ANÁLISIS DE IMPACTOS

The music industry in Wales is dependent on specific individuals and small groups which work on behalf of the industry in the following ways:

• Volunteers, for example concert and festival organizers;

• A few relatively small- to mid-scale business operations – who employ less than thirty staff;

• A small percentage of professional (i.e. full-time) composers, authors and performers;

• A larger number of part-time composers, authors and performers.

Following recent research into the local economic market by the Centre for Business Research and Market Intelligence (CBRmi) at Bangor University, results indicate that the creative sector in North-West Wales comprise not so much of companies but rather of a mixture of full-time freelancers and part-time individuals.

Similar tendencies exist in the region’s music industry too, and it is probable that this pattern is reproduced throughout Wales. The turnover of the music industry in Wales is small in comparison with the media industry. This study has calculated that the approximate turnover for Welsh members in the area of royalties is around £1.5–2 million. This has been calculated partly through the results of the questionnaire (see Part Two, above) and by consulting with the primary recording companies who also represent music publishing in Wales. It is of course more difficult to calculate the general turnover of the industry because of a lack of concrete figures, but based on figures obtained from the Performing Rights Society (PRS for music), around 700 members write (or have written) and publish in Welsh, with around 230 actively receiving published works broadcast on Radio Cymru according to figures issued by the PRS, which – along with S4/C – provides the main source for disseminating Welsh-language music.

One could claim that the contribution and value of music to, for example, the media industry is far greater than reflected in these figures. S4/C received approximately £98,440 million in public funding from the Ministry for Sports and Heritage in 2008,54 with £25.1 million contributed by the BBC.55 In addition to this, television companies in Wales (such as Boomerang in Cardiff, Tinopolis in Llanelli, Rondo Media and Cwmni Da in Caernarfon) have secured significant annual turnovers in recent years. At the same time, the music industry has received a fraction of 1% of the total funding that the television industry receives.

54 _{Source: income received from the DCMS, see}

http://www.s4c.co.uk/abouts4c/annualreport/acrobats/adroddiad-blynyddol-s4c- annual-report-2008.pdf p.75.

55 _see

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/regulatory_framework/other_activities/ s4c_operating_agreement.pdf p.2.

3.1.1.3
Royalties
and
copyright


Intellectual property belongs to the author in all creative areas in order that the author profits financially from his or her work. The same principles operate in relation to musical works. One of the most important historical determining factors for the copyright industry was the Berne convention, signed in 1886, and designed to protect authors’ rights. In the UK, the Intellectual Property Office supports this principle by stating that economic rights provide an opportunity for the copyright owner to profit commercially from any exploitation of the work.56 The most recent copyright law passed in the UK (in 1988) supports the author of the work in every medium.57 A basic question which emerges from such discussions is how possible is it to measure the economic value of a work when exploited by the consumer? Should the fact that a work produced from a minority culture with more limited worldwide commercial reach than, say, Anglo-American pop, affect the value of the work in any way? Should it be the duty of copyright societies to protect and safeguard ethnic/minority production in addition to rewarding examples of global and commercial success with more money? These issues will be addressed in more detail in section two of this report.

In order to understand the music industry in essence, however, it is necessary to explain the process of creation and exploitation. In the popular domain, a writer will write the song (called ‘the work’), the song becomes the product and, in turn, the publisher part-owns the song, promoting and selling it commercially on behalf of the writer. Any users who wish to exploit a song (or an excerpt from a song) for public use are expected to pay a license to the publisher/composer for its use. The work of any Royalties society is to collect and distribute the money on behalf of composers and publishers who are members. Copyright is held on the work of the composer, author or translator for seventy years after his/her death. Unlike the global Anglo- American pop market, which generates large-scale profits from the sales of recordings and live performance, the small-scale Welsh industry is largely dependent on royalties for financial sustenance. This, plus changes in the manner in which royalty payments have been administered, explains why it has been afforded such an important place in this study.

Most countries around the world have societies that licence the composers’ works for public use, including licensing the rights to reproduce recordings of these works for public use. These bodies then collect monies from licensees and distribute payments between their members. In the UK the official societies are as follows:

1. Performing Rights Society (PRS)

2. Mechanical Copyright Protection Society (MCPS) 3. Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL)

56 _{http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/copy/c-about/c economic.htm}

57 _{http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1988/ukpga_19880048_en_2#pt1-ch1-pb1-l1g2} 


Their respective roles are detailed below. In the following sections, the role of creator and user in the context of the work and recording is discussed.

3.1.1.4
Creators


There are two types of creators – the creator of the work and the creator of the recording – with copyright functioning independently. This is reflected in the fact that recording companies and publishing companies often work hand in hand in the industry. This is also reflected in the collection societies themselves, with the MCPS/PRS working in alliance on one hand, and the PPL on the other.