Music – we all love it, don’t we? Good music creates a pleasant atmosphere for both customers and staff in a shop, bar or restaurant. But the music you enjoy doesn’t just happen all of its own accord. Hard work has been put into the lyrics and the composition. It makes sense therefore for music authors to be remunerated as they deserve.
Music is an invaluable treasure
Music is an invaluable treasure. Can you imagine a nice friendly pub without music, for example? Studies have shown that the right choice of music improves sales. Customers like having music; they stay for longer and are more likely to visit again. Shop owners can even boost the sales of particular products through the type of music. Play French chansons in the supermarket and French wines will suddenly get popular. Not only that, staff give that bit more to their work when music is being played. It’s not for nothing that one of the Dutch radio music programmes is called arbeidsvitaminen – ‘work vitamins’.
Works of music are protected
Music is the work of lyricists and composers. Their texts and compositions are subject to music copyright. These music authors therefore have the exclusive right to commercial exploitation of their work, i.e. to earn money from it.
Permission and remuneration for using music
A composition or text is the intellectual property of whoever created it. The Dutch Copyright Act states that you must first have their permission before you can use the music, in just the same way as you ask someone’s permission to borrow their car. With permission, you can play the music in public or transmit it as a broadcaster or record it on CD. And in the same way as you pay your energy costs, you also pay an appropriate fee to the music author.
The role of Buma/Stemra
Do you like using music in your shop or restaurant? Do you want to put someone’s composition on CD or have it heard on your website? Asking the various individual music authors for permission and sorting out the payments would involve quite an effort. Fortunately, you can arrange this permission through a single body: Buma/Stemra. We handle the copyright exploitation for over 20,000 Dutch music authors and publishers. If you use foreign music, you can arrange the remunerations for it through us as well.
Buma/Stemra collects and distributes the fees
Buma/Stemra collects fees from music users and distributes them among the music authors who are members. This is a complex process, if you stop to consider that there are tens of thousands of music users and two million declared music creations. In order to keep this process as simple as possible, we sign contracts with umbrella organisations for music users and sometimes with individual users. The money that we receive from them is distributed among the music authors whose creations have been used, on the basis of the type of use.
Which other bodies do you have to deal with?
To be able to use music, sometimes more than just a payment via Buma/Stemra is needed. This is because we only actually handle the commercial exploitation of the rights of music authors and publishers. However, there are others who also have rights related to musical works – the performers who have interpreted the music, singers and bands, for example. This can also apply to the record companies who have produced the CDs. Sometimes there are also rights relating to TV and film images, on DVD for example.
You pay a remuneration to the performing artist(s) and the record producers through Sena, the Foundation for the Exploitation of Neighbouring Rights. For the rights to TV and film images, this is done through Stichting VIDEMA, the VIDEMA Foundation. For further information on paying for music use, please complete the contact form.
