Irena Georgieva attended the signing of the tripartite agreement for the settlement of music rights in the tourist and commercial sites in the country

05 October 2015

Deputy Minister of Tourism Irena Georgieva attended the signing of a tripartite agreement between the Musicautor, Prophon and the Bulgarian Hotel and Restaurant Association (BHRA) on the settlement of the rights on the music, which sounds in the tourist and commercial sites. “Today’s event reproduces the best practices in the EU. The agreement between the business and the BHRA is a critical step for making the sector step out of the shadow and a way to ensure compliance with the Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights”, said Deputy Minister Georgieva.

According to the Chairman of the BHRA, Blagoy Ragin, the tripartite agreement offers better conditions for the business and builds on the results of a pilot project which has been carried out in the past five years in this direction. “By introducing lower tariffs for the use of musical products on the territory of tourist and commercial sites, compliance with the law will be promoted and higher fee collection will be ensured”, he explained.

With the signing of the new tripartite agreement, in the next five years the owners of restaurants and shops will pay up to 25% less for using music. The new tariff will come into force on 1 January 2016, after being approved by the Ministry of Culture. According to the Executive Director of Musicautor, Ivan Dimitrov, the agreement which offers very favourable conditions for the businesses, aims to reduce the shadow sector, which covers nearly 85% of the market in Bulgaria. “Only 10-15% of the restaurants and outlets in the country pay for music, and last year’s revenues from copyrights are the lowest in Europe and in the Balkans as well”, said Dimitrov.

For a higher degree of user convenience, Musicautor and Prophon will provide services based on the principle of one-stop-shop. The Associations are building a web platform for submitting online applications, thus enabling users to send only one application for the signing of the contracts.

 

Facebook icon
Twitter icon
Google icon
e-mail icon