The Copyright Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers is pleased that there will be a forum for 100 per cent Barbadian content on radio.
Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation announced on Monday that its station 94.7 FM would be making that switch.
“The Copyright Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers Incorporated (COSCAP) lauds the recent announcement of the launch of a 100% Barbadian radio station. Certainly, it serves as an indication of an appreciation of the need to provide a platform for local content. Clarification is required as to whether this content will only be musical or not, nonetheless the initiative is commended,” a statement from COSCAP said.
“It is hoped that the music offering will be diverse in terms of genres, showcasing local music across the ages and that despite a specifically designated ‘local’ station, that other stations will still carry local content as each station attracts different demographics and the widest audience should be sought.
“A local radio station could certainly provide tremendous value in terms of exposure and promotion but to be clear, if the intention is to create a revenue source in terms of copyright royalties then we need to understand how royalties are generated and paid.”
The statement said the music user, in this case, the radio station, under law, must obtain a copyright licence and pay licence fees (to COSCAP) and submit performance logs of all the music broadcast. COSCAP then deducts administration fees and processes the performance logs so that it knows the copyright holders to pay royalties to for the use of their music. If the music user is not paying licence fees, then no royalties can be paid by COSCAP to its members and affiliates.
“Once licence fees are paid, then the amount an individual COSCAP member (of course, the creators, producers and performers must be members of COSCAP or a sister organisation) is paid will depend on: 1. The level of accuracy in the performance logs in reporting the actual use of the members’ songs 2. The number of times the songs have been reported as having been broadcast (the popularity of the songs) 3. The number of songs the COSCAP member has being broadcast 4. The number of persons who share rights in the songs (if there are many persons, then the royalties are divided in smaller proportions) It is our hope that the creation of this platform will redound financially and otherwise for local content creators.” (PR)
