SPA joins Pan European Digital Licensing initiative

The music publisher of Warner Music Group, Warner / Chappel Music, would love to ensure pan-European licenses and their ultimate goal is one European digital licensing model. Therefore, they have set up the Pan European Licensing (PEDL) project to maximize the cooperation with various copyright collecting societies in Europe. Main priorities are transparency, efficiency and accountability in European copyright administration, along with accurate and appropriate compensation for authors.

Now, the Portuguese collecting society, SPA announced that they will join Warners/Chappel’s Pan European Licensing (PEDL) initiative. SPA will be authorized to offer non-exclusive licenses for the music of Warner on a pan European basis. Other collection societies that have joined the PEDL initiative are PRS for music, SABAM, SACEM, SGAE and STIM. Also, the Dutch collecting society BUMA/STEMRA joined the PEDL.

Currently, there is no standardized European licensing model (‘one stop shop’) for copyright protected works in the EU. Unfortunately for the Europeans, the European market remains fragmented. Therefore, Europe proves to be an unprofitable market for popular streaming/music services to bring their online content services to, as they would have to deal separately with the copyrights in each European country. Also, the cultural and linguistic diversity of European works and of the consumers play a role. Various market segments are often too small for a profitable business model. Now Warner is trying to find a solution for these problems with the PEDL project.

Reference: BusinessofCinema