Copyright Management

In music, the term "author" refers to the individual who writes the lyrics of a song, while "composer" refers to the person who composes the music. Both of these actors enjoy equivalent property rights over their creations, hence the term "songwriter" (author-composer). In reality, this can refer to two different people. However, it's possible for a single person to fulfill both roles, thus simultaneously assuming the role of author and composer. Additionally, we distinguish instrumental musical compositions, in which only composers are involved.

Whether it's an author, a composer, or a songwriter, the work produced is protected by copyright.

This means that the author owns the text they have written and the composer owns the music they have composed. They have the right to authorize or prohibit the exploitation of their work, in exchange for financial compensation. Concretely, this means that any use of the work (either the text or the music) requires prior authorization from the songwriter, accompanied by the payment of royalties. It's important to emphasize that the songwriter has the right to legal protection from the moment their work is created. Registration formalities with SACEM are only necessary to obtain legal proof of creation priority.

The music publisher represents an essential partner for the songwriter. Their role is to help them exploit their works to develop their career. Thus, the publisher will seek all possible opportunities to promote and distribute the musical work in question (lyrics and music, together or separately).

Drafting assignment and publishing contracts

In the field of music contracts, the assignment and music publishing contract stands out as the only contract that benefits from strict regulation, as well as a model approved by professional unions.

The assignment and music publishing contract can only be established for a pre-existing work.

The songwriter cannot indeed assign to their publisher their rights to future works that have not yet been created. If the songwriter aspires to profit from their creative work, they must seek to maximize the distribution of their work. It's in this perspective that the assistance of a music publisher becomes crucial.

The music publisher's role is to generate the greatest number of opportunities for the songwriter's work, whether it's their lyrics or music. The fields of exploitation are varied, ranging from film music, television series, video games, corporate films, documentaries, web reports, to covers by popular foreign groups, or even distribution in department stores.

It's important to specify that even if the songwriter is also a performer, this doesn't affect their main objective, which is to expand the reach of their compositions and lyrics as much as possible. As for the question of why a music publisher invests their time, money, and energy to develop the songwriter's work, the answer lies in the fact that the artist assigns them a percentage of their copyright.

The assignment and publishing contract will be registered with SACEM to document all works subject to this contract.

Drafting publishing preference agreements

When the songwriter enters into an assignment and publishing agreement with a publisher, they assign their copyright to already created works. According to a law in force in France, an author or composer cannot assign their rights to a work that has not yet been created. Within the framework of a publishing preference contract, the songwriter commits, for the duration of the contract, to present their future works first to their publisher. A preference contract is limited to a maximum of 5 years. The songwriter cannot assign rights to their future works in advance, however, they can commit to presenting their future works first to this publisher. Signing an assignment and music publishing contract doesn't necessarily imply signing a preference agreement. It's crucial to understand in the option system or the publishing preference right, that the decision to continue or not the collaboration is a unilateral decision. It's the music publisher who has the choice.

In practice, the songwriter is required to present ALL their written and composed works to the music publisher, but only for the duration of the contract.

Thus, if the publisher decides to exercise their preference right, the songwriter must assign them the rights to their work or works. A new assignment and music publishing contract will then be signed for each new work. And if the publisher refuses the presented work, then the songwriter is FREE to exploit it themselves or to offer it to another publisher.

Supervising the distribution of economic rights

As suggested by their name, economic rights represent the assets of authors and composers, these are economic rights. Indeed, these rights allow the songwriter to be compensated in exchange for the authorization granted to exploit their work. From a legal standpoint, we distinguish 2 main categories of music exploitation that require the creators' agreement. This essentially corresponds to the 2 main modes of exploiting a musical work:

Broadcasting the musical work to an audience: if someone wishes to perform a musical work in front of an audience or broadcast it to an audience, the songwriters must be compensated and their authorization is required. This is what we call the performance right.

Fixing a work on a medium: printing the work on a musical score (which is a physical medium), recording and burning on a CD or vinyl, recording in a digital format also require the authorization and compensation of the songwriters. This is the reproduction right.

Nowadays, economic rights over a musical work remain in force for a period of 70 years after the death of the last right holder: the work continues to generate rights throughout the songwriter's life up to 70 years after their death.

Searching for and identifying unidentified works at SACEM

SACEM has taken measures regarding "undistributable works", namely copyright generated by unidentified works that end up being transferred to the society's management account, for lack of being able to attribute them.

It's possible as a publisher or author to access the application that SACEM makes available to us to allow us to consult works awaiting identification: this application is called ONI (Unidentified Works).

This service was developed with the aim of allowing us to provide any information in our possession that could help identify the rights holders, namely the authors, composers and publishers, of works awaiting identification at SACEM. Upon claim of rights and verification of transmitted information (rights holders, COCV code of the work, spelling correction of the work's name...) the amounts of rights put on hold will be paid during the next corresponding distribution.