A new regional music database is likely to improve royalty payments to artistes.
Chief executive officer of the Copyright Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (COSCAP) Erica Smith made that estimation on Tuesday during the Association of Caribbean Copyright Rights Societies’ (ACCS) webinar on Licensing of Premises and Broadcasters, where she spoke about the upcoming C-Note online platform.
During the session, Smith explained that for many years individual collective management (CMO) organisations had been approached to launch a central database, but she acknowledged how difficult it had been.
“Each CMO would always have people meeting with us with the goal of establishing regional streaming services but it is a very difficult initiative to undertake because the region is very fragmented. Because in territories with more developed music industries there are well-established publishing houses and record labels and if you obtain licenses from them you immediately have access to thousands of recordings.
“However in the Caribbean other than the clearances from the CMO you would have to negotiate with many individuals,” Smith said.
But she said C-NOTE, which is scheduled to be launched next month, will allow for more efficiency, and they will be able to track each use of the recording and royalties can be paid on a per use basis.
“We wanted to improve and facilitate easier access to Caribbean music. As you may know if you are using Apple Music or one of the other digital service providers it can be difficult to find a wide range of Caribbean music.
“We decided to establish a database of sound recordings which would offer easy access with all rights cleared. So if you are establishing a streaming service you can obtain a licence from ACCS to access the database for one fee for all rights cleared. And you can obtain a licence for your background music from ACCS and stream directly to your hotels, homes and restaurants,” she added. (TG)
