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CMU Beef Of The Week #338: Songwriters v Bulgarian National Radio
By Andy Malt | Published on Friday 13 January 2017
Hey, so you know this whole thing that’s brewing between US collecting society Global Music Rights and the country’s radio industry? Basically, they can’t agree on a royalty rate for GMR’s smaller than 30,000 song catalogue and everyone’s screaming “monopoly!” Have you ever thought they needed a bit of perspective? Enter Bulgaria.
Since the beginning of this month, the state-funded Bulgarian National Radio has played almost no contemporary music, opting instead for classical, jazz and traditional folk. This is not due to a sudden distaste for pop, rather the price it has to pay for it. On 1 Jan, the deadline passed for the broadcaster to agree new rates with the country’s main song rights collecting society Musicautor.
As well as representing 2700 Bulgarian composers, lyricists and music publishers, it is also partnered with counterparts in more than 70 other countries, such as PRS For Music in the UK. So failing to do a deal has not only cut off BNR from Bulgarian pop, but also that of the rest of the world. According to local news service Novinite, this amounts to around fourteen million songs the broadcaster could previously play.
Hence BNR is now limited to playing music compositions that are old enough to be in the public domain.
Obviously a situation like this does not arise overnight. Like the GMR dispute, it has been building for some time. It has its roots in the annual get together of international collecting society organisation CISAC’s European members in Bulgaria last April. Seemingly, everyone else came round Musicautor’s gaff and started asking why it was letting itself get screwed over. Then it got embarrassed and lashed out at the nearest public broadcaster.
Prior to the end of last year, BNR was paying 1% of its public subsidy and 4.55% of advertising income over to Musicautor. It is seemingly the first figure that is contentious – the collecting society arguing that no public-funded broadcaster elsewhere in Europe pays such a low percentage of its subsidy to song rights holders. It wants to triple the rate over the next three to four years.
BNR counters, according to Novinite, that this demand “does not rest with economic realities”, adding that increasing royalties by this amount would force it to cut some of its regional programming, which would “tarnish the radio [station’s] public mission”.
Musicautor countered that BNR is “denigrating” the value of music and therefore “unilaterally suspended its contract with the BNR” on 1 Jan. So that all went well.
Talks have been ongoing, but there is still no love lost. Musicautor has accused BNR of “misleading” the public by playing more than 50 songs that it represents since the start of the year. Then, when Culture Minister Vezhdi Rashidov wrote them both a letter asking them to sort it the fuck out, BNR published the minister’s missive in an attempt to show to the world that the proposed rate increase was not supported by government.
Still, on Friday evening last week Musicautor sent a new proposal through to BNR. In a statement, the organisation said that when it phoned up the broadcaster to discuss this, it was told that “the working hours of the BNR [finish at] 5pm, and that the proposal will not be considered until Monday”.
Off to a good start then. But Monday, the start of a new week, that’s definitely a good time to look at things with fresh eyes. And also Tuesday, given that no response came on Monday. In fact, BNR waited until Wednesday this week to say anything.
“The Bulgarian National Radio does not accept the proposal of the society of composers, lyricists and music publishers for collective management of copyright Musicautor and is to initiate a public discussion on the amount that should be paid for copyright”, said BNR in its statement. Ah.
“BNR does not accept Musicautor’s demands, but remains open for further negotiations”, it continued. So that’s something. Although ‘further negotiations’ has been the status of this situation for a while now. Which is all good news for Bulgarians who only like songs written before the end of the Second World War and not really anyone else.
