Regulation of the Music Industry

THE REGULATION OF THE MUSIC INDUSTRY

Contents

I- Introduction

II- How and when the recognition of copyright really started?

a- The music Industry today

b- The music regulation associations

c- The Internet file sharing: Legal or illegal?

III- Conclusion

IV- Bibliography

I-Introduction

Many of us devote our lives, energy, talents, funding, and sanity to music. But what is it? Music is humanly methodical sound. The birds and bees may also make pretty sounds. But despite the effusions of the poets, such sounds are not music by definition. Jean-Claude Risset once said: “Music is what you listen to when you feel like listening to music” (“La musique c’est ce que l’on écoute quand on a envie d’écouter de la musique”).

Today is an exciting time for musicians to break into the music business as technology improves and different options become available to them. However, the music business is a business, in which a band or musician wanting to break into this industry must learn to navigate and manage in order to be successful.

A musician or band must first understand the aspects of their band and turn it into a business and treat it as such. The deeper you get involved in the industry, the more you must understand how each component of the industry such as, copyright, publishing, performing rights affects you. Then understand the different branches of the music industry such as record companies, producers, managers, business managers, talent agents and promoters work together to make the most of your product, your band. And believe it or not, this isn’t always an easy thing to do.

II- How and when the recognition of copyright really started?

In the past three centuries there have been great debates about granting of property rights to authors, the dilemma being the extension of such rights, with the primary emphasis on the provision of copyright protection through the formal legal system.

Authors of various works throughout the ages tried to make works permitted to copy once they have been disclosed to the public. The first authors that were concerned with the recognition of copyright were the scholars of Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire, but copyright protection was practically non-existent until the late fifteenth century, and the historic invention of printing.

The issue of copyright legislation began to be harmonized within sovereign states, leading to the signing of

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