I did a shift in the studio: what do I get in addition to the fee?

Let’s tackle a topic that is little known to most musicians: many artists in fact they don’t know that if they perform in a recording studio or live and their performance is recorded on a phonogram, they are entitled to further and separate compensation if the recording made, containing their performance, is put on the market. We are talking about rights related to compensation… Have you ever heard of it? To understand what these rights are, however, it is necessary to take a brief look excursus on how the rights recognized to performing artists work in general.

The law attributes “exclusive” property rights to creatives and entrepreneurs who take it upon themselves to invest in the diffusion of musical culture, a sort of property right, so that they can be incentivized to create culture and thus rightly rewarded with a salary (the income from copyright) one’s creative or economic effort. “Exclusive” means that the owner of these rights is the only person authorized to use his property (the work in the case of authors and publishers, the phonographic recording in the case of the producer, his own interpretation or performance in the case of ‘artist), and can therefore “exclude” anyone from using it without their consent.

Thanks to this exclusivity, the musician who lends himself to perform a piece in the recording studio or live in order to make a phonograph recording can directly agree with the phonograph producer on the compensation due for the granting of this authorization: normally a fixed compensation in case of CDs supporting artists (or even session musicians) or a royalty, i.e. a compensation as a percentage of the revenues deriving from the exploitation of the recording, for the artists who sign the recording contract, i.e. the CDs primaries.

In general, therefore, we were saying, without the express authorization of an artist, no one can record his performance or performance live or in the studio, nor make copies, print them, market them or publish them online, nor use them in any way.

For some of these exploitations, however, given their nature, it would become complicated to impose prior authorization and it is here that exceptions to these exclusive rights have been provided for, from which additional compensation arises in addition to what may already have been received.

In particular we currently know two rights related to compensation or:

· The right to private copy for personal use: interpreting and performing artists have the right to a compensation for those reproductions made in a private contextthat is, by a natural person on any medium, for exclusively personal use, without profit and without directly or indirectly commercial purposes. A part of the cost of devices such as a smartphone or mass memory (hard disk or pen drive) purchased is allocated to artists as compensation for all (legal) reproductions of their music in the home which cannot otherwise be quantified. It is therefore not, as we often hear improperly said, a “tax” imposed by the SIAE or by the State, but rather compensation that goes to those entitled to it and not to the Italian State (tax).

· The right to communicate to the public: regardless of the commercialization of the recording, whenever the recorded work is disseminated through a “media” (at the cinema, on the radio, on TV, via satellite, cable or, thanks to a diffusion system in any public place, such as a bar, a pub, a restaurant, a disco, a shopping centre, an amusement park , a shop, an airport, a car park, etc), this generates compensation for the interpreting and performing artist.

Therefore, to summarize both the compensation for private copying for personal use and that deriving from the right of communication to the public, they are independent and additional rights from what you received for the studio turn, from the recording contract or from the live performancebecause they derive from another use of one’s performance. These rights have also become unsellable that is, it is not even contractually possible to provide that you can transfer them to the phonograph producer.

Having understood what these rights are, let’s see who they are paid by and how to collect them. The fee for private copying for personal use due to the artist is not paid by the phonogram producer, but is derived from the sale of blank media and mass memories that may contain phonograms; the compensation deriving from communication to the public instead comes from the users of recorded music and therefore from radio/TV broadcasters and public establishments.

To collect them, the artist must also register with a collecting society that brokers the related rights as compensation for interpreting and performing artists, such as NuovoIMAIE or other companies on the market and constantly communicates his repertoire, i.e. the individual recordings in which he played or sang, regardless of whether he is also the author or composer because let’s remember, these are rights that are granted by virtue of the uses of phonograms in which one’s own interpretation or performance is recorded. Registration with a collecting society for related rights does not conflict with registration with copyright collecting societies such as SIAE or others, on the contrary, if a person is both an author/composer and an artist he should be registered with both so as not to lose any compensation for the exploitation of their works or phonograms.

Lawyer Emanuela Teodora Russo

Legal Notes it’s aassociation of social promotion born for protect and improve the musician’s profession. With 18 years of activity and more than 5000 associates in history, Legal Notes is today the most representative trade association in the music sector in Italy, which unites musicians of all backgrounds and professional levels, offering its members a solid listening point and numerous useful initiatives to best protect their musical activity.

To find out more about Legal Notes visit our website www.notelegali.it.

Here is Rockol’s video interview with the founder of Note Legali, Andrea Marco Ricci.

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