ITSRIGHT, NUOVO IMAIE & FIMI ANNOUNCE: “FOUND AN AGREEMENT WITH SONY MUSIC, UNIVERSAL MUSIC AND WARNER MUSIC ON SUPPLEMENTARY ANNUAL REMUNERATION FOR ARTISTS (ITALIAN RAS)”

ITSRIGHT and Nuovo IMAIE, Italian artists’ collecting society, together with FIMI, the Italian Music Industry Federation, announce the agreement with Sony Music Entertainment Italy and Universal Music Italia and Warner Music Italia about the Supplementary Annual Remuneration.  

The Italian RAS is a right to compensation that the Copyright Law (art. 84 bis) recognizes, on repertoires published since 1963, in favor of those artists who have not stipulated a contract with record companies that provides for recurring remuneration (i.e., percentage or co-participation). It is a measure to protect artists, managed by the collecting societies and introduced by the European Directive 2011/77/EU, which extended the length of protection for music recordings up to 70 years.  

“We are very satisfied with this result, which is the outcome of a demanding negotiation with the most important majors. We are certain that these first agreements will now pave the way for new agreements with all other record producers" comments Gianluigi Chiodaroli, President of ITSRIGHT. “Our goal is to offer a service which will simplify the record companies’ work for the payment of these profits and will finally ensure their collection in favor of a wide audience of artists, within a framework of clear and immediately applicable rules."  

“We hope that this is the first of a series of agreements that other record companies will also want to sign”, is the comment of Andrea Miccichè, President of Nuovo Imaie. “I am sure that now the compensation due to artists of the past - and their heirs - will be released and they will finally be able to benefit from it. With this agreement our country is aligned with the main countries of the European Union".  

“This agreement reached between the main Italian collecting societies of performing artists and the main Italian recording companies will allow to deposit the amount set aside by the companies on the basis of European legislation, while encouraging an ever-increasing use of the catalogs of important artists Italians who have made the history of music" says Enzo Mazza, CEO of FIMI.