For as long as you could understand yourself, music has been your passion. You grew up surrounded by music—in church; at home. You gravitated towards music; always humming, singing, writing, playing or listening to music. Music constantly beckoned to you so now you’ve decided to seriously answer that call and pursue music not just as a hobby but as a career. Now you’re avidly creating a new sound; a new melody; well-crafted lyrics. You practically live in studio laying down vocals, strumming an amazing guitar rift, drumming a unique beat as the engineer tracks it—lending your voice, your skill and your talent to an amazing music recording.

As a music professional you’ve heard of intellectual property and music rights; copyrights, related rights. You’ve probably even made mention of those rights but what do they really mean to you?  As a music creator what do your intellectual property rights allow and entitle you to? As a performer, what rights are associated with your performance on a sound recording? As label or phonogram producer what rights are associated with your ownership of a sound recording?  

With all this talk of Intellectual Property, Copyright, Related Right, what are your rights anyway?

Simply put copyright refers to the right to copy says David Stopps, author of How to Make a Living from Music—a book presented by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to assist music professionals build a successful career in music. He goes on to note that fundamentally there are two (2) sets of rights to consider when making commercial music:

• The copyright in the work (songwriting, composition, musical arrangement and/or lyrics)
• The related rights in performances and recordings (phonograms)

We’ve explored the difference between copyright and related rights in a previous blog post. To review, click HERE.

Below we outline the rights for authors (ie. Songwriter, composers and music arrangers), performers and phonogram producers (i.e. owners of the sound recordings) as presented by Stopps.

Author Rights

Stopps, referencing the Berne Convention and the WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT)—international agreements which govern copyright—note that authors have the following exclusive rights:

• “The right of reproduction (the right to copy the work).
• “The right of distribution (the right to issue and distribute copies of the work to the public).
• “The right of rental (the right to authorize commercial rental to the public of copies of the work). (In exceptional cases a different system may apply)
• “The right of communication to the public (the right to authorize any communication to the public, by wire or wireless means, (including ‘the making available to the public of works in a way that the members of the public may access the work from a place and at a time individually chosen by them.) The quoted expression ‘making available’ refers to on-demand, interactive communication through the Internet such as downloads and interactive streaming.
• “The right of broadcasting (broadcasting is generally considered to be a subset of ‘communication to the public’).
• “The right to translate.
• “The right to make adaptations and arrangements of the work.
• "The right to perform the work in public (public performance right – another subset of ‘communication to the public’)
• “The moral rights (the rights of integrity and the right of paternity).

---Stopps (n.d.)

Performer Rights

Stopps states that according the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty 1996 (WPPT), performers have the following exclusive rights (with the exception of point 5 which refers to equitable remuneration) in their recordings if the nationality/location requirements of Article 3 of the WPPT are fulfilled:

• “The right of reproduction (the right to make copies of the phonogram).
• “The right of distribution (the right to issue and distribute copies of the phonogram to the public).
• “The right of rental (the right to authorize the commercial rental to the public of the original and copies of the phonogram as determined in the national law of the Contracting Parties (In exceptional cases a different system may apply)
• “The right of making available (the right to authorize the making available to the public, by wire or wireless means, of any performance fixed in a phonogram, in such a way that members of the public may access the fixed performance from a place and at a time individually chosen by them. This right refers to on-demand, interactive communication to the public via the Internet).
• “The right to equitable remuneration for broadcasting and communication to the public. (This is the public performance right for sound recordings. Under WPPT, countries can opt out of this right if they wish.)
• “The moral rights (the right of integrity and the right of paternity. Again, countries can opt out).”

---Stopps (n.d.)

Phonogram Producers Rights

Meanwhile Stopps says under the WPPT, phonogram producers have the following exclusive rights (with the exception of point 5 below which is a right of equitable remuneration) in their recordings if the nationality/location requirements of the WPPT are fulfilled:

• “The right of reproduction (the right to authorize direct or indirect reproduction of the phonogram in any manner or form).
• “The right of distribution (the right to authorize the distribution to the public of the original and copies of the phonogram through sale or other transfer of ownership).
• “The right of rental (the right to authorize the commercial rental to the public of the original and copies of the phonogram as determined in the national law of the Contracting Parties (in exceptional cases a different system may apply).
• “The right of making available (the right to authorize making available the phonogram, by wire or wireless means, in such a way that members of the public may access the phonogram from a place and at a time individually chosen by them. This right refers to on-demand, interactive making available via the Internet such as downloads and interactive streaming).
• “5. The right to equitable remuneration for broadcasting and communication to the public. (This is the public performance right for sound recordings. The WPPT allows Member States to opt out of this right if they wish.)”

--Stopps (n.d.)

Regardless of your role in music creation and sound recording, an understanding of your rights is vital. If you are a music professional we urge you to read Stopps’ WIPO commissioned, “How to Make a Living From Music.” It’s available for FREE download on WIPO's website. You can download HERE.

Note:

Picture sourced from http://www.lomnitzerlaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/lorri-lomnitzer-intellectual-property.jpg