The SGAE desires to shelve lawsuits and scandals | Business | EUROtoday

Cristina Perpiñá-Robert (Barcelona, ​​1969) directs the General Society of Authors and Editors (SGAE), an establishment that appears to have put the scandals at bay, which haven’t left the modernist palace that homes its headquarters within the heart of Madrid since In 2011, Teddy Bautista was arrested for alleged embezzlement of funds. The former president of the entity, acquitted ten years later, inaugurated a decade of shocks that made society an unattractive place to construct a profession. Since the musician's resignation, at the very least six presidents have paraded (some even lasted three months) by way of the corridors of Longoria's palace, not counting the 2 interim ones. And many different common administrators.

The final: Perpiñá-Robert, who’s now celebrating one 12 months in workplace on the copyright administration firm chaired by Antonio Onetti since 2020, the longest interval of peace identified since 2011. Only a lady who considers herself a part of the home (he labored on the SGAE between 1998 and 2018) might take over this place poisoned. “I knew that it is not the most stable place in the world,” he admits, “but many issues had already been addressed and we needed to leave behind what the entity has suffered and start a new stage.”

And this new stage that, in precept, was going to encompass the entity's digital transformation challenge, changed into a return to the fundamentals. And the factor is that “society had deviated from what the business of a management entity is, which is to collect and distribute,” he factors out. Hence, the board devoted itself to adjusting the charges to the ministerial order that was revealed when it joined the SGAE, to offering readability to the speed framework and to signing peace with customers, he explains: “We have had many years of conflicts with television stations. and we have to achieve a stable and cordial relationship because they are our main clients.”

The first 12 months of the overall director of the SGAE has been extra about “putting out fires” than designing a strategic plan, she acknowledges. “There have been many very urgent issues to resolve.” How to execute the judicial sentence of one of many derivatives of what’s generally known as wheel case (64 million euros given to 40,000 authors for music broadcast on tv between 2015 and 2018, which the courts annulled final August, to drive within the second occasion to redo solely the distribution akin to the 12 months 2015), the price of which was assumed by the group in accordance with its suggestion “so as not to reopen the wound in the wheel, which had already closed.”

Now the establishment is negotiating with tv and broadcasting entities to realize a steady state of affairs, says Perpiñá-Robert: “We have to leave behind so many conflicts, the numerous lawsuits that we have had, which are exhausting for both users and management entities. In the end we have to live together: they are our maximum users of repertoire and our authors live from the collection of rights from these users.”

This results in the following open battle that has occupied her since she turned the director of the SGAE. The National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) accused the corporate in 2022 of abuse of a dominant place within the utility of its charges to radio and tv stations (a state of affairs that’s repeated in numerous courts). Of course, the board doesn’t assume that its charges are anti-competitive and needed to have defined this to the Competition authorities, with whom it supposed to succeed in an settlement. But he factors out: “They haven't even received us.”

Perpiñá-Robert expects a high-quality. She is upset as a result of she “finds it surprising that the CNMC insists on intervening when all parties involved are working to reach an agreement.” “We have reached agreements with SEDA, also with DAMA, we are close with the television networks… It would be a shame if the CNMC did not see that the sector has solved the problems and wants an agreed solution.” Regarding the high-quality, the board assures that they are going to attraction it as they already did with one other of just about three million euros that final January the National Court dominated in favor of the copyright administration firm in Spain.

“What the SGAE has to do is work,” the chief says time and again. That is the best way, in her opinion, to get well the status misplaced after so many brawls. “Work well, have a stable tariff framework, good agreements with users and be as transparent and fast as possible in the collection and distribution of royalties for authors,” she lists.

Recently appointed vp of BIEM (worldwide society of mechanical copy rights), the director factors out that the SGAE is starting to be an vital interlocutor in Europe (“where it is interesting how we handle conflicts with some operators”). The assortment figures are constant: the 349.1 million euros obtained in 2023 by the entity signify the best quantity achieved since 2007, though they signify solely a slight improve in comparison with the 348.9 million in 2022. What it has skilled A notable development, of 11.9%, is the distribution of copyrights between companions and directors: in whole 354.1 million euros (the quantity is larger than the gathering as a result of it consists of some earnings from different years obtained extra late). The similar because the variety of folks and corporations which have obtained these rights: it has elevated by 25.5% to 83,148.

Those who gather probably the most

Although the works that increase probably the most cash proceed to be the Aranjuez's live performance by Joaquín Rodrigo and Macarena of Los del Río, within the final three years the authors who dispute the primary positions within the rating of copyright assortment are Alejandro Sanz, Joaquín Sabina, Joan Manuel Serrat, Manuel Carrasco, Juan Luis Guerra and Pablo Alborán, though an increasing number of city musicians are transferring up the listing, that is the case of Quevedo or Saiko within the final 12 months due to the digital growth and dwell live shows (for which they obtain 8% of the field workplace). These latter musicians are contributing to decreasing the common age of SGAE members.

Perpiñá-Robert doesn’t anticipate the height collections of the golden age of copyright with information to be repeated, earlier than the digital explosion and the streaming, however she is glad as a result of for the primary time worldwide revenues have exceeded 30 million euros, digital income has additionally been a file, and that of dwell live shows has been maintained. The Spanish shopper could be very specific, he explains, simply as they don’t spend on shopping for digital music, they do spend vital quantities to attend live shows, these exhibits have change into the third supply of earnings for the society of authors, with 15.8 % of the entire, forward of digital, which weighs 13.8%, “although in other countries it is the first source of income.” Televisions and radios are the primary payers to the SGAE (26.4%) and nightclubs and bars are the second (19.4%).

Today. Because the long run riddled with generative synthetic intelligence is a severe risk to authors and their mental property. A context during which the SGAE works on rules on the European stage in order that copyright is revered: creators should authorize the usage of their work and have to be compensated for it, maintains the chief, who believes that they need to even be protected. works generated by machines to stop there from being a parallel market that might displace creators. “There is concern.” “We have to look for a sustainable model,” says the chief of the ninth copyright administration entity on the planet by income, in line with the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC), which teams 228 entities from 119 nations.

Follow all the data Economy y Business in Facebook y Xor in our e-newsletter semanal

_