The phrase "music free of ZAiKS royalties" calls for an explanation, and rightly so. There is nothing artful behind it, only the way the system of collective rights management is built. This article takes that mechanism apart, calmly and without stretching anything.
Let us begin with a caveat we will repeat at the end: this is not an article about your legal situation. We are writing about a specific repertoire - about where the recordings we release come from, and why they are not covered by the remuneration collected by collective management organisations.
The mechanism itself can be summed up in a few sentences, but it deserves a whole article. The most common misunderstandings come not from a lack of information but from mixing up two entirely different things: music with an orderly, documented origin, and files downloaded from wherever on the internet.
- A collective management organisation acts on behalf of its members and of the works that have been registered with it.
- There are creators who belong to no such organisation and have not registered their recordings with one.
- There is then no body that would collect remuneration for the playing of those particular recordings.
- Our repertoire is made up of exactly such works, and we hold full rights to use them.
- These are not files "from the internet" - they are recordings by specific creators, with an orderly origin.
What the remuneration is collected for - in two sentences
Playing music where customers can hear it is public performance, not private listening. A collective management organisation such as ZAiKS or STOART concludes agreements with users on that account and distributes the remuneration it collects among the creators who entrusted it with the task.
We described that whole mechanism separately. Here one sentence is enough to remember: the organisation acts on behalf of those who joined it and registered their works with it.
Creators outside collective management organisations
And here is the heart of the matter. Joining a collective management organisation is a decision made by the creator, not an obligation. Some musicians take that step, because it gives them the convenience of settling with thousands of places at once. Others do not, because they write music to commission, work in a model where the rights pass to the publisher, or have simply chosen a different professional route.
Why there is then nobody to collect
An organisation concludes agreements and collects remuneration for the works entrusted to it. If the author of a recording belongs to no such organisation and has not registered their music with one, there is no body that would collect a fee for it. Not because anything has been skipped over, but because there is nothing to distribute and nobody to pass it on to.
That is what our repertoire rests on. It is made up of recordings by creators from outside collective management organisations, registered with none of them, and we hold full rights to use them.
This is not "music belonging to nobody"
This is the single most important distinction in the whole article, and it is worth pausing over it for longer.
A phrase about music free of royalties is sometimes read as though it meant recordings with no author, no owner, lying about somewhere for the taking. Nothing of the kind. Every piece has an author, every one has an owner of the rights, and every one has a history of how it came about.
The difference lies solely in who holds those rights and who manages them. In our case they are kept in order on the publisher's side rather than entrusted to a collective management organisation. That changes the way things are settled; it does not change the status of the recording itself. It is still somebody's work, and somebody was paid for it.
The consequence is a very practical one. About such a repertoire you can say something specific: where it comes from, who created it and what it allows. That sounds like a detail, yet with music playing in a venue for several years it is really the only thing that counts.
How this differs from "royalty free" files on the internet
The term "royalty free" is used so widely online that it has stopped meaning anything at all. Sometimes it describes a real, well documented licence; sometimes it is a label stuck onto a file that somebody uploaded somewhere once.
Four things make all the difference here:
- A known author - you know who created the recording, not merely what the file is called.
- Rights kept in order - you know who holds them and on what basis.
- A described scope - you know what may be done with the recording, instead of guessing that probably anything can.
- Arrangements that last - the terms do not vanish along with the site the file was once downloaded from.
With a file from a random service none of those points is usually satisfied. You can play it for a year and never find out whose it actually is.
If your venue is currently playing a set of files downloaded at some point by somebody on the team, the simplest first step is not changing the repertoire but writing down what is in there at all and where it came from. Usually it turns out that nobody knows any more, and only then does a decision become possible.
What to check when settling what plays in your venue
An order of steps that tidies the subject up without unnecessary fuss:
- Establish what is playing right now - a specific source, not a vague "the radio or a playlist".
- Check whose account or device it is - a company one or a private one, and who has access to it.
- Ask where that music comes from - who created it and who holds the rights.
- Ask for it in writing - one sentence in a document is worth ten in conversation.
- Check what the permission covers - playing in the venue is one thing, marketing material is another.
- Write the arrangement down where the next person will find it - in the staff instructions, not in somebody's memory.
In writing, and what "a different field of use" means
Permission to use a recording is not a bottomless bag. It has a scope, and that scope is described in the paperwork.
Playing music in a venue is one situation. Putting the same music under an advertising film, under a piece of social media content or under a product presentation is a different one, described as a different field of use. Those two are worth telling apart from the start, especially if beyond the background in your venue you are planning to publish anything at all.
That is why the question "what exactly does this music allow" is worth asking at the outset rather than after a year of playing. The answer stays with you for a long time, and it is the answer that settles how calm this subject remains.
We release our repertoire on a carrier that simply sits by the equipment: on CD discs, with printing on the disc itself and a cover matched to the brand. If you would like to establish what might be playing in your own place and where that music comes from, write to us through the contact form.
To close, the point we began with: this article describes a repertoire, not your legal situation. If you want to see how such a carrier works in different interiors, have a look at our post on a branded music disc in a hotel, a restaurant and a treatment room, and for choosing the sound itself our piece on genres that support the prestige of a brand will help.
