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Blog

Dedicated to Leading the discourse on music copyright issues, Keeping members & the general public abreast with the latest copyright news, Empowering members with knowledge and tips to advance their careers and Spotlighting ECCO Members.

ECCO Member Spotlight: Kaydene
Posted: Tuesday July 11 2017 by Christine "Chrycee" Charlemagne

Real passion simply cannot be denied. Indeed from as early as 3-years it became vividly clear to everyone around her, that music is Kaydene’s passion.  With a smile, the vivacious Kaydene recalled that her love for music and performance began after she first sang at church.

 

As she grew older and realized the wealth of music and songwriting talent she possessed, coupled with her love for the art form, Kaydene decided to take the steps...

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Attaining Crowdfunding Success
Posted: Friday June 02 2017 by Christine "Chrycee" Charlemagne

Ask any artist or songwriter within the Eastern Caribbean what is one of the greatest challenges in their music career is, and we’re certain generating finance to fund their music projects will be one of the top 5 answers.  Indeed a resounding cry from creatives in our region is that accessing debt financing from banks and other financial institutions proves exceedingly difficult. Admittedly part of the difficulty lies in the inability of...

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Becoming an Independent Phonogram Producer: Creating a Self-Administered Record Label
Posted: Thursday May 18 2017

 

As ECCO Moves towards the administration of Related Rights—copyright in sound recordings owned by the performers on the sound recording and the phonogram producer –as independent artists and songwriters based in the Eastern Caribbean where standard music industry structures are still being built; the idea of also becoming an independent phonogram producer and creating a self-administered record label may be heavily on your mind.

 

You...

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ECCO distributions 101: Copyright in Translations
Posted: Friday May 12 2017 by Christine "Chrycee" Charlemagne

As an artiste and songwriter based in the Eastern Caribbean, you and your team are keen on expanding your market reach within the Caribbean and are now looking towards the French West Indies. You’ve had a few releases so far which have made quite a splash in the Anglo-Caribbean territories, so why not translate them to Creole or French and release those translated versions in the French islands?

 

Or perhaps you’re a music creative from...

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ECCO Distribution 101: Arrangements of Musical Works
Posted: Wednesday April 26 2017 by Christine "Chrycee" Charlemagne

You can’t even begin to describe the effect this particular song has on you. Something about it resonates at your very core. The powerful lyrics take you back to one of your happiest moments, so no surprise you’ve got the song on repeat. As a music creator yourself, you often find yourself making your own creative tweaks to the song’s infectious melody as you hum or play it on your keyboard/guitar. Then it hits you, why not arrange and record...

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ECCO Distribution 101: Resolving Share Split Disputes
Posted: Tuesday April 18 2017 by Christine "Chrycee" Charlemagne

Ahh, Music Utopia. Who wouldn’t want to live there? Free from conflict, misunderstanding and dispute; a world where copyright infringements are absolutely unheard of; where music creatives are compensated fairly for their creations. Alas we haven’t yet been able to achieve Music Utopia, and in today’s world misunderstanding, miscommunication, lack of sufficient music business knowledge and in some cases plain old greed can inevitably lead to...

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ECCO Distribution 101: Allocation of Performance Rights Shares
Posted: Monday April 10 2017 by Christine "Chrycee" Charlemagne

For as long as you’ve known yourself music has all but consumed you. Sweet melodies always seem to be on replay in your mind and lyrics and poetry all but ooze through you. As a youngster you dreamt of the day you’d finally cut your first record and now that day has come. After years of dreaming, vying and longing you’ve finally been able to collaborate with a composer and studio engineer to complete and release your first song. You and your...

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How the Use of Your music in Films can generate Lucrative Income for You
Posted: Wednesday March 01 2017 by Christine "Chrycee" Charlemagne

In a previous ECCO blog post  we presented synchronization licensing as an additional source of music-related income worth exploring by music creators within the Eastern Caribbean.

Synchronization Licensing is defined by CDbaby.com as “the process of playing an existing composition and/ or audio recording in conjunction with a moving picture of any kind: TV show, commercial, film, video game, corporate presentation, Youtube clip, etc. (Or on...

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Careful with that Song Mash-Up: Understanding Moral Rights and Infringements
Posted: Wednesday February 15 2017

Tune into to radio in the Caribbean, or the DJ segment at a fete and you’ll likely hear a mash-up of two of your favourite songs; as the lyrics and melody of one song is combined with the beat and instrumental of another. Alternatively you may hear a sped-up version of a particular song. While the result may be a widely enjoyable audio combination, the modification of the works may constitution an infringement of the moral rights of the...

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Related Rights Administration: Phonogram Producer? Who is that exactly?
Posted: Friday February 10 2017 by Chrycee "Chrycee" Charlemagne

 

In our last article we touched on the fact that ECCO is moving toward the administration of Related Rights, which will open up a new stream of music royalties within the OECS territories administered by ECCO, which would directly benefit performers on sound recordings and phonogram producers.

 

The reality of music within our region is that most music professionals wear multiple hats, so it’s likely that if you’re already a songwriter...

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