- Alliance of Artists and Recording Companies
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The Alliance of Artists and Recording Companies. (AARC) is a non-profit US royalty collective, assembled by the US music industry in conjunction with the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992, that protects the rights of featured artists and recording companies(sound recording copyright owners) both domestically and abroad in the areas of hometaping/private copy royalties and rental royalties. [1]
AARC is headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, just south of Washington, DC. Linda R. Bocchi is the Executive Director.[1]
Contents
AARC Summary and Foreign Royalties
Prior to 1992, there were no provisions in US law for recovery of royalties lost due to hometaping, although other countries included such protections in their copyright laws as early as 1965. Passage of AHRA provided for this recovery to be carried out within the US, similar to foreign copyright laws. Following the successful administration of AHRA royalties in the United States, AARC moved toward the administration of foreign hometaping royalties for US-based artists. [1]
AARC has negotiated hometaping agreements with collectives in the following countries: Japan, United Kingdom, Ireland, The Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, and Hungary.
AARC also administers foreign rental royalties for its artist members. It negotiated a landmark agreement with CPRA for the distribution of Japanese record rental royalties to entitled artists on US recordings. This agreement guaranteed US performers entitlement to royalties for rental of their works in Japan. The agreement stems from provisions in the TRIPS Agreement, an international trade-related agreement to protect intellectual property.[1]
Formation of AARC follows the pattern established in other countries where hometaping royalties are collectively administered, such as Spain, Ireland, Japan, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. In these countries, the artist community and the record companies have chosen to work together in establishing a simple, efficient and cost-effective means of distributing the collected royalties.[1]
AARC Board
AARC is overseen by a board of artist representatives, which include industry known artist representatives and managers, and record company representatives, which include executives of both major and independent labels. AARC's board also holds seats for representatives of AFM, AFTRA, The RIAA and A2IM. Representing both the artist community and recording industry, AARC looks after their mutual interests. It currently represents over 100,000 artists and record companies, including all major record company labels in the US.[1]
myMUSICroyalties
In March 2009, AARC launched myMUSICroyalties.com. A website geared towards assisting the US music industry in search of legitimate music royalties. The website is a tool to direct visitors to industry run and official royalty sources. This is a free service.
References
- ^ a b c d e f Alliance of Artists and Recording Companies. "AARC Summary". http://www.aarcroyalties.net/forms/AARC%20Summary.pdf.
External links
Categories:- 1992 establishments
- Copyright collection societies
- Music industry associations
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