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Mechanical
Rights Agencies
When you record someone
else’s song, you have to have their permission, and you have to pay them
a royalty, called a "mechanical royalty". And, if someone else records
your songs, they have to pay you. And, if you sign to a record company, and
they pay for your recording and own the copyright on that recording, then that
record company has to pay you for the rights to reproduce your songs. The mechanical
rights agencies are there to do the collecting for you, and ensure that the
record companies are paying you what you are owed. The rates are usually set
at an industry standard, sometimes it’s law, and sometimes the record companies
refuse to pay you the full amount, and only pay a reduce rate. Following are
brief descriptions of the main agencies in Canada, the US and internationally.
We’ve also included their addresses, and links to their own sites. The
CMRRA site in particular is jam-packed with information, and is pretty easy
to follow.
CMRRA
The Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency Ltd. is Canada's
largest music licensing agency, representing more than 30,000 music publishers
and copyright owners. CMRRA is the agency responsible for collecting royalties
from the record companies or other companies selling CDs, videos, cassettes,
etc.
CMRRA
56 Wellesley St. W, Suite 320
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 2S3
Tel: (416) 926-1966
Fax: (416) 926-7521
Email: publishersinq@cmrra.ca
Internet: www.cmrra.ca
SODRAC
La Société du Droit de Reproduction des Auteurs, Compositeurs
et Editeurs au Canada Inc (SODRAC). This is the Quebec equivalent of CMRRA.
SODRAC
759 Victoria Square, Suite 420
Montreal, Quebec, Canada H2Y 2J7
Tel: (514) 845-3268
Fax: (514) 845-3401
Email: sodrac@login.net
Internet: www.login.net/sodrac/
Harry Fox Agency, Inc.
The Harry Fox Agency, Inc. was established in 1927 by the National
Music Publishers' Association, Inc. to provide an information source,
clearinghouse and monitoring service for licensing musical copyrights.
HFA is a wholly owned licensing subsidiary of the NMPA. They now represent
more than 16,000 American music publishers, and license a large percentage
of the uses of music in the United States on records, tapes, CDs and imported
records. It also licenses music on a world-wide basis on behalf of its
publishers for use in films, commercials, television programs, and all
types of audio-visual media.
Harry Fox Agency
c/o NMPA
711 Third Avenue
New York, NY, U.S.A. 10017
Tel: (212) 922-3204
Fax: (212) 953-2384
Internet: www.nmpa.org
MCPS
Mechanical Copyright Protection Society Ltd is the UK version
of the CMRRA and the Harry Fox Agency. There’s not much more we can
add to that.
Mechanical Copyright Protection
Society Ltd
Elgar House, 41 Streatham High Road
London, England SW16 1ER.
Tel: 0181-664 4400
Fax: 0181-769 8792
Email: webmaster@mcps.co.uk
Internet: www.mcps.co.uk
BIEM
BIEM (Bureau International Des Societes Gerant les Droits D'Enregistrement
et de Reproduction Mecanique) was created in 1929, and is an international
organization that administers mechanical reproduction rights. Currently,
BIEM has 32 member societies in 30 countries, including CMRRA (Canada),
Harry Fox Agency (US), MCPS -Mechanical Copyright Protection Society (UK),
and AMCOS (Australia), to name a few.
BIEM
56 Avenue Kleber
75116 Paris, France
Tel: 33 1 44053747
Fax: 33 1 47551153
Email: BIEM@MSN.COM
IFRRO
The International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organisations
(IFRRO) is a non-governmental, independent, not-for-profit association,
founded in 1980. Its purpose is to facilitate international collective
administration of reproduction and related copyright rights through cooperation
of Reproduction Rights Organisations (RROs), such as CANCOPY (Canada),
Copyright Clearance Center (US) and the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd.
(UK). Their web site includes a directory of links for the Reproduction
Rights Organisations (RROs) world-wide.
IFRRO
Goethestrasse 49
D - 80336 München
Germany
Tel: 49 89 51 41 20
Fax: 49 89 51 41 290
Internet: www.copyright.com/ifrro/
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