Neighboring Rights

Precise offers a neighboring rights administration service to collect your neighbouring rights royalties in New Zealand, United States, Canada, Australia, the UK & Europe and across many territories throughout Asia.

The term ‘neighbouring rights’ or sometimes called ‘related rights’ are terms that are used to refer to royalties generated from the public performance, communication or broadcast of sound recordings within a territory, and are ‘neighbouring’ or ‘related’ to the same usage of the underlying musical work.

 

Usage differs from country to country, but some examples of sound recordings licensed and collected by CMO’s around the world are:

• Radio – whereby a sound recording is broadcast via Radio.
• Television – whereby a sound recording has already been synched within a programme or advertising and is subsequently communicated via TV broadcast
• Public Performance – whereby a sound recording is played in a public environment such as a bar, a café, a retail shop or a gym; and
• In some territories other non-interactive digital services such as radio simulcasts, catch up television or digital radio platforms such as Sirius XM in North America.

There are two copyrights in every piece of recorded music:

1. The first is the ‘musical work’ (sometimes referred to as the ’composition’ or ‘publishing’) and
2. The second is the ‘sound recording’ (sometimes called the ‘master’)

 

Most countries around the world define copyright within legislation and the ‘exploitations’ whereby a range of different music uses are protected by law.
The most common forms of protected uses are:

• Reproduction: Whereby someone makes a copy of your music. Some examples of this are downloads and physical copies of music such as CD’s and Vinyl
• Communication: Whereby someone communicates music to the public. Some examples of this are digital streaming and broadcast radio/television
• Public Performance: Whereby music is performed in a public place. Some examples of this are music used in retail and hospitality spaces, gyms, schools and anywhere where members of the public are exposed to music.

 

In each of the instances above, permission must be sought from both musical work and sound recording copyright owner every time the sound recording is used.

It is not practical for individual songwriters and artists to license and collect royalties for every instance of these uses and that is why collective membership and licensing organisations for both copyrights exist in many territories around the world to license and collect the broadcast and public performance of music:

• Performing Rights Organisations (PRO’s) such as APRA AMCOS in New Zealand and Australia, ASCAP and BMI in the U.S and PRS for Music in the U.K. exist to license and collect musical work royalties on behalf of songwriters; and
• Collective Management Organisations (CMO’s) such as Recorded Music NZ in New Zealand, PPCA in Australia, Soundexchange in the U.S. and PPL in the U.K. exist to license and collect sound recording royalties on behalf of artists and sound recording rights owners.

 

CMO’s in each territory will negotiate and issue ‘blanket’ licences to music users as appropriate and collect and payout these neighbouring rights royalties to copyright owners where they are registered.

Currently about 80 countries are paying for neighbouring rights uses and the sector is currently worth approximately US$2.7 billion and is growing every year.

Precise Digital has direct relationships with many territorial CMO’s and also via reciprocal agreements can collect these royalties on behalf of artists and rights owners where their sound recordings have been used throughout the world.

Unfortunately, Neighbouring rights are not uniform nor treated the same throughout the world and tend to vary much more widely in scope between different countries than songwriters’ and composers’ rights.

Differing legislation in various territories results in a number of factors that may determine whether or not particular artists and/or particular recordings are eligible for payment. These factors can include:

• Citizenship of featured artists
• Residency at time of recording
• Where the recording took place (if you recorded in a country that recognises the right)

Depending on the territory where the performance took place, individual performers (other than those that own copyright in the master recording) may be entitled to receive a share of the revenues directly from the relevant CMO, and that is typically the case outside of New Zealand and Australia where there is generally a 50|50 split allocated between sound recording owner and individual performers on each recording.

Precise has the global networks and knowledge of territorial variances around the world and can navigate the complexities on behalf of our Artists and Rights Owners to ensure their royalties are collected wherever their music is used.