Intellectual Property and Music
Harmonizing Creativity in Music and Business
Harmonizing Creativity in Music and Business
Music is a universal language that transcends borders, cultures, and generations. Music enriches our lives and fuels creative expression. Intellectual property (IP) plays a pivotal role in safeguarding the rights of musicians, composers, and producers, ensuring they can thrive in a competitive global market.
Intellectual property rights provide the framework for protecting musical works, recordings, and performances. These rights empower music as a business, giving the opportunity to creators to control the use of their work, receive fair compensation, and invest in future projects. By understanding and leveraging IP, artists have the building blocks to develop sustainable careers and contribute to the cultural and economic vitality of the global music industry.
The music industry is a dynamic landscape, constantly evolving with technological advancements and changing consumer preferences. From streaming services to live performances, IP rights are essential for navigating this complex environment. Musicians and industry professionals must stay informed about the latest developments in IP law to effectively manage their creative assets.
Music copyright
Copyright is the cornerstone of the music industry. It protects the originality of songwriters (recognized as authors in copyright laws) in creating songs and ensuring that they are able to monetize their intellectual creations in the vibrant creative industries, including live entertainment, the recording industry, the audiovisual sector, video games, etc. It is the starting point of the music value chain.
Authors need to understand how they can manage their intellectual creations and their respective rights in the music marketplace in order to make the best decisions for them as creators.
Music publishing rights
Authors are the starting point of the music industry. They might reach the market directly or through music publishers. Publishers represent songwriters by authorizing the recording of the song, licensing to streaming platforms, and even to audiovisual productions while also fostering the career development of artists. A music publisher, acting on behalf of authors, ensures that the use of the song is done with the respective remuneration and credit, ensuring that creators are rewarded for their creativity.
The recording industry is a fundamental pillar of the music and creative industry as a whole. It relies on the first recording of the song, the master recording. The person or entity responsible for the master recording is the phonogram producer, usually known in the market as the record label. In the recording, the authors (directly or through publishers) authorize the recording of the lyrics and composition, while the performers (singers and musicians) also authorize the recording of their performance. Once the record is done, the phonogram producer (record label) is recognized related rights over the recording. The rights of the phonogram producer are independent of the rights of authors and performers and refer to the recorded music.
While the same music has one or many right owners, the way that music is exploited in the marketplace generates the need to obtain different licenses. There are two main types of licenses needed to exploit the music:
The use of the music can be done through the making and distribution of copies. Those two rights are normally referred to as “mechanical rights”. While this expression might not appear in the copyright law of most countries, the “mechanical license” refers to the authorization needed from the right owners to make copies and disseminate those copies. Depending on how the music is being exploited, different stakeholders are able to grant this license. In most cases, at least one of the following should be granted a mechanical license: Authors or publishers, record labels, and/or collective management organizations.
Another way to exploit the music is by performing it for the public. This could be done through live music, ambient sonorization, or event streaming platforms. Most copyright laws refer to the right of communication to the public, but the industry adopted the public performance license as a contractual practice. Authors, performers, and producers of phonograms own public performance rights. In case the music is being performed live (without the use of the recorded song), there is no need to obtain a license from record labels but from authors (or publishers). Most commonly, existing laws facilitate those licenses through collective management organizations that are legally authorized to grant licenses and collect royalties for those uses. Authors need to ensure that their songs are duly registered with the collective management organizations in order to receive compensation for the use of their songs in public.
Music is a fundamental part of the audiovisual industry. There are many different ways an audiovisual or video game project could use music. A common license to use recorded music in audiovisual projects is called a synchronization license. It is called synchronization because it syncs the audio with the images of the film, series, video game, etc. Audiovisual and videogames productions might also commission “new” music to songwriters, and in this case, the contract might include other licenses beyond the synchronization. Additionally, authors (or publishers) of pre-existing songs might authorize new recordings of the music for use in an audiovisual project.
Songwriters might wonder how they can receive royalties if their music is played on TV programs, on the radio, or even in a bar. On the other side, a restaurant might wonder if they need to obtain a license for every single music they would like to play in the background. This is where the “blanket licenses” come into play. Blanket licenses are authorizations given by a collective management organization to a user who publicly performs all the music that integrates the organization’s catalog. In exchange, users should inform the music played and pay the blanket license fee.
Songwriters will receive the royalties proportionally to how much their music is used. For that to happen, the collective management organization needs to be able to identify not only the music but its right owners. This is done by registering the song with a local collective management organization, which will match the uses with the fees collected to distribute to all right owners entitled to receive in the country or even elsewhere.
Print rights refer to the authorization to transcribe a musical composition, including its lyrics, into sheet music. These rights also cover the distribution of sheet music and lyrics in both physical and digital formats. For example, making merchandising with the lyrics of a song could infringe the rights of the author of the lyrics. In some circumstances, copyright laws recognize cases where the use of songs will be allowed. To understand those circumstances, the applicable limitations and exceptions in the territory where the song is being used needs to be considered.
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The Global Digital Music Landscape
An overview of distribution, copyright, and
rights administration for music in the digital age.
rights administration for music in the digital age.
Who earns music royalties?
Royalties are payments made to rights holders for the use of their music. This includes creators (songwriters, musicians, and performers), publishers in representation of authors, record labels (phonogram producers), and even someone who obtained or licensed the rights over songs and/or recordings, such as a company that bought an artist’s music catalog. Royalties are compensation payments for the exploitation of the music and/or recording. This could be from a synchronization license granted by a collective management organization.
Trademarks and music
Musicians and bands besides owning copyright over their songs, musicians and music bands might also protect their names and logos as trademarks. The protection through trademarks enables artists to engage with fans through memorabilia and merchandising. As the band expand its fanbase, trademarks will ensure exclusivity over the use of their names and logos. For that purpose, artists and bands should ensure they register their trademarks in order to ensure protection.
Patents for musical innovations
Patents might not come to mind when we talk about music, but inventions play a significant role in different areas of the music industry. For a start, they revolutionized how we access and listen to music, from vinyl players to inventions allowing us to easily access music on mobile phones. More technical inventions such as music mixing to technologies to improve musical instruments such as guitars and patents paved the way into technological advancements for the benefit of musicians and fans around the world.
IP and music stories
In the ever-evolving world of music, intellectual property (IP) plays a pivotal role in shaping the careers of artists and the industry at large. These stories offer a glimpse into the diverse ways musicians and creators navigate the complexities of IP, from landmark court cases to innovative business strategies. Explore how artists are leveraging their rights to build legacies, protect their work, and transform challenges into opportunities. Whether it's reclaiming ownership, adapting to digital shifts, or pioneering new creative paths, these narratives highlight the dynamic interplay between music and IP in today's global landscape.
IMAGE: Harald Krichel - CC BY-SA 3.0
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