PACE Rights Management assists music Rightsholders (writers and publishers) to take control of their online rights.
CURRENT PROBLEM
While there have been recent rapid technological and production advances as the music industry embraces Streamed Concerts, the traditional licensing structure for rights used during a Streamed Concert has remained unchanged, and is often misunderstood. Every Streamed Concert will use Public Performance & Communication to the public Rights (usually defined as Online rights and Making Available rights) and Reproduction & Distribution Rights (usually defined as Synchronisation rights), on both the publishing side and the master side for every Work performed.
Public Performance & Communication to the public Rights - The Public Performance & Communication of the right happens in the location the public experiences the performance. If a ticket for a Streamed Concert has been sold in a particular territory, that territory is where the Public Performance & Communication happens, and therefore where the licences are required. Thus for a Platform/Promoter to obtain the required licenses for the relevant Public Performance & Communication Rights for the world - and therefore sell tickets throughout the world - they need to obtain such licenses from every PRO in the world, both on the publishing side and the master side for every Work performed. There are currently 150 PROs on the publishing side, and 84 PROs on the master side around the world, as well as numerous private Neighbouring rights companies. This means that a Platform/Promoter may need to conclude as many as 250 separate licensing deals, as well as undertaking the administration to report the rights used and account license fees (calculated on a territory-by-territory basis) to all those licensors. Additionally, many of those licensors haven’t finalised their Tariff rate and structure for licensing the relevant rights yet; which means that Platforms/Promoters currently have no certainty as to the license fees that are or will be required to undertake a Streamed Concert, and are therefore unable to conclude Artiste settlements with any certainty.
Reproduction & Distribution Rights - The Platform/Promoter will need to obtain a license from every Writer and Publisher of every Work performed (including from Co-writers and their Publishers, and Writers and Publishers of any covers), as well as all the Performers and potentially their Record company. Additionally, the Platform/Promoter will need to undertake the administration to report the rights used and account license fees to each individual Rightsholder.
Rightsholder income - Under the traditional PRO Network licensing structure, for Rightsholders to receive the license fees paid by the Platform/Promoter, they will need to rely on those approximately 240 different PROs to license their rights correctly to the Users. Then rely on those PROs to distribute the license fees paid by the Users in an efficient, timely and transparent way back through the PRO Network. As noted above, many of those PROs haven’t even finalised their Tariff rate and structure for licensing the relevant rights yet. Unfortunately Rightsholders have no certainty on when or even if they’ll receive the license fees paid by the Platform/Promoter.
SOLUTION
Do you want to receive more money, quicker, and more transparently?
PACE Rights Management assists Writers, Publishing companies, Performers, and Record companies, to take control of their rights and manage them individually, enabling them to Direct License those rights to the Platform/Promoter using their rights on a Streamed Concert.
'Direct Licencing' refers to the Rightsholder (Writer, Publisher, Performer, Record company) withdrawing (temporarily removing) or terminating (permanently removing) the Rights for certain Works (e.g. a setlist) for certain performances (e.g. a Streamed Concert) from the PRO that the Rightsholders has assigned those rights to, and then licensing those rights directly to the User of those rights (Platform or Promoter).
Direct Licensing live concerts does not impact your other PRO licensing - When the Public Performance & Communication Rights are withdrawn/terminated, that doesn’t impact on the other 10 Utilisation Categories of Public Performance Rights that the Rightsholders assigned to the PRO. So while those Public Performance & Communication Rights have been withdrawn, the PRO will continue to license radio, TV, retail, other online platforms, etc in the usual way (rules can vary depending on PRO in the U.S.).
Income - The Rightsholder will receive more income by Direct Licensing with PACE’s assistance, than they would via the PRO Network. PACE only charges 10% of the license fees received, versus the multiple larger deductions the Rightsholder will suffer licensing through the PRO Network (see diagram below).
Distribution - Once PACE receives the licence fee from the User, we distribute on instruction from the Rightsholder. We can distribute on instruction after receiving the licence fee, resulting in Rightsholders receiving their money much quicker than through the PRO Network.
Transparency - PACE has the most transparent and granular accounting for rights used in a Streamed Concert anywhere in the world. The Rightsholders will know to the cent/penny per Rightsholder, per Work, per concert, how much they’ve made, and the calculation that achieved that amount.
As demonstrated by the comparison below, the Licensing and Distribution model of the current PRO Network is convoluted, opaque and inefficient - both in terms of the length of time it takes for the Rightsholders to receive their money, and the deductions made to that money. However, our model solves those issues, resulting in Rightsholders receiving more of their own money, receiving it quicker and transparently.
PROCESS
PACE helps manage the entire end-to-end Direct Licensing process for its clients:
