[**21st Century Business Herald; Original link: Author: Gu Tingting; Editors: Lin Xi, Bu Yuqin; The title of the article has been revised].
In the creative industry, the contradiction between the moon and sixpence has always existed.
Focusing on the industry, the issue of royalty income involving the people behind the scenes has always been full of controversy.
Recently, NetEase Cloud** announced that it will release the "arranger free royalty" function for the behind-the-scenes ** group, and officially include the arranger group in the royalty revenue sharing after the release of the song, which also puts the controversial issue of whether the arranger should enjoy the tax share that has been controversial in the industry again.
Can the launch of such a project by a big platform really effectively solve the problem of revenue sharing for arrangers and safeguard the rights and interests of the people behind the scenes? Or is it just the marketing behavior of major platforms competing for the best people, and it can't really achieve the purpose of encouraging originality?
In this regard, the 21st Century Business Herald reporter interviewed the relevant personnel in charge of the project of NetEase Cloud**, lawyers focusing on the field of intellectual copyright, and senior practitioners in the industry to talk about the issue of royalty sharing for arrangers.
New changes call for a new sharing model
Arrangement copyright has been in a vague gray area at the moment.
In China's "Copyright Law", there is a clear copyright of lyrics and songs, but there is no right of "arrangement right". Beijing Jincheng Tongda & Neal Law Firm Mi Xinlei said that there are generally only four types of copyright: lyrics, composition, recording and production, and performers' rights.
This is due to the historical evolution of the modern **.
Even in the West, for a long time, pop music arrangement simply meant arranging a score for a song that had already been written to fit a different orchestra configuration (piano playing, small band), a process that was more of a technical task than a creative act.
It was not until the sixties and seventies, with the improvement of the production level and the gradual evolution of aesthetics, that Western pop began to change from the initial pursuit of beautiful lyrics and melodies to the pursuit of rich and diverse sounds.
In China, the epidemic started much later than in the West, and the huge historical inertia makes it difficult for the industry to accept a new type of work to participate in the distribution of benefits. In fact, the current ** industry also defaults to the fact that the arranger does not participate in the subsequent royalty sharing of the song, and only receives a one-time remuneration.
However, in recent years, with the tremendous changes in the form of Chinese pop, the importance of arrangers has become increasingly prominent.
Especially with the popularity of hip-hop and electro among young people, many ** creative processes show a transformation of arranging music in the front and lyrics in the back. It is understood that some hip-hop singers will buy BEAT from foreign accompaniment trading platforms such as BEATSTARS (note: the concept of "beat" mostly appears in hip-hop**, which can be translated as "accompaniment", "rhythm", or "song"), and then create words and vocal melodies around BEAT.
Previously, there were well-known singers who directly embezzled beat or after buying beat, the original author believed that he did not sign according to the requirements of the agreement and fell into "plagiarism" and "infringement" incidents. And the reason for this controversy is also inseparable from the importance of beat in creation. In this regard, Mi Xinlei believes that the arrangement of beat in hip-hop ** is actually close to the creative act.
In addition to the change in the genre, arrangers are becoming more and more involved in the industry in the creation of the song. In major domestic variety shows, the phenomenon of adaptation of old songs and golden songs is also quite common, through the rearrangement and production of instrumental music by arrangement, an old song from the 80s of the last century can be reborn and regain the popularity of traffic; In addition, another important position of BEAT accompaniment is Douyin, Kuaishou and other short** platforms, with impactful pictures and ** stuck point BGM, which is an indispensable element to attract short** traffic.
The Internet has lowered the threshold for production, and more creators have joined the industry.
As the legendary David Bowie once predicted in an interview with the BBC, the Internet has eliminated the mystery of people, and the popular industry is entering the era of "civilianization", and a large number of people and enthusiasts can upload their own works on the Internet platform, which can be accompaniment or a demo. As China's largest original platform, NetEase Cloud has gathered more than 660,000 original people.
However, with the lowering of the threshold and the influx of a large number of creative products, the intellectual property protection of the people behind the scenes has also become a problem, and a large number of misappropriation and abuse have emerged one after another.
