First European Mechanical Right Licensing Portal Established

Written by the B&B Crew Tuesday, 29 November 2011 09:00

Industry -

The Brussel based Independent Music Companies Association (Imapala) and the Dutch Buma Stemra have joined forces to establish the first ever one-stop-shop for mechanical rights licensing in Europe.

The new way of licensing puts independent imprints on the same playingfield as bigger major record labels, which already had a single European mechanical license for physical music products including CDs, vinyl, DVDs and so on. Until now independent labels had to purchase mechanical license agreements in each European country to be able to distribute their CDs, DVDs or any other form of physical music carrier there.

To reach this kind of agreement, Impala (Independent Music Companies Association) has been negotiating for 10 years with different European societies. In the end, the Dutch Buma/Stemra presented the best proposal to Impala’s search for a one-stop-shop mechanical license for their members.

Executive chair of Impala; Helen Smith stated “Independents currently have agreements for mechanical licences in many European countries on many different conditions. We are confident that this will streamline the whole licensing process and add value for independent labels in helping them to sustain their position in the European music market, producing over 80% of all new releases.”