Sigma Alpha Iota

Summer 2020 10 P A N P I P E S M IDEM, or Marché International du Disque et de l'Edition Musicale, is considered the foremost Worldwide Music Industry Conference. It typically takes place in Cannes, France during the first week of June each year. Music industry professionals from around the world, including record label executives, intellectual property and entertainment attorneys, legal executives, music publishing executives, performing rights professionals, and artist representatives are among those who attend. Receiving an SAI Professional Development/Education Grant enabled me to attend the conference in June 2019, so I could network with industry professionals from around the globe and create relationships with companies in various territories where my company has business dealings. e main event hall is the famous Cannes Palais, where the Cannes Film Festival happens, just one week prior to MIDEM. Meetings generally take place at various hotels, restaurants, and venues along the Boulevard de la Croisette, and in the exhibit halls within the Palais. All of the educational events, including keynote speakers, panel discussions, and various group meet-and-greet events take place within the Palais. To fully understand the reason for attending such a conference, you must first understand a little bit about the international climate of the music industry and the role a music publisher plays in the life of a music creator. Music publishing is oen a misunderstood term, where people believe it only covers the printed rights of music. Although this is partially true, publishing is not limited to printed material, but also covers the protections for all music creations/intellectual properties. In very general terms, it is a publisher's responsibility to ensure all rights to a song/work is protected, licensed, and paid. To boost the value of the copyrights represented by a publisher, the additional responsibility of exploiting and marketing the work falls to this publisher. erefore, the main roles of a publisher is to: protect the creation of the work (via copyright); exploit, market, and distribute the work to the public; license any uses (including digital sales, use in media, performance, and print); collect on licensed work; settlement of song disputes; and track and pay writers/creators for the uses represented by the clients of the company. Although U.S. Copyright Law protects all intellectual property throughout the majority of the world, there are limitations when it comes to protecting those rights. As a music publisher, it is the company's responsibility to ensure these rights are protected for our clients throughout the territories in which they are represented. In most cases, the clients my company represents are on a worldwide basis, which means it is my responsibility to see to their rights management and exploitation throughout the world. Most publishers work with other publishing entities within different territories to "work" their catalog within that territory. ese publishing entities are called "sub-publishers." We rely on our sub-publishers within a territory to ensure that the songs are properly protected, that the music is being promoted and exploited within that territory, that all legalities necessary are in place to ensure payment, and finally to collect and pay our company. When attending MIDEM, there are presentations of international reports on copyright changes within various territories, education panels and events—which provide for continued education on a vast and in-depth field, keynote speeches by some of the most highly regarded professionals from our business, and meetings with incredible people from around the globe. During this trip, my company was able to secure multiple sub-publishing deals directly with publishers, while meeting with many others for whom we are considering relationships within this realm. e conference lasted for five days, and we were able to secure, or begin negotiations for more than 15 territories during this period of time. Attending an event like this brings all the important parties into one space allowing for a significant amount of networking and business transactions. is was my 3 rd trip to MIDEM and my most productive yet. Paula Savastano, a Sigma Chi initiate and current member of the Long Beach Alumnae Chapter, is the Senior Director of Copyright and Royalties at Angry Mob Music LLC. MUSIC PUBLISHING MIDEM Entrance to Palais Convention Center Networking at MIDEM

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