1. The Ministry of Law (MinLaw) has tabled the Copyright Bill for First Reading in Parliament today.
2. The Copyright Bill (“the Bill”) seeks to repeal and replace the current Copyright Act. It will strengthen the copyright regime in Singapore, by updating the Copyright Act to stay abreast of changes in how content is created, distributed, and used. It will also make the law more accessible by simplifying the language.
Key Features of the Bill
3. The key features of the Bill are:
a. It will introduce new rights and remedies for creators, to ensure copyright continues to reward the creation of works and incentivise creativity. For example:
- A new right to be identified will require users to ensure that when materials are used in public, including when they are distributed on online, the creator or performer is acknowledged. This will help individual creators and performers build their reputation.
- Creators of photographs, portraits, engravings, sound recordings and films, whether commissioned or otherwise, will by default be the first owner of copyright unless otherwise prescribed by contract. This changes the current position, where the commissioning party owns the copyright by default. Creators will be better positioned to negotiate with the commissioning parties, and can further showcase and commercialise their works for other purposes.
b. It will create new exceptions to copyright owners’ rights, known as “permitted uses” to ensure copyright works are reasonably available for the benefit of society and to support innovation. For example:
- Copyright works, if lawfully accessed (e.g. without circumventing paywalls), can be used for computational data analysis, such as sentiment analysis, text and data mining, or training machine learning, without having to seek the permission of each copyright owner. This will support research and innovation efforts.
- Teachers and students may use freely available internet materials in their educational activities, including for home-based learning, as long as they acknowledge the source. However, if they are made aware that the source is infringing, they must stop using it. This new exception is timely, since the use of online materials for educational purposes has increased substantially.
A summary of the key changes can be found in the Annex.
4. The Bill will restructure and reword the legislation in plain English, to enhance its clarity and accessibility. The Bill adopts a more intuitive, thematic structure and provides illustrations to show how provisions should be applied in particular situations. This will allow creators, users, and intermediaries to better understand how the law works to both protect and provide access to works.
5. MinLaw and the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) would like to thank all respondents who provided feedback during the several rounds of public consultations culminating in a draft version of the Bill being issued for final consultation in February this year. Responses from the February consultation were taken into consideration in finalising the Bill. MinLaw’s full response to the February consultation can be accessed at www.go.gov.sg/copyright-consult-response.
6. If passed, we expect to be able to operationalise most of the provisions in the Bill in November 2021.
6 JULY 2021
22nd February 2021 – IFPI, the organisation that represents the recorded music industry worldwide, and four leading music licensing companies (MLCs) in Asia, working with music technology company BMAT, have launched SoundSys, a first-ever, fully scalable, shared system for the distribution of sound recording performance rights revenue around the world.
IFPI, and the respective MLCs in India, Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand, working with BMAT, have designed, and delivered the industry’s first shared, cloud-based software that serves as a complete, cost-effective back-office distribution system for revenue collected for the broadcasting and public performance of sound recordings and karaoke videos in these countries.
MLCs license the use of music for public performance and broadcast and distribute the license fees back to the right holders they represent. They need sophisticated IT systems that enable them to do this accurately and efficiently. Such systems can however be costly to develop and the unprecedented collaboration saved these MLCs from having to each build their own systems.
IFPI and the four MLCs partnered with the music technology company BMAT to develop SoundSys, which uses their proprietary state of the art technologies to organise, store and match usage and recording data, enabling MLCs to distribute royalties in a timely and cost-efficient manner, in line with global best practice.
The development of SoundSys follows the launch of the repertoire data exchange service, RDx, by IFPI and World Independent Network (WIN) last year, which enables record companies to exchange authoritative data with MLCs through a single, centralised hub. The roll-out of both systems globally will provide a standardised, high quality recording metadata supply pipeline and data processing capability for MLCs that will significantly improve the performance rights management landscape worldwide.
Frances Moore, Chief Executive of IFPI, said: “SoundSys is truly transformative. It results from unprecedented cooperation internationally while exemplifying the strength and professionalism of the music industry in Asia to harness cutting edge music technology and deliver a globally significant advancement.”
