The Intellectual Property rights, or Copyright to be specific, in Music has always been a vital and troublesome matter the stages and composers. There have been countless number of lawsuits regarding music copyright because of most basic element. So how does music copyright start? And what different type of “music copyright” that we should consider?
The root of Music Copyright
The music copyright that we been practicing nowadays mostly based on the Bern Conventional. However, to some music researchers, Music Copyright can be traced back to as far as the 15th Century – the Medieval. In Europe back then, most music production evolves around the talented composers. Which means that there are only a few people that are capable of giving out the music. The performers often have to rely on the guidance from the composers, either directly or indirectly through music sheet, to give out the performance. If we compare this to the Music Copyright nowadays, its only concern is to protect the name and fame of each music sheet’s composer.
The reason why other related rights were not considered at that time probably because of the target audience. Most people who were capable of acquiring such performance often are aristocrats, those who possesses and has higher social status. In the other hand, music back then was not considered the “money-making industry”. To be frank, most profit potentially gained from producing and performing music was not noticeable. Those who were profited the most was the printing companies. However, since most audiences were aristocrats, which is a small market to begin with, printing company would make better benefit if they print other documents.
Commercializing Music
Not until the 17th Century did the idea of “commercializing Music” starting to grow. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart can be considered one of the pioneer composers who put his music on sales. Most of his “commercial” activity in music was performing in the public. Though most audiences still belong to the higher classes, the art of performing has varied. This also considered the root for the development of Opera.
Till this very moment, the right to property regarding music includes the right to perform publicly and the right to make derivative work (Opera, for instance). This related right started to gain attention from the composers and those who do businesses on performances. When Mozart passed away, his wife continued his idea by allowing his music to be played in ceremonies and by putting his productions on sales.
The global convention regarding author rights
Thanks to the French poet Victor Hugo, the Berne Convention 1886 existed. This is the world’s first convention that established rights to authors; aims at protecting arts and literary works. The Bern Convention established many rights that are kept to this day; such as the right for one to receive incentive for the work he/she created; the right to copy the product; the right to distribute, import the copies of the work; … This is no doubt the milestones that confirms the importance of author’s rights in the music industry.
Author’s rights – Never forget
The world moved on and leave the Medieval era behind, promoting and developing new technology, so did music. When human found out the way to store audio on physical copy (hard disks, or records), the music industry started to expand rapidly.
Thanks to the invention of radio, the music’s market panned out. The audiences no longer restricted to the higher classes I like in the Medieval era; lower income people started to be able to enjoy music. Most people can buy himself/herself a set of “music player” and enjoy their favorite piece of music. However, that audiences can enjoy music freely at home would severely hurt the music industry, in which author’s rights suffered the most.
It is reasonable to say that the author’s rights must be divided. There are rights for the “music” itself and there are rights for the “record”. While “music” is the product of a composer, the “record” is often the product and in possession of a studio. While author’s rights regarding the “music” remains identical to that in the past, there are new rights regarding the “record”. Some consider the “record rights” are the must in order for music industry to change and develop for the better.
But for most, the different income for “music” and “record” is the key that leads to the permanent changes in the music industry.
Author’s rights between composers and performers
Earth then moved to the early 21st Century, when audiences’ focus started to lock onto the performance style of the performers. In other word, the birth of “idols” has then become a trend that affects the music industry to this very day. “Idols” can be understood as bands like BigBang, SNSD, Super Junior (Kpop) or Backstreet Boys, Likin Park, West Life, One Direction (western). Not only bands, individual idols also rose up and make reputation for themselves; which has shifted the music industry to a totally different orientation. Though it is undeniable that a song could not be completed without the composers, the performers are those who make the song (or record, to be exact) stylish.
Of course, there still are performers that are composers at the same time, but the vast number of performers is those who aims at the stages only. Since performers have such an impact to the sales of “record”, their image and reputation protection are the must should music industry wanted to move on. That is why in music copyright, there are rights regarding the performer’s rights as well as “record” rights to fully exploit the potential profit of this “multi-billion dollars” industry.
Summary
Music copyright has been around since the 15th century, and has been evolving continuously till this very day. When acquiring the copyright to a song, be aware of which rights that you’ve acquired.
In short, if you acquired the rights for “record”, you should aim at the right to distribute, import, export copies (if you want to make profit, that is). If the rights in your possession is the rights of the “music”, you should perform it and turn it into “record”, the rest should be self-explanatory.
Of course, the intellectual property has not yet covered all the music copyright problems, but is does approve the importance of legal in music, confirm its close-knit relationship. In the future, Intellectual property and music surely will be even closer and tighter than what we currently have.