UBC is a 21st century collective management organisation, that uses its 75 years of existence as a bridge between tradition and innovation. Continuously committed to reinventing itself, it adopts the best governance practices and dives fearless in the waters of technology.
We are indeed a technology company focused on our rights holders and their management priorities. This is our obsession. And also our amusement. For us, it’s not enough to pretend transparency. Our foundations are: support, training, communication and technology.
2017 teemed with achievements and challenges. We moved to a new, modern, startup-like building in Rio de Janeiro. We love to start over. We created Casa UBC, a venue for meetings and experiences, and managed to open it along with the UBC Awards, in November. Gilberto Gil was granted with the Brazilian Composer Prize, an acknowledgement of his 75 years of life and art. It was an unforgettable night, that we long to repeat, every year, praising new authors and the Brazilian music.
We are a Brazilian and a Latin American society. For that, we supported the Cisac University initiative and developed the Spanish and Portuguese versions of the online course “Copyright: History, Culture, Industry”, reaching not only the continent but, also, Spain, Portugal (in associationwith SPA) and African and Asian nations.
In 2017, we celebrated elections at UBC, and the elected president, Paulo Sérgio Valle, took office renewing all the board of directors, along with Antonio Cicero, poet, composer and, now, a member of the prestigious Brazilian Academy of Letters.
Likewise, in 2017 we achieved an all-time record in our distributions, reaching almost 600 million BRL shared with 164,000 rights holders.
We also celebrated important agreements with the audiovisual sector, as well as with YouTube. Right now, every single digital platform that operates in Brazil pay the public performance rights.Regarding the cinemas, almost all them do the same. This a happy movie — but has no end. New tasks demand the seven societies that manage ECAD to act promptly and responsibly.
The collective management world needs to keep an eye on new tools, criteria and approaches to old problems, spotting new bottlenecks in the collection and distribution system. But, most of all, we need to be aware that we are a relevant part of the music ecosystem, which experiences a permanent, dicey revolution.
We have been growing and are committed to the very meaning of this growth, looking forward to the future, with the optimistic outlook of those who believe in music and in the talent of the creators.
Marcelo Castello Branco
The collection of public performance royalties in Brazil, carried out by the Central Office of Collection and Distribution (Ecad), had a 9.3% growth compared to 2016, amounting to 1.140 billion BRL in 2017.
UBC’s total collection was 721 million BRL. That includes royalties resulting from domestic performance rights (99.3% of the total), values collected abroad and distributed to UBC members and royalties from reproduction rights repertoire. If, altogether, the societies that compose Ecad had a 9.3% growth in their collection compared to 2016, UBC alone achieved a significantly bigger expansion: 59%.
The total amount distributed by UBC was 605 million BRL, which represented a record 64% growth compared to 2016.
Around 164,000 rights holders were paid in 2017. The total amount of rights holders benefited from distributions have been growing constantly since the inclusion of streaming royalties in 2016.
The values distributed amongst the UBC’s associates represented 55,4% of ECAD’s total.