What are collecting societies? What are they for? How many exist and which ones to choose? Are they necessary or can we even do without them?

WHO IS IT

“The Italian Society of Authors and Publishers is a public economic body on an associative basis proposed for the protection of copyright in Italy” so defines the SIAE wikipedia. For more historical information about the association, you can search on the first available search engine.

HOW IT WORKS

SIAE offers two types of registration for the music section, one as a principal and one as an associate. If you are an UNDER 30 and therefore a young person entering the world of music, your registration will be free and you will automatically be registered as an associate, which also means that you have the right to vote within the SIAE. On the other hand, after 30 years of age you will have to pay the small amount of € 150 per year for the management of your membership relationship.

If you are over 30 years of age and you are walking towards the path of wisdom, you can choose to sign up as a principal and pay a one-time fee of € 32 through a bulletin or a bank transfer and then pay € 47 per year for your signing up. It goes without saying that the SIAE will deduct these amounts from your royalties every year.

The registration we choose with the SIAE does not affect our royalties. Both principals and associates collect money from SIAE in the same way.

If your relationship with the SIAE is of an associative type, after 30 years of age, you can choose to change your membership, passing from associate to principal, paying the one-off amount of € 32 and paying € 47 per year rather than € 150. Obviously these are the costs at the time of writing this article and may be subject to change, so before subscribing, check them on the official website.

TRACKS DEPOSIT

Filing at the SIAE is not very complicated … you just need to have a knowledge of quantum physics and trigonometry and above all the hope that the site will not crash just when we are almost finished with our deposit. Joking aside, we recommend that you make the deposit only after consulting with an expert in the sector who can explain how to distribute the DEM and DRM percentages, because they cannot be put at random. There are minimum and maximum percentages to be respected.

The novelty that SIAE has introduced is the SIAE plus app, with which you can make deposits in a much simpler and more intuitive way. It is also possible to check the economic performance of our songs directly from the app.

ASSOCIATIVE RELATIONSHIP

For any problem, you can contact SIAE customer service, either through the appropriate “ASSISTANCE” section, or by calling the number or various toll-free numbers active on the site at the contact us section. Both channels of the service are extremely efficient and responses are fast and specific.

Update: During the first lockdown, the SIAE provided its members, upon request, with food parcels worth € 200 and for the under 30s it gave away some devices such as mixers, sound cards, microphones, webcams, etc. much appreciated.

PAYMENT

If ancient Aramaic were an allotment ordinance, it would be that of the SIAE. The SIAE distributes to its members in two ways, analytical and proportional (perhaps we will discuss this difference better in another article). It is often a difficult task to understand what the collection of copyright from the SIAE prospectus derives from.

We have often come across items that are too general such as: “other proportional divisions” or “online where finding the actual usage channels can be really frustrating!

ASSIGNMENT OF ASSOCIATIVE RELATIONSHIP

As with everything, even from the SIAE it is possible to withdraw or withdraw the mandate or give mandate limitations to the SIAE. It’s all very simple, you can download the appropriate form and send it by certified email, registered mail or by calling the toll-free number.

CONCLUSIONS

The great strength of SIAE is its widespread coverage in the area and 5 stars for customer service. The big weakness of the SIAE is that it addresses a younger generation with old-fashioned methods that are sometimes too slow and unclear.