JASRAC

Ready for Every Imaginable Use of Musical Works

With simple procedures and appropriate fees, people can use musical works administered by JASRAC. JASRAC provides one-stop processing of every possible form of copyright use including performances as in concerts, karaoke, airwave and cable broadcasting; CDs, records, tapes and other recorded media; audiovisual media such as DVDs, video tapes and films; published materials such as sheet music and lyric collections; CD and video rental; and interactive transmissions such as "ring tone" melodies for cellular phones.

	Collection and Distribution of Broadcasting Royalties
	Large Decline in Royalties from CDs and other Audio Discs
	Administration of Interactive Transmissions
	Status of Licensed Karaoke Premises
	Healthy Increase in Video Reproduction
	100% Licensing ofCD Rental Businesses
	Launch of Administration of BGM


With regard to royalties accrued from broadcasting, JASRAC concludes yearly blanket licensing agreements with broadcasters such as NHK or the other commercial broadcasters. Under the agreements, JASRAC sets an annual fee which is a fixed rate of the subscription income or the broadcast income of the broadcasters in previous fiscal year. JASRAC is working to establish a system which enables JASRAC to make distributions based on more accurate distribution data by cooperating with broadcasters in obtaining reports from broadcasters in the digital form which contain all musical works used in their programs. Currently, the system is implemented partially.		Royalties from CDs and other audio discs that comprise the largest share of the total royalties collected by JASRAC have been suffering annual declines since 1998. The back ground factors for this are the diversifying tastes of junior high school and high school students, which are the core buying segment for CDs, and the growing issue of digital copying. Working in close cooperation with the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ), JASRAC has been taking legal action against file sharing service operators to seek an injunction of the service and damages. Also, JASRAC, in cooperation with affiliated organizations, is running campaigns on the website for mobile phones to raise public awareness of how illegal copying and distribution of music is draining the life blood of the industry and the people who create music.

Music distributions (transmissions) through the Internet and via mobile phones are increasing and becoming more diversified year by year due to improvements in quality of personal computers and mobile phones and developments of a broadband environment.
JASRAC started administering commercial distributions in 1999. The administration of non-commercial distributions of musical works on websites operated by individuals also started in July, 2001.

Music data distributions for mobile phones such as "ringtones" and "truetones" make up a substantial part of interactive transmissions. The number of full-length music downloads from distribution services to mobile phones are also increasing since the start of the administration in November, 2004.

In addition, JASRAC engaged in discussions with user organizations in order to respond to new forms of music transmissions. In 2006, JASRAC began administering several forms of transmissions namely "Distribution of advertisement contents*¹," "Downloads with expiration dates*²," "Downloads of audio programs such as Podcasts*³" and "Subscription-type distribution*⁴." Moreover, in 2007, JASRAC concluded provisional licensing agreements with some video-posting website providers after presenting terms and conditions on licensing to the providers as premises for taking specific measures to prevent copyright infringements for the purpose of promoting legitimate use of video-posting websites.

*¹	Distribution of advertisement contents Distribution of licensed advertisement contents for recording for transmission by streaming and downloads with limitations (downloads with expiration dates).
*²	Downloads with expiration dates When data is downloaded, playback of downloads is limited to the receiving terminal. Also the data can be played for a limited amount of time after the reception.
*³	Downloads of audio programs such as "Podcasts" Download-type Internet radio programs.
*⁴	Subscription-type distribution Subscription services where members can download unlimited number of musical works within a certain period of time if they pay a flat-rate subscription.

The capability and efforts of a copyright administration society can best be measured by the amount of royalties collected for licensed live musical performances and karaoke entertainment at clubs, bars, restaurants and other establishments. While the influence of the prolonged economic malaise in Japan has led to a decline in the number of bars, restaurants, karaoke boxes and other establishments, JASRAC regional offices have continued to aggressively and thoroughly pursue licensing of premises. As a result of these efforts, a total of 200,000 bars, restaurants and other establishments where karaoke entertainment is offered now have license agreements with JASRAC, achieving a nationwide average licensing rate of approximately 90% for this category, and a total of 9,200 karaoke boxes have license agreements with JASRAC, achieving a nationwide average licensing rate of approximately 95%. These establishments conclude annual agreements with JASRAC and pay licensing fees on a monthly basis.

Music has always been an important part of audiovisual works, such as films and TV shows. These audiovisual works are often reproduced in videos. JASRAC licenses the reproduction of music in such audiovisual software including video tapes, DVDs and video-CDs. With the popularity and steady growth of the DVD format, more and more of these audiovisual works are being brought to DVD.


In Japan, rental of commercial CDs is a thriving business, which is extremely popular among the young. The nationwide total number of CD rental shops in Japan is approximately 3,600. Based on the "lending rights" under Japanese copyright law, JASRAC has been collecting royalties from CD rental businesses. With the cooperation of CDV-Japan (Compact Disc & Video Rental Commerce Trade Association of Japan), JASRAC has concluded contracts with all CD rental establishments.		Under the former copyright laws of Japan, the rights of copyright owners were restricted with respect to background music and any other playing of sound recordings such as CDs by commercial establishments for which music does not play a central role in their business; however, the 1999 amendment to the copyright law eliminated these restrictions. From April 2002, licensing and royalty collection for BGM and communication of public transmissions, the latter of which JASRAC had long refrained from administering, commenced. Nationwide over one million shops and other establishments use BGM. To cope with the sheer number of users, JASRAC is seeking to achieve complete and efficient administration through source-licensing ; collection arrangements with cable music broadcasters and other providers of BGM services.