MRM to Govern Rights to Play Music in Public

Image by MyIPO

Music Rights Malaysia Berhad (MRM) have been formed by Minister of Domestic Trade, Datuk Hamzah Zainudin, as the sole agency to manage rights to play music in public. The announcement was made in a dinner hosted by Perbadanan Harta Intelek Malaysia (MyIPO) on 8 Dec 2016. Veteran lyricist Habsah Hassan has been appointed as Secretariat Chairperson for MRM, according to Berita Harian.

Retail stores or restaurants play music to entertain customers. A license is required by a premise to play music in public (in their store). This license have to paid periodically even though the premise owner is playing music from a radio or personal music collection. Note that music form personal music collection provides right for personal use only. MRM will be the sole body to collect licensing fees from parties that play music in public from 1 Jan 2017 onward.

The amount of licensing fee is not mentioned. The licensing fees collected by MRM will be distributed as royalties to people involved in the music industry. Music creation involves multiple parties including:
- lyricists
- composers
- publishers
- performers (artists and musicians)
- recording companies

Currently, there are four copyright collection agencies namely Music Author's Copyright Protection (MACP), Public Performance Malaysia (PPM); Recording Performers Malaysia (RPM) and Performers Rights and Interest Society of Malaysia (PRISM). Parties that play music in public still need to pay their dues to the respective agency before 2017. These four copyright collection agencies will manage the distribution or royalties among its members, even after the establishment of MRM.

Dennis