The Cabinet on Friday approved a revision bill of the copyright act, which will allow artists and record companies to receive royalties on songs that are played in commercial facilities as background music, in an effort to better support artists¡¯ success both domestically and internationally.
Under the current legal system, when a song is played in public location such as a store or a restaurant, the usage fee on the song is only paid to its composers and lyricists through a copyright collection group, such as the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers, with no compensation given to a singer, musician or the record company behind the music.
The copyright policy committee at the Cultural Affairs Agency has pointed out the issues with such a system, including that up-and-coming artists ¡ª unlike copyright holders ¡ª have no means of receiving compensation even if they succeeded in having their music played in stores through their own hard work.
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