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Business News Labels & Publishers
More music industry collecting societies suspend deals with their Russian counterparts
By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 14 March 2022
Moves continue to be made to cut off the Russian music industry’s collecting societies from the global collective licensing system in protest at Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Last week, UK collecting society PRS announced that it was suspending its reciprocal relationship with its Russian counterpart RAO. It also confirmed that it was liaising with CISAC – the global organisation of song right societies – to “consider the ongoing membership of Russian societies in the global network”.
Later in the week, when confirming that it had suspended its operations in Russia in response to the war in Ukraine, music publishing firm Kobalt said that it had also voiced its “support for any decisions that would cut off the local Russian collection society, RAO, from the network of collection societies”.
Subsequent to that, the Kobalt-owned society AMRA confirmed that it was also suspending its agreement with RAO. An AMRA spokesperson stated: “AMRA condemns Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and urges a peaceful resolution as quickly as possible. Effective immediately, AMRA is suspending its unilateral agreement with RAO, the Russian society for musical works, under US government sanctions”.
Meanwhile, on the recordings side, SCAPR – the global organisation for societies representing performer remuneration rights – last week also announced that it was suspending its Russian member VOIS.
It said in a statement: “Being an international federation of collective management organisations, with members from various countries, the SCAPR board has decided to suspend its Russian member with immediate effect. We will discuss their exclusion at our next General Assembly in June 2022. In the meantime, we invite SCAPR members to suspend their activity with them too”.
The UK record industry’s society – which represents both labels and performers – then announced it was suspending its deal with VOIS on Friday.
“PPL deplores Russia’s attack on the sovereign nation of Ukraine”, it said in a statement. “Music is a powerful, universal language and we add our voice to the global chorus across our industry calling for an end to the violence and pledging support for those already adversely affected. Our thoughts are with them”.
“PPL has today taken the necessary steps to suspend our relationship with VOIS, the collective management organisation for the neighbouring rights of performers and recording rights-holders in Russia”, it added. “As a member of SCAPR, the international association of performer CMOs, we also welcome its decision to suspend the Russian CMO”.
Although not actually a SCAPR member, the US collecting society for labels and performers, SoundExchange, has also announced that it has ended its reciprocal agreement with VOIS.
In a memo to members, its CEO Michael Huppe said that the society did not “take this action lightly but believes it’s important to demonstrate our support for the people of Ukraine. Ultimately, the flow of performance royalties between SoundExchange and VOIS is not significant, but as a matter of principle, we believe this is the right course of action”.
