The Red Line For Music
The conflict between music publishers and SGAE could be reaching a boiling point…
The Red Line For Music
The conflict between music publishers and SGAE (The Spanish Society of Authors and Publishers) could be reaching a boiling point. As you may remember from our previous article, “The Wheel of Royalties,” a number of Spanish TV broadcasters and music-publisher affiliates have schemed to play more of the songs they own themselves on the air and collect the royalties, thus leaving tens of millions of dollars less each year for everyone else whose music is played on Spanish TV.
Music publishing giants Sony/ATV, Universal Publishing, Warner/Chappell, Peer Music, and BMG may leave Spanish rights’ society (SGAE) by the beginning of next year as the argument over “mistreatment” of broadcast rights rages on. Momentum for this shift picked up late last year when reps for Warner/Chappell, Peer Music and EMI, were ousted from the board of directors for surpassing their term limits. SGAE then replaced the publishers on its board with reps of publishers owned or affiliated with Spanish television stations, in a scheme opponents dubbed “The Wheel.” The publishers took up the issue with the courts, which rejected their appeal, Billboard reports.
Now, the publishers are looking at other options to manage their authors’ royalties. According to local media reports, the companies last Friday effectively handed in their six months’ notice and requested the PRO remove their international repertoire in relation to broadcasting.
Those companies at war with SGAE collectively represent nearly 60% of broadcasting music rights in Spain, including the famous artists Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones, Lady Gaga, and Radiohead to name a few.
SGAE collected 246 million euros in royalties last year, with television and broadcast royalties accounting for more than 12% of the total. While they do not necessarily desire to leave, the collective of publishers have stated that that "if things changed before January 2019” that they may reconsider their decision.
We hope you've enjoyed learning about The Red Line For Music! Do you think the publishers will have to resort to leaving the SGAE? Join the conversation below!
The Wheel of Royalties
The global music publishing community is putting increased pressure on a controversial Spanish song rights collecting society…
The Wheel of Royalties
The global music publishing community is putting increased pressure on the controversial Spanish song rights collecting society SGAE, stating that publishers may be forced to find other ways to license their rights in the country.
Image credit: Gavin Whitner
SGAE has been the subject of many controversies in recent years including an alleged scam titled ‘the wheel’ that incorporated royalties paid by TV networks and alleged that SGAE members had colluded with executives at Spanish TV stations in order to collect a disproportionate amount of the TV royalties. The scam chiefly involved TV stations playing music by certain SGAE members overnight, so that those members could claim a portion of the broadcasters’ royalty payments.
This incident resulted in an investigation by the World Intellectual Property Organization following action by the International Confederation Of Music Publishers that suspended SGAE’s membership until it dealt with the controversy.
In a recent statement, the ICMP said: “Despite having been reprimanded in recent months by a WIPO Arbitration Panel, the international publishing community and the international community of collective management organizations, the society is returning to its inappropriate and unbalanced television broadcast distribution scam by rejecting the decision of the WIPO Arbitration Panel to which it is bound”. ICMP has also expressed concern about “the lack of firm action coming from the collective management community to address the seriousness of this situation”, which is presumably a coded dig at CISAC.
ICMP Chair, Chris Butler, has stated firmly that: “We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: it’s time for the collective management community to work decisively towards a definitive solution. If they don’t, we will have no choice but to look at alternative licensing options”.
We hope you've enjoyed learning about The Wheel of Royalties! How do you think the World Intellectual Property Organization and the International Confederation Of Music Publishers should handle the continued saga of "the wheel?" Join the conversation below!