The European Commission has recently put forward a proposal on collective rights management and multi-territorial licensing for the Single Market. The overall goal of the proposed Directive is to modernize collecting societies and promote greater transparency and efficiency. The Commission sees this as essential to advance the cross-border, multi-territorial licensing of copyright-protected music tracks in particular to facilitate access to cultural content as enabled by new digital technologies.

In the Commission’s words, the proposed Directive would ensure that:

• Rightholders have a direct say in the management of their rights, be renumerated more quickly and be able to choose the most efficient collecting society.
• New requirements such as improved management of repertoire, quicker payments to members, clarity in revenue streams, an annual transparency report would be added. Members States would also be obliged to enact mechanisms for solving disputes between collecting societies and rightholders.
• Multi-territorial licensing of authors’ rights for the use of music on the Internet across borders becomes easier.

For more information on this proposal, including the draft Directive, please follow this link.