* Industry practitioner Qu Lin (pseudonym) told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter that not to mention whether it is a matter of royalty sharing by the arranger, the bigger problem is misappropriation, which is not only the misappropriation of the arranger's works, but also the phenomenon of misappropriation of lyrics and compositions.
The consequence of infringement and misappropriation is a blow to the originality of the first person.
As a practitioner, I know that arrangers put a lot of time and energy into the creative process, and they deserve a piece of the pie and get the remuneration they deserve, so as to inspire more excellent arrangers to participate in the industry. Qu Lin said, "If the pay is not equal to the income, no one will seriously do the arrangement in the future, I will do as much work as I get, I will take the money for moving bricks at one time, and I will write you the flowers?" ”
There are also senior ** people who believe that the lack of excellent arrangers in the Chinese music scene and the weak substitution have hindered the development of ** creation from the source. Compared with the arrangement characteristics of European and American ** styles and distinctive personalities, the overall arrangement style of the current Chinese music scene is single, which is inseparable from the incentive mechanism for arrangers, and is the reason why many current arrangements are homogeneous and vulgar.
Producer Wang Xiaofu mentioned in an interview with Netease Cloud**, "Every time I cooperate with a head artist, most of the cooperation is a one-shot deal, and there is nothing behind, sometimes it is very painful to cooperate, and I dare not accept or take too much cooperation." He believes that the arrangement and lyrics are equally important, and they need to be valued by Party A and the platform.
G23, the producer of BEAT, believes that the current right to arrange music is not protected by law, and it is difficult for arrangers to legally and reasonably protect their rights and interests and signatures through the law.
In the event of misappropriation or infringement, how can an arranger who is not protected by the Copyright Law protect his rights?
Mi Xinlei told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter that the definition of the arrangement is involved here. If it is the case of arrangement, that is, enough originality and creation have been invested in making a beat maker, which can not be defined as arrangement, it is a complete melody, but it is a convention in the industry, and it is still called arrangement.
This arrangement is different in nature and can be legally protected as copyright. Mi Xinlei explained, but at present, such cases rarely occur at the legal level, which is also related to the fact that young people's awareness of copyright protection is not strong, and they do not know how to defend their rights if there is misappropriation, so there are no past cases to make corresponding judgments.
In this case, only the best industry practitioners take the initiative to fight for rights and interests in order to change the passive situation. Singer Zhang Liangying once called on Weibo for a share of the behind-the-scenes arrangement, so that ** people can enjoy the share and income they deserve.
The platform stepped forward to fight for a share
This time, it is the turn of the ** platform to come forward and fight for the rights and interests of the ** people behind the scenes.
The person in charge of the relevant business of NetEase Cloud told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter that in the preliminary research of NetEase Cloud, 100% of the people behind the scenes of the survey expressed support for royalty sharing, and 100% of the people behind the scenes of the survey expressed support for the change of one-time income to multiple and long-term income.
It is understood that NetEase Cloud** launched this time"Arranger free royalty" function is a custom distribution income model, which is based on the previous songwriting sharing model, and the arrangement sharing function has been added, and the creators of the songs can negotiate with each other according to the contribution of the work, and freely define the distribution of songs.
Is there an anchor to the revenue?
The person in charge said that there is no universal number for this ratio in the industry at present, and as long as it is negotiated with each other, the proportion can be set freely. "Because it's only been a short time since the feature was launched, we can't predict how much their revenue will increase at this time, but in any case, because of the long-term royalty sharing income, the arranger community will get a long-term and stable income** compared to before.
After the feature was launched, it also received a positive response from some arrangers. Producer Qin Sifeng believes that this will be the future development trend of the industry, and it will be a win-win opportunity for both arrangers and artists.
There are also NetEase Cloud** users who commented at the bottom: "At present, I am a full-time lyricist, composer and arranger, so it has little impact." Some people think that they are more concerned about the quality of the platform than royalties, and some arrangers will consider whether to sign a one-time buyout or continue to collect royalties in view of the fact that many signing royalties cannot be returned to their hands.