“We have launched in Asia in close collaboration with the MLCs that have helped shape and refine the system. It’s proving to be highly effective in assisting the operations of MLCs and we will now be looking to roll it out in other regions that can benefit most from the software.”
Orsi Bozso, SoundSys Project Manager at BMAT, said: “After years of tracking and data-processing next to all music industry players and gaining expertise on the challenges they face, it was a natural next step for us to develop a software that could upgrade copyright management operations.
“IFPI’s expert vision and being in sync with the four MLCs allowed us to use our technology to revamp the way MLCs distribute – bringing transparency, accuracy and reliability to the process.
“It’s been a true pleasure to collaborate with IFPI and the MLCs involved on this journey to compensating creators more efficiently.”
Jusak Sutiono, Director of Indonesian music licensing company, ASIRINDO said: “We are already greatly benefitting from the use of SoundSys in Indonesia. The SoundSys matching process is helping us to ensure we accurately identify the music content we are allocating revenues to, with the software improving the speed with which we can then process the revenue and distribute it to our right holder community.”
Chayapach Sangtabtim, General Manager, PNR (Phonorights) music licensing company in Thailand said: “SoundSys is the result of a truly successful collaboration between MLCs in Asia and IFPI. By combining our knowledge and practical experience, we have created a product that has directly improved our operations in Thailand.
Notes to editors:
For further information please contact:
press@ifpi.org | +44 (0)20 7878 7979
About the Music Licensing Companies
The music licensing companies that have developed and are currently using SoundSys are: ASIRINDO (Indonesia), Music Rights (Singapore) Public Limited, Phonorights (Thailand) and PPL India.
About IFPI
IFPI is the organisation that promotes the interests of the international recording industry worldwide. IFPI and its National Group network has over 8,000 members across more than 70 countries. There are over 70 IFPI offices, National Groups and Affiliated MLCs. IFPI’s mission is to promote the value of recorded music, campaign for the rights of record producers and expand the commercial uses of recorded music in all markets where its members operate.
About BMAT
BMAT is a music innovation company with a mission to index all music usage and ownership data. They are experts in monitoring and reporting music globally across TVs, radios, venues and digital to help all different companies in the music industry better their data operations and help artists get paid for their plays. Every day BMAT delivers 80 million identifications and 27 billion matches to CMOs, publishers, record labels, broadcasters and DSPs.
For SoundSys related enquiries please contact: soundsys-info@ifpi.org.
November 3, 11am CET, Seville, Spain – Jasmine Sokko, the rising singer/producer signed to Warner Music Singapore, wins the Best Southeast Asia Act award at the 2019 MTV EMA. This marks a historic win with Jasmine Sokko being the first Singaporean artist to win an MTV EMA award. This announcement for the Best Southeast Asia Act award came ahead of the award ceremony that will be held tonight on November 3, 2019 at Seville, Spain at FIBES Conference & Exhibition Centre of Seville, Spain at 9pm CET (November 4, 4am SGT) with Jasmine Sokko in attendance.
As a first time nominee, Jasmine Sokko has emerged as the fan favourite in the Best Southeast Asia category, ousting Jannine Weigel (Thailand), Moira Dela Torre (Philippines), Rich Brian (Indonesia), Yuna (Malaysia) and Suboi (Vietnam) and brought home the first win representing
Singapore for this year’s ceremony. Past nominees representing Singapore in the Best Southeast Asia Act category includes: Olivia Ong (2013), Stefanie Sun (2014), The Sam Willows (2015, 2017, 2018) and Gentle Bones (2016).
Says Jasmine Sokko, “I still can’t believe this is happening! I’m thrilled, over the moon, beyond grateful and above all, I feel so undeservingly loved. To everyone who voted, thank you all a million. To my label family at Warner Music, thank you for believing in me. To MTV Asia and MTV EMA, thank you for this award.
Sometimes I look back and can’t believe how much have happened in the past year.
I always believe that it’s important to challenge the status quo. Just because nobody has done something before, doesn’t mean it’s not possible. The past year has made me foresee a future in the Singapore music scene that I want to be a part of building.
