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A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions and writes lyrics for songs. A songwriter can also be called a composer, although the latter term tends to be used mainly for individuals from the classical music genre and film scoring, but is also associated writing and composing the original musical composition or musical bed. A songwriter who mainly writes the lyrics for a song is referred to as a lyricist. The pressure from the music industry to produce popular hits means that song writing is often an activity for which the tasks are distributed between a number of people. For example, a songwriter who excels at writing lyrics might be paired with a songwriter with the task of creating original melodies. Pop songs may be composed by group members from the band or by staff writers – songwriters directly employed by music publishers. Some songwriters serve as their own music publishers, while others have outside publishers.
Copyrights can either be licensed or assigned by the owner of the copyright. A copyright collective is a non-governmental body created by copyright law or private agreement which licenses copyrighted works on behalf of the authors and engages in collective rights management. Copyright societies track all the events and venues where copyrighted works are used and ensure that the copyright holders listed with the society are remunerated for such usage. The copyright society publishes its own tariff scheme on its websites and collects a nominal administrative fee on every transaction.
A royalty is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset. Royalties are typically agreed upon as a percentage of gross or net revenues derived from the use of an asset or a fixed price per unit sold of an item of such, but there are also other modes and metrics of compensation. A royalty interest is the right to collect a stream of future royalty payments.
Music Canada is a non-profit trade organization that was founded 9 April 1963 to represent the interests of companies that record, manufacture, produce, and distribute music in Canada. It also offers benefits to some of Canada's leading independent record labels and distributors.
The International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers is an international non-governmental, not-for-profit organisation that aims to protect the rights and promote the interests of creators worldwide. It advocates for strong legal protection of copyright and authors' rights. It is the world's largest international network of authors' societies, also known as Collective Management Organisations (CMOs), copyright / royalty collection societies, collecting societies, or Performing Rights Organisations (PROs).
The Gesellschaft für musikalische Aufführungs- und mechanische Vervielfältigungsrechte is a government-mandated collecting society and performance rights organization based in Germany, with administrative offices in Berlin and Munich. GEMA represents the usage rights stemming from authors' rights for the musical works of those composers, lyricists, and publishers who are members in the organization. It is the only such institution in Germany and a member of BIEM and CISAC. Other collecting societies include the (AKM) Society of authors, composers and music publishers (de) in Austria and SUISA in Switzerland.
Canadian Music Creators Coalition is a group of Canadian music artists opposed to introducing legislation similar to the United States' DMCA into Canadian intellectual property law. The group was officially formed April 26, 2006. An editorial from founding member Steven Page announcing the formation of the coalition detailed three core principles, which included opposition to litigation against fans who download music, opposition to digital copy protection, and encouragement of a cultural policy that supported Canadian artists. According to Page, "This effort is not about giving our music away, it's about encouraging innovative approaches that will compensate musicians and protect music fans from litigation." The group received support from Charlie Angus, the NDP Heritage Critic. The Canadian Music Creators Coalition has provided a public voice on issues that affect its members, describing the Songwriters Association of Canada's proposal to monetize file sharing as a "forward thinking approach" and denouncing Bill C-61 for not focusing on the real needs of creators.
Various copyright alternatives in an alternative compensation systems (ACS) have been proposed as ways to allow the widespread reproduction of digital copyrighted works while still paying the authors and copyright owners of those works. This article only discusses those proposals which involve some form of government intervention. Other models, such as the street performer protocol or voluntary collective licenses, could arguably be called "alternative compensation systems" although they are very different and generally less effective at solving the free rider problem.
SoundExchange is a non-profit collective rights management organization. It is the sole organization designated by the U.S. Congress to collect and distribute digital performance royalties for sound recordings. It pays featured and non-featured artists and master rights owners for the non-interactive use of sound recordings under the statutory licenses set forth in 17 U.S.C. § 112 and 17 U.S.C. § 114.
PassAlong Networks, also known as Tennessee Pacific Group, LLC, was a developer of digital media innovations and services located in Franklin, Tennessee. The company had a digital music library of three million licensed songs, two million of which were raw MP3 music files, and provided a series of products and services in the digital media marketplace.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors, which the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/or distribute approximately 85% of all legally sold recorded music in the United States". The RIAA headquarters is in Washington, D.C.
The Ivors Academy is one of the largest professional associations for music writers in Europe and exists to support, protect and campaign for the interests of songwriters, lyricists and composers. It represents music writers in all genres, from song writing to media, contemporary classical to jazz and has approximately 2000 members.
The Center for Copyright Information (CCI) is an American organization focused on advocacy and initiatives in support of copyright law. The CCI aims to educate the public about copyright law; coordinates with copyright owners and Internet service providers (ISPs) about issues related to online copyright infringement; assists with the design, implementation, review, and promotion of an online infringement notification and mitigation system ; collects and disseminates online infringement data; and promotes lawful means of obtaining copyrighted works. The organization was created as a partnership between industry associations, including the Motion Picture Association of America, the Recording Industry Association of America, and five major American Internet service providers.
The Copyright Alliance is a nonprofit, nonpartisan 501(c)(4) organization representing artistic creators across a broad range of copyright disciplines.
Terry McManus is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is known for launching the Songwriters Association of Canada. He is also an artists manager representing The Birthday Massacre, "Survivorman" Les Stroud, and Canadian experimental artist JoJo Worthington. As an educator he has taught at Fanshawe College in London, Ontario, in the Music Industry Arts program for over 30 years, and teaches online at Algonquin College in their Music Industry Arts program.
The European Composer and Songwriter Alliance (ECSA) is an international, nonprofit organization. It is made up of 45 associations of composers and songwriters from all over Europe. It represents around 23,000 composers in twenty different European countries. It was founded in 2007 and is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.
The Korea Music Copyright Association (KOMCA) is a South Korean non-profit copyright collective for musical works, administering public performance and broadcasting rights, and mechanical recording and reproduction rights. Founded in 1964, it is the second collective rights management organization for musical works in Asia, after JASRAC in Japan. It is also one of the largest in Asia, with over 20,000 members. In 2015, it collected ₩143 billion in licensing fees and distributed ₩137 billion in royalties to its members.
The Screen Composers Guild of Canada (SCGC) is a national association of professional music composers and producers for film, television and media in Canada. The SCGC has certification under the Federal Status of the Artist Act to represent the interests of all composers in Canada working on English-language productions.
Fair Trade Music is an independent movement dedicated to building an ethical, sustainable and transparent music ecosystem equitable for everyone in the music value chain. It aims to encourage the emergence of a music streaming economy that fairly remunerates songwriters and composers for their work, and to give consumers and creators the information they need to make ethical choices when producing, distributing, streaming or purchasing music.
References
- ↑ "Songwriters Association of Canada". Historica Canada. Retrieved 28 August 2014.
- ↑ "A Proposal for the Monetization of the File Sharing of Music from the Songwriters and Recording Artists of Canada".
- ↑ "Canadian songwriters propose monetizing P2P in Canada".
- ↑ "Canada's labels slam proposed digital 'tax'". Reuters. 5 January 2008.
- ↑ "CMCC Applauds Songwriters' Approach to Filesharing". Archived from the original on 2009-01-13.
- ↑ Techdirt, Why A Music Tax Is A Bad Idea
- ↑ Geist, Michael. "The SAC Distraction".