In fact, in the United States and Japan, ** arrangements are protected by copyright, but the laws of our country still need to be improved. Mi Xinlei believes that this is the need for practitioners to work hard to promote. "NetEase Cloud has made a good start, only through the promotion of industry insiders, so that more people can form a trading habit, and then other platforms follow suit, after forming a convention, it can finally be fixed into the law in the form of rights. ”
However, Qu Lin has a conservative attitude towards this, he believes that NetEase Cloud is unlikely to change anything by doing so, and it remains to wait and see how it will promote the entire industry, and at present, it is actually capturing the heart of the arranger, which is an act of goodwill to the creator.
In his opinion, this is more of a fierce embodiment of the major platforms snatching original people.
According to the "2022 China Digital Industry Insight Report", as of December 2022, the monthly active users of traditional *** platforms are 56.4 billion people, a year-on-year decrease of 64%, the growth of users of traditional *** platforms has peaked.
In June 2022, ByteDance launched the *** device "Soda**", which is a song listening platform for **trend and young people, which can be synchronized to Douyin. In addition, Douyin has also upgraded the ** people service platform to "Hot Galaxy" to provide one-stop service for ** people. In May 2021, Kuaishou also launched the original ** community "Komori Singing" APP, which has functions such as *** intelligent creation, and users can create songs, karaoke and communicate on the app.
It is still unknown how the future development of the short**subsidiary**APP will be, but from the perspective of user time, the former is seizing the time of the *** platform and grabbing the **human resources.
However, Qu Lin also believes that this project can show NetEase Cloud's respect for creators, which is very encouraging. "At the legal level, the arranger can't get royalties, and NetEase Cloud** is doing this to justify the arranger, which is a good thing. ”
Supporting original people is fundamental
Fighting for royalties is not something that happens overnight.
Mi Xinlei believes that there are many levels involved in how to implement it. How to negotiate in case of disputes? How to ensure that the work uploaded by the platform is original or AI-generated? Some arrangers believe that even if it is divided, how to do the supervision behind it is also a matter of consideration.
Luhan producer Tune Lee once said in an interview with "**Xiansheng", "In China, because the platform is not transparent when distributing royalties, even if it retains the right to distribute royalties when signing the contract, it will be the same, and there will be no money." Some arrangers are worried that even if the royalty share is freely negotiated, will the royalties really be guaranteed to flow back to the songwriter after the contract is signed? Is it still a one-time buyout that is more worry-free?
Regarding the improvement of the originality of the entire industry, Qu Lin believes that the platform should not just stay at royalty sharing, but should take out more funds to support the original people and do a good job in production and promotion.
Qu Lin said that young people now have a lot of listening habits to songs, and they may not necessarily accept the old songs before. He suggested that the platform should not necessarily pay a high fee beyond the original value in the future to buy the copyright of old songs from major foreign record companies. "These songs are not only expensive, but also increase in price every year, which is actually unreasonable, and these big record companies are foreign companies, which have little value for supporting domestic original **. Qu Lin said.
According to the 2019-2022 data of Tencent** Research Institute, Generation Z users listen to songs very frequently, 80% of the surveyed users listen to songs every day, in addition to popularity, they are also more receptive to niche genres such as national style, folk songs, hip-hop, rhythm and blues and electronic music, and their acceptance of ** people is also more open and diverse.
And these also provide a solid audience base for discovering excellent original talents.
In recent years, both NetEase and Tencent have launched original support programs. In 2016, NetEase Cloud launched the "Stone Project" for the selection of young people to help Chen Jingfei, Jude, Summer Invasion Project and other people stand out and gradually become well-known by music fans; In addition, there is also a "ladder plan" launched in the direction of income improvement for ** people, which has been carried out for 6 years. According to official data, by the end of 2022, 100% of the total income of the behind-the-scenes people supported through the Cloud Ladder Program was 100%.
It's just that in the long run, in order to enhance the overall originality of Chinese, the entire industry needs to continue to increase investment, and only in this way can we "save others and save ourselves".