Royalties For Recordings Are A Live Issue

Songs are made of multiple layers, from music composition, lyrics, and vocal performances to audio production, mixing, and mastering. While this seems simple, complications arise in determining the royalties owed to the contributors to each of these layers. The complications are increased because of the lack of legal clarity over the rights of owners, such as music labels and publishers, authors, composers, and singers to receive royalties.

Many will be familiar with the issue of royalties payable to the authors of lyrics and composers of music, but another debate surrounds singers receiving royalties from the use of their vocal performances. The first and basic question is what are the rights that singers and other performers have in their performances. This arises because a recorded or live performance is not a work enjoying copyright protection. Sections 2(q), 2(qq), and 2(z) of the Copyright Act, 1957 (act), as read with section 14 of the act are clear. A