MUMBAI: Warner/Chappell Music, the global publishing arm of Warner Music Group and Buma/Stemra, the Dutch collecting society, announced that Buma/Stemra is the latest collecting society to join Warner/Chappell’s Pan-European Digital Licensing (PEDL) initiative.
Granting non-exclusive rights in Warner/Chappell Music’s Anglo-American repertoire, the PEDL initiative is open to those collection societies that are willing to observe a group of common standards devised to deliver transparency, efficiency and accountability in copyright administration along with accurate and appropriate compensation for authors.
PEDL now provides digital services with new latitude in choosing among several collection societies from which to obtain Warner/Chappell’s pan-European rights. The initiative is an important step towards Warner/Chappell’s ultimate objective of making the procedure for securing a Europe-wide digital license an easy, one-stop process, whilst retaining value for rights-holders and opening up new opportunities for its songwriters. The societies who have signed up to the PEDL initiative thus far are MCPS, GEMA, STIM, SACEM and SGAE. Other societies remain welcome to join.
Warner/Chappell Music senior vice president International Legal and Business Affairs Jane Dyball said, "We are pleased to be welcoming Buma/Stemra on board the initiative and delighted that they have agreed terms with us to obtain the rights they need to license our repertoire on a pan-European basis. An additional benefit of PEDL is that it gives us complete transparency into the licenses which societies have entered into before joining the initiative, and where necessary the ability to require adjustments to those agreements, something we typically have not been able to do before."
Buma/Stemra CEO Cees Vervoord said, "We are excited to join PEDL which we support as a pro-right holder, pro-society, and pro-user initiative. This deal extends our partnership with Warner/Chappell and strengthens Buma/Stemra’s position with respect to the rollout and implementation of competitive new licensing models in line with the needs of today’s market. Buma/Stemra has over the last few years made tremendous efforts towards becoming the most efficient society in Europe with the lowest operating costs and we are pleased that we can deliver the service that WCM is requesting from its partners."
