With this organisation in place, yesteryear singers struggling financially will benefit from it
— Sonu Nigam
This royalties will act like a pension plan for singers. It is a very good move
— Abhijeet Bhattacharya
By Avantika Patil
After the long standing tussle between IPRS and MCAI, now even singers have joined forces to claim their rights. The first step in this direction is the formation of ISRA (Indian Singers' Rights Association). Recently a press conference was held to announce the formation of ISRA and their formal registration under The Government Of India as the copyright collection society for the singers. ISRA received its Certificate of Registration from the Central Government on June 14, 2013.
According to the copyright act amended on June 21, 2013, the performers are now entitled to receive royalties in case of using their songs for commercial use, where their songs are utilised in any form other than for the communication to the public along with the film in a cinema hall. The act further states that the performer can assign his copyright but cannot assign or waive off the royalties for the utilisation of such performance in any form other than for the communication for the film or along with the film in a cinema hall. The performer can assign the right to receive royalties to either his legal heir or a copyright society for collection and distribution. Any agreement to contrary to this shall be considered null and void.
According to Sanjay Tandon, convenor, ISRA, "In 1969, when IPRS was formed and royalty rights were given to music labels composers, lyricist etc, even singers had asked for their share. But during that time, music composers opposed this demand saying that all the creativity that goes in the making of the song is that of the music composer. Singers just lend their voice like any other musical instrument, and hence aren't entitled to royalty at all." He further said, "It was decided that those who put in money for the album or a song is a creative contributor along with composers and lyricists. Taking this ahead, it was decided that 50 per cent of the profit share will go to the music companies and the remaining share will be distributed equally amongst the composers and lyricist. Composers opposed this decision, demanding a 30 per cent of the share which was granted to them. In this entire share, singers weren't entitled to anything at all."
