What is a neighbouring right?

A neighbouring right (often called a related right) is a copyright-like right held not by the songwriter but by the people who carry a song to listeners: the performers on a recording, the producer who owns the master, and broadcasters.

Who holds one

The international baseline is the Rome Convention. WIPO's summary lists three protected groups:

• Performers, such as singers and musicians, protected against acts they have not consented to, such as broadcasting or communicating a live performance to the public.
• Producers of phonograms (the master owner), who get "the right to authorize or prohibit the direct or indirect reproduction of their phonograms."
• Broadcasting organisations, who can control rebroadcasting and fixation of their broadcasts.

The Convention requires at least 20 years of protection, counted from the end of the year of fixation for recordings. WIPO notes that many national laws give a 50-year term, at least for phonograms and performances.

How the money moves

In practice, neighbouring rights income is collected by a society and split between the master side and the performer side. In the UK, PPL licenses recorded music when it is broadcast or used in venues and services, pays both performers and recording rightsholders, and collects for members abroad through agreements with other societies. In the US the closest equivalent is SoundExchange, which collects digital performance royalties that streaming services are legally required to pay for the recordings they play.

What it is not

• Not a mechanical or publishing royalty. Those belong to the composition; see what is a mechanical royalty.
• Not only for stars. Session players on a recording can be performers in their own right.

What we think

Neighbouring rights are the royalty that independent artists who own their masters are most likely to be owed twice and collect once. If you released it yourself, you are often both the master owner and a performer, which can mean two claims on the same play. Do not assume your distributor files either claim. Register the recording with the society in your home country and list every performer on it on release day; a session musician you forgot to credit is income nobody collects.