EU liberalises music rights handling

The European Commission this week ordered music rights groups to scrap international agreements to operate only within their own borders.

The decision means that broadcasters and internet music retailers should be able to get European Union-wide rights deals, instead of having to make agreements for each market separately.

A commission investigation was launched after complaints from RTL, the European broadcasting giant that owns Five, and Music Choice, a UK-based internet service.

The 24 national rights collecting societies, through the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers, previously agreed only to deal with artists and rights within their own country.

"This decision will benefit cultural diversity by encouraging collecting societies to offer composers and lyricists a better deal in terms of collecting the money to which they are entitled," said competition commissioner Neelie Kroes.

"It will also facilitate the development of satellite, cable and internet broadcasting, giving listeners more choice and giving authors more potential revenue."

Cable Europe, which represents numerous cable broadcasters in the continent, said further reform was needed: "The current copyright regime is outdated and has numerous inefficiencies caused by the arcane organisation of copyright payments and collecting societies. In today’s ruling only the territorial restrictions between collecting societies is addressed."