News

Multi-year licence covers over 130 territories. 

For release 21 August 2013: PRS for Music today announced a new licensing deal with YouTube.

The licence covers the use of the significant repertoire represented by PRS for Music in videos streamed on the video platform e.g. official music videos and content, live footage, soundtracks and user generated content (UGC). The licence also includes the rights to a growing range of independent repertoire available through PRS for Music’s IMPEL initiative such as David Bowie (Bucks Music), Justin Timberlake (Imagem), Lou Reed (Spirit) and Goldie (Westbury).

The organisation, which represents over 100,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers, was one of the first societies outside of the US to license YouTube, in 2007. The new licence agreement is one of the most extensive yet covering more than 130 territories in Europe, Middle East and North Africa.

Robert Ashcroft, Chief Executive PRS for Music, said, “Streaming is a key growth area for PRS for Music, helping drive our online revenues to over £50M in 2012. YouTube’s vast reach around the world offers our publishers and songwriters a unique stage and music lovers access to millions of songs. I am delighted we have reached such an important multi-territory agreement. The issue of remuneration from streaming services remains a key one for our members and the further evolution of our licensing relationship with YouTube will help ensure continued growth in royalties for our members from one of the world’s leading video platforms.”

Chris Maxcy, Director of Global Music Partnerships at YouTube continued, “We’re delighted to renew our successful partnership with the PRS for Music. This means the UK’s music publishers, songwriters and composers can continue to reach new and existing fans on YouTube and the passionate YouTube community can keep enjoying listening to music and discovering new artists online.”

Now that we are over the half-way point of this year, we look back at some of the highlights of 2013 so far:

January       Author society CEO speaks to leading French publication on cultural sector and its contribution to economy

Jean-Noël Tronc, Director General of Sacem, spoke to leading French publication Les Echos about the financial contribution of the creative industries to the French economy and the role of Sacem as a non-profit cooperative organisation representing creators across the creative sector.

You can read the full article here.

February       Author societies speak out against Vitorino recommendations

A coalition of organisations representing authors, performers and producers challenged the recommendations made by Antonio Vitorino on private copying.

Mr Vitorino’s recommendations demonstrated a serious misunderstanding of the private copying system, depriving consumers of their ability to legally make copies for private purposes and obliging rightsholders to negotiate the remuneration for private copies (which normally falls under an “exception” that cannot be negotiated) in the purchase price of the digital content, leading to an increase of the prices to the detriment of consumers.

Later in July, two judgements delivered by the EU Court on different cases confirmed that several of Mr Vitoriono’s recommendations were not in conformity with EU law.

March    Marielle Gallo publishes working document on Collective Rights Management

Marielle Gallo, rapporteur on the Collective Rights Management Directive, published her working document on site of the European Parliament.

Months later, On 9 July, the European Parliament’s legal affairs committee unanimously adopted Marielle Gallo’s report on the collective management of copyright.

April      EU Court backs author societies

The European Court of Justice overturned allegations that European author societies coordinated to restrict competition. By upholding their appeal against the 2008 European Commission decision, the ECJ confirmed that CISAC, the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers, and its members had not engaged in uncompetitive concerted practices to restrict competition.

May       European Parliament votes to exclude culture from EU-US trade deal

In Strasbourg, the European Parliament voted in favour of excluding the cultural and creative industries from the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Agreement. 381 of those present voted in favour of excluding these sectors from the potential deal; 191 voted against and 17 abstained.

This decision was backed by Europe’s trade ministers in June and marks a great victory for cultural and creative sectors.

June    World Creators Summit

On June 4 & 5, 700 of the world’s leading creative stakeholders, including authors, industry figures and regulators gathered in Washington for the World Creators Summit.

Over the two days of the conference, 95 speakers mulled ways to ensure a fair and sustainable environment for the creative sector.

More about the event.

July  CRM Directive Report of the European Parliament voted in Legal Affairs Committee

The European Parliament’s legal affairs committee unanimously adopted Marielle Gallo’s report on the collective management of copyright. The creators of this platform welcomed the favourable vote, and urged the European Union institutions to address the outstanding issues and rapidly finalise the legislative process.

On 9 July, the European Parliament’s legal affairs committee unanimously adopted Marielle Gallo’s report on the collective management of copyright.

Here’s our pick of stakeholder comments on the vote:

Koda’s annual report for 2012 bears witness to the society’s tremendous economic growth. By raising its overall income whilst ensuring that costs stay the same,  Koda worked hard last year to ensure that its members receive as much remuneration as possible.

Niels Rosing-Schow, Chairman of Koda’s Board of Directors, commented “Koda’s outcome of 2012 is very impressive. The total income of EUR 95 million is of crucial importance to the  Danish music scene and ensures that large payments can be made to the songwriters and composers represented by Koda,”

Not content with this success, Koda is now carrying out a comprehensive review of Koda’s rules and distribution of funds – ultimately aiming to make them even simpler, more efficient, and more transparent.

You can read the full report here.

You can browse the Koda site here.