SPPF
Our Missions
Our organization
The SPPF is a collective management organization constituted in the form of a non-trading company with variable capital. It was created by Independent Producers for Independent Producers when the law of July 3, 1985, known as the “Lang” law, came into force. It is governed by the corresponding articles of the Civil Code and the legislative and regulatory provisions contained in the French Intellectual Property Code.
Its corporate purpose and operating rules are defined by its Status, supplemented by General Regulations.
The SPPF manages the neighboring rights of the main independent music labels, both French and foreign, of all musical kind. The SPPF administers a catalog of more than 5 million phonograms and more than 30,000 music videos and represents 80% of the independent production in France in terms of distributed rights.
Our main missions
The purpose of the SPPF is, within the limits of the entrusted mandates:
- The constitution of a Corporate Register (phonograms and music videos declared by members),
- The collection and distribution of the remuneration resulting from the exercise of phonogram and music video producers’ rights falling under the compulsory collective management (equitable remuneration and private copy) and voluntary collective management of the exclusive right to authorize exercised within the framework of general contracts concluded with users for some types of declared phonograms and video musics use.
- The allocation of grants intended to support and assist musical creation, via complete programs adapted to the needs of independent labels (grants for the recording of albums and the creation of music videos, grants for the promotion and marketing of phonographic production, for the training of artists and for the diffusion of live shows and grants for the digitization of new releases);
- The representation and protection of producers’ neighboring rights, both nationally and internationally;
- The implementation of services dedicated to the fight against digital piracy.
The SPPF manages your rights in complete transparency within the limits of the mandates you have entrusted. To accomplish all its missions, the SPPF levies management fees on collections that are among the lowest in France and in Europe.
For the management of phonograms, the following deduction rates apply:
For Equitable Remuneration, Private Audio Copying and the Collectively Managed Exclusive Right to Authorize, the rate is 8%.
For the management of music videos (Broadcasting Right and Private Audiovisual Copy), the 6% rate applies since the year of rights 2007.
Reinforcement of rights
Respecting and strengthening your rights: SPPF’s permanent concern
In addition to its missions of collect and distribution of rights, the SPPF intervenes through its analyses and reflections on all issues directly or indirectly affecting the protection of your rights and their condition of exercise in the current digital world.
A complex music production and distribution environment based on digital use
The global phenomenon of content convergence (written, audiovisual, music, software) and distribution medium (terrestrial radio, cable, satellite, mobile telephony, Internet, etc.) which characterize the Information Society has transformed music creation and production both economically and legally. It also implies a mutation of consumption habits and music marketing via dematerialized form leading to a deep modification of this sector’s economic data and especially of the nature and the sources of your remunerations.
Today, most of your revenues comes from the communication and the making available to the public of your recordings by means of digital transmissions, via musical services, whether interactive or not, accessible online (subscription streaming audio, streaming financed by publicity, streaming video, downloading, cell-phone telephony…).
A risk analysis
Digital technology may be a great asset for independent music production as it offers potential in terms of access to new markets and to a wider and more diversified audience, and in terms of exposure and promotion of musical heritage, but also presents a real danger for the development of a rich and varied musical creation.
Today, this danger comes mainly from new forms of piracy generated by the download sites (DDL) and the Peer-to-Peer sharing networks. Those practices encourage illegal downloads and/or exchanges of music on the Internet resulting in a very high proportion recorded music illicit consumption, even though legal offers are constantly being deployed and offer a diversity of catalogs at very affordable rates for individuals.
These new practices are very difficult to apprehend as they are mainly carried out by foreign websites and/or platforms, which seriously harm music producers and more broadly the entire music industry. While major measures have been taken in the recent years, both at national and EU level, it is vital for the maintenance of independent music production to fight these acts of piracy facilitated in a digital environment and to continue to support all new measures that will contribute to strengthen music producer and creator’s rights.
Setting up a watch
The stakes that digital technologies present for music producers are among SPPF’s essential concerns. The SPPF is working to assert your rights and to obtain the reinforcement of your exclusive right to authorize or prohibit the use of your musical productions, notably with the public authorities, the Conseil Supérieur de la Propriété Littéraire et Artistique (CSPLA) and community and international institutions.
The SPPF also collaborates closely with IMPALA, the european association of independent labels, on all these subjects.
Studies of EU directives and legislative initiatives
The SPPF closely follows the examination of EU directives aiming to create the legal framework needed to effectively protect musical contents which is meant to circulate in the Information Society as well as any national legislative initiative and any elaboration of legal and technical standards on the international level.
Through its constant mobilization on issues concerning the protection of your intellectual property rights, the SPPF ensures that you have the necessary conditions to meet the digital challenge.
