Royalty for songs: Striking the right note

When songs are played in concerts, at restaurants, on radio or television, lyricists, composers and music production companies in India regularly receive royalty.

The India Performing Right Society Limited (IPRS) collects the royalty from across India and distributes it among the copyright holders of the song.

IPRS is a Collective Management Organisation (CMO). The Indian organisation has been working to protect the interest of the lyricists and composers since 1969. Acclaimed Indian lyrcist, scriptwriter and poet Javed Akhtar is working as the chairman of IPRS.

Meanwhile, lyricists and composers in Bangladesh receive almost no royalty. Even if they receive royalty from one or two sources, songs are frequently used commercially without permission. While many make piles of money from this, the creators of the song don’t even get a penny.

Though Bangladesh couldn’t do it yet, lyricist and composers of our closest neighbour, India have been receiving royalty for decades. With the help of the copyright office, IPRS has been working in India for five and a half decades.  

According to the copyright law, the lyricist and composer of a song are considered the copyright holders.  

International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) has been working to protect the interest of creative persons including lyricists and composers throughout the world since 1926.

It’s an international confederation. As many as 225 CMO and more than 2.5 million copyright holders from 116 countries around the globe are involved with this.

India’s IPRS was approved as a CISAC member back in 1970. As a CISAC member, IPRS can collect royalty from inside and outside of Indian borders.

Copyright holders have to become members of IPRS to receive royalty. Then their songs would be included in the IPRS database. How much royalty a lyricist or a composer would receive, can easily be calculated from the information put in the database.

Operation manager at IPRS, Sourish Sarkar told Prothom Alo this Wednesday that whenever a song enlisted in their database is used commercially, they collect the due royalty and distributes it among the copyright holders.

IPRS has the workforce required to find out which song is being played how many times on radio, television, restaurants or in concerts. The organisation has offices in the mega cities like Kolkata and Mumbai across India, he added.

“It’s impossible for a lyricist or composer to track down where is their song being played throughout India. We make that job easy for the lyricists and composers registered with IPRS,” said Sourish Sarkar.  

Apart from this, the Indian organisation collects a hefty amount of royalty from license fees. For the permission of using someone’s song commercially, one has to get the license from the IPRS with a certain amount of fees.

The song will be available for commercial use for a certain period of time against that license. And, IPRS hands over the due royalty from those fees to the lyricists and composers.

How is the royalty collected from outside of India? To collect royalty from abroad, it is compulsory to be a member of a confederation like CISAC. As a CISAC member, IPRS can collect and send royalty abroad. If any Coldplay songs are played in Kolkata, royalty can be sent from Kolkata to London and vice versa.

There’s a network called ‘CIS-Net’ to coordinate between the CISAC members and CMOs. CISAC collects and distributes royalty internally through this particular network. IPRS works as the representative of CISAC in India.  

Bangladesh Lyricists, Composers and Performers Society (BLCPS) has been active just like India’s IPRS to collect due royalty of the copyright holders of songs. BLCPS is working to protect different interests including royalty of Bangladeshi lyricists, composers and singers.

After being launched in 2013, the organisation received government approval as the first and sole Collective Management Organisation (CMO) of the country in 2014. BLCPS has been working in association of Bangladesh Copyright Office.

While speaking to Prothom Alo, chief executive officer (CEO) of BLCPS Hamin Ahmed said, “As many as 200 music producers have already become BLCPS members. A database containing about 20,000 plus songs has also been created. Hopefully, BLCPS is going to receive CISAC membership soon.”

Though the concept of royalty has been in discussions for five and a half decades in India, it’s quite new for Bangladesh.

So Bangladesh Lyricists, Composers and Performers Society organised a conference to raise awareness on this topic among lyricists, composers, artistes as well as the music partners. CISAC advisor Satoshi Watanabe as a special guest attended the conference organised at Gulshan Club in Dhaka last Tuesday.

More than a hundred partners including Hamin Ahmed, Maqsodul Haque and Sheikh Monirul Alam Tipu were present at the conference presided over by Sheikh Sadi Khan.

Once Bangladesh receives CISAC membership, BLCPS will be working as the CISAC representative in Bangladesh. Then BLCPS will also be able to collect the due royalty of lyricists, composers and artistes from abroad, alike India’s IPRS.

Experts say that Dhaka-based lyricists, composers and artistes now receive royalties in a limited scale. Once BLCPS has started working in full pace after being approved by CISAC, they will receive royalties from different sources including radio, television and concerts.