PRO and RF confilct of interest

[Grant Tregellas]

Hi everyone. I have a question that I would like some clarity on, especially from those here on the forum with experience in this matter.

First off, Im based in South Africa. The PRO over here is SAMRO.

A friend of mine cut a deal a few years back with a major bank to provide music to be played in their branches. The bank wanted it to be a RF, work for hire job and did not want to involve the PRO in the deal.

What happened then was that the PRO got wind of this and accused my friend of a conflict of interest, saying that he couldn’t be a royalty earning member with them, while earning in the RF market at the same time.

None of the tracks were registered with the PRO.

They essentially threatened to remove him as a member if he continued on with the deal. The deal, as i understand it, was dropped by the bank. My friend was still paid for the music he provided. But the bank then went with a standard PRO type music licensing agreement with someone else.

Now, obviously I dont expect anyone to know the workings of SAMRO, but I assume they follow the same practices as BMI/ASCAP etc.

From what I have read here in the forums, it seems most of the composers here work within the RF market and the PRO (backend licence etc) market at the same time without any issues.

Do SAMRO (PRO) have a case here? Or are they just getting heavy as they were about to lose a large royalty payer (the bank). Do you think they would have looked the other way if it wasn’t such a big player? Or is this just nonsense?

Thanks

[Kenny]

Well, it depends. The pro in my home country is pretty strict on this, so I chose to go with a pro in a nearby country instead. This pro lets me do these kind of deals as long as the music is reported to the pro as library music.

You will simply have to read through the agrement with your pro, but they may very well be right.

[Grant Tregellas]

Thanks Kenny. I just wanted to know if this does occur elsewhere. I will pass on the info. I’m quite interested in this issue as my friend is starting a small library here and I am contributing music to it. I also have been selling in the RF market, so this would effect me as well. This is how I came to know about this deal.

Out of interest, If you had sold music on the RF market under a different name, would this have changed things re: your home country PRO?

[Iain]

Yes, the membership terms of PROs are likely to differ to some degree on this matter.

However, in relation to PRS in the UK and my understanding of the norm for EU PROs, then on signing as a composer/author member you do so on behalf of all your music. The registration of work titles with a PRO is mainly to facilitate identification for licensing and distribution purposes.

Having assigned the performing right to PRS (for example) and usually on a WW basis, you don’t retain the right to waive or direct licence the right for RP purposes. So, I can imagine SAMROs line of argument.

There are probably step arounds in terms of working under a different name for RF work, for example, but its mixed position to take in turn of understanding and valuing your rights.

[Grant]

Hi Iain,

Yes, after some further discussion with SAMRO, that seems to be the case. They do seem to assume control of the licensing of all your work. Don’t have a definitive answer yet though.

The reason I was interested in this is that I have recently uploaded and sold tracks on the RF market. I now have an offer to licence those tracks to my friends new music library, so this became an issue what with his run-ins with SAMRO over the RF issue. So, Ive removed those tracks. Hope we dont have any issues down the line.

I was hoping to get a response here from anyone who has dealing with a PRO that doesn’t have this conflict of interest. It just seems that a lot of people on this site do work in both worlds. So obviously it must be possible in certain territories. Im surprised that it does differ from country to country.

[Author]

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