Extended meeting of the RAO Authors’ Council

08.02.2017

Participants of the extended meeting of the RAO Authors’ Council included RAO General Director Maxim Dmitriev, members of the Authors’ Council Igor Butman, Ilya Reznik, Alexander Tchaikovsky, Anatoly Kroll, Daniil Kramer, Alexey Rybnikov, Vladimir Presnyakov, Alexander Vulykh, Nikita Vysotsky, Vladimir Shurochkin, Dmitry Darin, Evgeny Kobylyansky, Ara Babadjanyan, General Director of Universal Music Publishing Dmitry Konnov, General Director of United Music Group Victoria Konchakova, General Director of National Music Publishing Dmitry Maiko, General Director of “Studio Soiuz” Alexander Bochkov, General Director of Mazay Communications Andrey Chesnov.

Members of the previous Authors’ Council also attended the meeting – poet Alexander Shaganov, composer Vladimir Matetsky, President of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Society Boris Berezovsky, Victor Volsky, Oleg Ivanov, Oleg Galakhov, Rashid Kalimullin.

Extended meeting of the RAO Authors’ Council

Members of the Authors’ Council heard a preliminary report of the auditing company FBK Grant Thornton on financial activities of RAO, royalty distribution methods, actual sums of statistical distribution royalties paid, and undocumented usage reports. The report was actively discussed by the Council members.

Meeting participants hear the reports

«At the moment FBK holds full-scale audit of RAO financial activities in 2014-2016. The complete report will be presented to the Conference in April, but we have already discovered multiple cases of law infringement, such as groundless royalty payments and excessive administrative expenses» – said RAO General Director Maxim Dmitriev. «By the end of 2015 RAO had excused obligations to authors for the total sum of 2.8 bln. Rubles. Obviously at the end of 2016 the situation got only worse. In the nearest time we will have the final results of the audit and will present our proposals».

From left to right: Igor Butman, Maxim Dmitriev, Alexander Sukhotin

Participants of the meeting agreed that law violations shall lead to additional legal actions against people, who used to receive royalties without any legal reason, and also against third parties which signed sham contracts with RAO.

Royalty distribution was discussed in detail. «The most notorious type of distribution was the so called “distribution by sample”. The previous executes used to create that “sample” arbitrarily, and used to decide which sums to pay to each particular person. Yet it was presented to the public as something granted», — commented Igor Butman, President of the RAO Authors’ Council.

In 2016 1.3 bln. Rubles were distributed by “sample”. 862 mln. Rubles (over 65 %) were paid to a particular group of 44 rights holders – private entrepreneurs.

Members of the Authors’ Council also discussed royalty rates for TV and Radio broadcasters. These rates were approved in 2012–2013 and need some amendment.

From left to right: Oleg Ivanov, Ilya Reznik, Igor Butman, Boris Berezovsky

The participants of the meeting also discussed the upcoming extraordinary RAO Conference, which is scheduled for April 28, 2017.

Press-service of RAO

Photos by Ilya Ignatovich