Copyright Review Commission Report - ICT Law and Regulation ...

From a management point of view, the focus of ABRAMUS is on forging close relationships with rights owners and, afterconsultation, tailoring their services to meet the needs of rights owners. Taking into account the downturn on CD sales andlack of investment of major record companies in new artists and new releases, ABRAMUS identified new growth areas suchas country and gospel music. In addition, live music shows have provided a viable alternative. A number of controlmechanisms have been adopted to allow ECAD to accurately measure the music that has been performed, to enable fair andmore correct distribution. ABRAMUS has further created a space on its website for the author or performer to inform them ofthe performance of a concert, enabling ECAD to collect and distribute that part to which they are entitled. They have alsoidentified television within an author’s rights public performance structure. Authors of theme music for television shows rankthe highest in remuneration, particularly in shows played daily (ABRAMUS Annual Report 2009).Members can move between societies. Small societies are not sustainable because a good infrastructure is required.Associations deal with complaints from members. Offices are there to serve members. Distributions are made every month toensure a monthly income for members.The association offers training, on its own and in partnership with ECAD. ABRAMUS established a web portal for members.They also have a ‘relationship portal’ aimed at building a good relationship with members. A special section of their officespace is dedicated to members, who visit the offices of ABRAMUS (Gustav Gonsales, interview, ABRAMUS Offices, May2011).Due to lack of time, no information was gathered in Brazil regarding the relationship between recording companies andartists.1.9. PROTECTION OF INDUSTRY AGAINST MUSIC IMPORTSIncentives are in place to promote local music. At the national level, Brazil has within the last three decades successfullydeveloped a national music repertoire, which currently allows for about 80% of local music to be played on the airwaves inthat country. This high level of local music played in Brazil was due to government initiatives to develop the national culturalrepertoire. One such initiative was an incentive offered to recording companies to record Brazilian music. Another initiative bythe previous Minister of Culture, Gilberto Gil, was the provision of funding at local government level to promote local cultureand establish independent recording studios, enabling the production of CDs in small quantities and the diffusion of musicthrough the Internet, the training of sound technicians, and professional music training in communities (Gloria Braga, ECADOffices, interview, May 2011).There has not been a need for legislation to protect local music or discourage foreign music. Rather over a period of 30 yearsgovernment had put programmes in place to build a national culture. Record companies were given an incentive to recordBrazilian music. This was during a great time of selling CDs, and radio stations began to play Brazilian music. After theincentive was discontinued, the Brazilian people continued to buy Brazilian music. Currently there are 45 000 radio stationsthat play an average of 79% Brazilian music. Radio licences do not carry an obligation of having to play Brazilian music(Gloria Braga, ECAD Offices, interview, May 2011).In line with government cultural policy, and responding to a market where CDs and DVDs were being replaced with digitalmusic as well as a slump in sales of CDs and DVDs as a result of piracy, associations such as ABRAMUS searched for new- 129 -