SACEM's missions

Yes. As provided for in the Intellectual Property Code, SACEM grants rebates to:

• municipalities, for national celebrations and town festivals,
• educational citizens' groups,
• general interest nonprofit organizations holding free events.

SACEM does more.
SACEM has signed more than 160 agreements with federations that grant reduced rights to their member organizations.

Yes. You can join different authors' societies for different countries: you can for example be a member of the ASCAP or BMI or SESAC for the USA and a member of SACEM for the rest of the world. You can also limit your membership to a specific rights category: you can for example.

Yes, but only in specific cases:

• for events benefiting humanitarian, philanthropic or social causes, such as soup kitchens, telethons, fund-raisers for victims of natural disasters...
• within the framework of agreements signed with certain music societies and fire brigades, a donation, based on the right amounts paid, is granted when this sum of money is used to buy musical instruments or equipment;
• SACEM gives free authorizations to some events that have a small budget and no revenues, such as the Fête de la Musique, Bastille Day dances, charitable events organized by municipalities or nonprofit organizations they subsidize

No, unless musical works used are now in the public domain. Of course, listening to music at home, in a family setting, privately and without payment, does not require any authorization.

This authorization must always be obtained prior to using music, by contacting SACEM two weeks before the event. You can phone, write or fax your local Sacem office to get a declaration form that will facilitate your request.

The mode of calculation is independent of the origin, genre, length and number of works used.

As a general rule, as stated in the Intellectual Property Code (Art. L.131-4), authors are entitled to a share in the revenues from the use of their works. Authors' rights are thus proportional to revenues (admission fees, food, drinks...), and a minimum remuneration is calculated based on expenses. Authors' remuneration is never worked out on the basis of profits.

For a free event or when music is not essential (e.g. background music for fairs or banquets), rights charged consist in a lump sum.

Just as it is normal to pay the event's drink supplier, caterer, electrician, musicians or sound technician, even if the event is free, songwriters too must be remunerated. Without their works, there would be no dances, concerts, fashion shows...

No, not if you live in one of the many countries with which France has an agreement against double taxation.

Yes. When a work is not published, Sacem distributes all performing rights and mechanical reproduction rights to the work's authors and composers.

No. When you transfer membership from one authors' society to another, all of your works and the royalties collected from their use are transferred to your new authors' society.

Yes, because SACEM has to give organizers the authors' prior agreement ahead of time, as well as the terms of calculation of the rights to be paid for using their musical works. This is true whether:

• the event is organized by a volunteers' association, a municipality, a festival committee or a professional show producer;
• music is performed by amateur or professional musicians (with scores or from memory) or played from records, cassettes, the radio or television;
• music is essential (as for concerts, dances, variety shows) or used as musical background for local fairs, banquets, two-week sales, sports festivals...

SACEM protects all musical works, whether French or foreign, except for works whose copyright protection has expired and have entered the public domain (70 years after the death of the author and the composer).

• When musicians or singers give a live performance, the event's organizer is responsible for obtaining the authors' authorization in view of the public performance of their works, and then for paying rights to SACEM.

These rights are separate from performer's fees. They go to the authors and composers who have ownership rights to the works.

• When using records and cassettes, there are neighboring rights in addition to authors' rights.

These rights are intended for the musicians, performing artists and producers who recorded the works: it is called "equitable remuneration". It is managed by the Société pour la Perception de la Rémunération Equitable (Society for the collection of equitable remuneration), which has entrusted SACEM with collecting it.

SACEM is not a business corporation and makes no profits. After deduction of operating expenses, 84,62% of collected amounts are distributed to composers, lyricists and music publishers, both French and foreign.

The Intellectual Property Code sets out that authors or their representatives must be informed of the complete list of musical works used by event organizers. SACEM needs to know all the works used at an event, in order to allocate as accurately as possible the rights going to each work and then to each author.

Furthermore, it is through events organized by municipalities and associations that thousands of local and regional songwriters acquire their audience, outside of radio stations, television channels and major production networks. These forms, filled out by the musicians, the conductor or the sound technician make it possible to identify all the composers, lyricists and music publishers, who would not otherwise receive their rights.