elements to consider. Most jurisdictions outside the US do not accept an outright sale of neighbouring rights royalties, let alone a sale of the underlying rights. In most countries artists’ neighboring rights are seen as unalienable, unwaivable rights personal to the artist.Now, in practice catalog buyers deal with this by simply leaving the artist’s existing membership(s) in place and imposing a continuous obligation for the artist to sign certain forms (such as a letter of direction) as and when needed. However, the situation changes once the artist dies, because then the relevant collecting society will want to ascertain who the rightful heirs are.<h2>Artist’s neighbouring rights</h2>In some jurisdictions the verdict will be that the sale of an artist’s neighbouring rights must be considered null and void, and as a consequence such rights will fall into the artist’s estate. In that case the relevant collecting society will want to see the artist’s last will and testament or (if s/he died intestate) a probate outlining who should represent the estate towards the collecting society.Although in most cases this can still be fixed, anyone having dealt with an estate’s neighboring rights vis-à-vis a collecting society knows it’s a big, big hassle.

Buying neighbouring rights: asset or burden?

On February 4, 2021 the Irish High Court ruled in the dispute between Irish neighboring rights societies RAAP (performer rights) and PPI (record labels).It followed the EU court’s ruling that the right to equitable remuneration under the EU Directive must be granted both to EU performers and record labels AND to those who are nationals of other WPPT signatories (the US are a WPPT-signatory).Also it ruled that both artists and record labels should share in the neighboring rights income (and thus it ruled against PPI’s refusal to let the artists share in the income collected for US recordings).Very encouraging news for US artists, be it that first Ireland’s copyright law needs to be changed in accordance with the EU court ruling – hasn’t been done yet. So the biggest question is now when US artist will get (more) money out of Ireland.<a data-mce-href="chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.courts.ie/acc/alfresco/925932e1-756f-4416-b433-91421e91d61f/2021_IEHC_22.pdf/pdf" href="chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.courts.ie/acc/alfresco/925932e1-756f-4416-b433-91421e91d61f/2021_IEHC_22.pdf/pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-mce-selected="inline-boundary">More info</a>.

Zanoise blog

Ha Jiang: a real performer?

Buying neighbouring rights: asset or burden?

US artists will receive Irish royalties, but when?