May the ceiling of mine today be the floor of tomorrow’s generation.”
As part of many firsts, Jasmine Sokko is also the first Warner-signed Asian artist to bring this award for Southeast Asia. Simon Nasser, managing director of Warner Music Singapore who signed Jasmine Sokko to the label, is also in Seville, Spain to attend the award ceremony.
Says Simon Nasser, “Passion and belief are what drive both the label and the artist to work hand-in-hand to create milestones. I’m so amazingly proud of what Jasmine Sokko has achieved and her musical output is incredible. This shows that our artists can go global and together, we can make it work. I hope this sets a fresh new momentum for all Singaporean artists to continue working on their craft and aim for the global stage.”
Making her mark in 2016 with her debut single “1057,” Jasmine Sokko first signed to Warner Music Singapore in 2018 and has since released two chart-topping career-defining singles – “HURT” and “TIRED”. In 2019, she also made her first foray into the China market, with her debut Mandarin single “SHH” released on September 5 with Warner Music China. The singer/producer is currently working on more new music and both Mandarin and English releases are in the pipeline.
The 2019 MTV EMAs is one of the biggest global music events of the year that celebrates the hottest artists from around the world and will broadcast to MTV channels globally on Sunday, November 3 at 9pm CET from FIBES, Conference & Exhibition Centre of Seville, Spain. In Asia, the awards ceremony will broadcast live on MTV Asia on Monday, 4 November 2019, starting with the red carpet premiere at 2.00 AM (WIB), 3.00 AM (SG/MY/PH), and 4.00 AM (MY – Astro). This is followed by the main show at 3.00 AM (WIB), 4.00 AM (SG/MY/PH), and 5.00 AM (MY – Astro). The 2019 MTV EMAs will also be live-streamed on the MTV Play app.
Catch the primetime encore telecast on the same day, 4 November, with the red carpet at 7.00 PM (WIB) and 8.00 PM (SG/My/PH), and the main show at 7.50 PM (WIB) and 8.50 PM
(SG/MY/PH).
Hosted by Becky G, the awards ceremony also features performances by Warner artists such as Ava Max, Dua Lipa and Green Day.
24 September 2019 – IFPI, the organisation that represents the recorded music industry worldwide, today released the Music Listening 2019 report, which examines the ways in which music consumers aged 16 – 64 engage with recorded music across 21 countries.
Report highlights:
- Music listening is up. Respondents typically spend 18 hours per week listening to music – up from 17.8 hours in 2018. This equates to about 2.6 hours – or the equivalent of listening to 52 three-minute songs – daily.
- Most people (54%) identify as ‘loving’ or being ‘fanatical’ about music. Among 16 – 24-year-olds, this rises to 63%.
- Older age groups increasingly embrace audio streaming services. Engagement with audio streaming globally is strong, with 64% of all respondents accessing a music streaming service in the past month – up by about 7% over 2018. The highest rate of growth for engagement is in the 35 – 64-year-old age group, with 54% of that group accessing a music streaming service in the past month (+8% on 2018).
- Copyright infringement remains a challenge for the music ecosystem. 27% of all surveyed used unlicensed methods to listen to or obtain music in the past month, while 23% used illegal stream ripping services – the leading form of music piracy.
Frances Moore, chief executive of IFPI, said: “This year’s report tells an exciting story of how fans are increasingly engaging with music. At a time when multiple forms of media vie for fans’ attention, they are not only choosing to spend more of their time listening to – and engaging with – music but they are doing so in increasingly diverse ways.
“The enduring partnership between record companies and artists is the bedrock on which this growing, exciting global world of passionate music listeners is built. Record companies work with their artists to help connect them with fans around the world.
“The report also highlights that the availability of music through unlicensed methods, or copyright infringement, remains a real threat to the music ecosystem. Practices such as stream ripping are still prevalent and return nothing to those who create and invest in music. We continue to coordinate world-wide action to address this.”
The full report is available at https://www.ifpi.org/downloads/Music-Listening-2019.pdf
For further information please contact:
press@ifpi.org +44 (0)20 7878 7979