USE OF MUSIC IN STORES

According to Article 41 of the Law on Intellectual and Artistic Works No. 5846 (in Turkish, “Fikir ve Sanat Eserleri Kanunu”, the “Law”), public premises where the entrance may or may not be subject to a fee, shall conclude a contract in accordance with article 52 with rightsholders or collecting societies (in Turkish, “Meslek Birlikleri”) to which the right holders are members, in order to obtain permission for the use and/or communication of Works (such as musical Works), performances, phonograms, productions and broadcasts and make the payments for economic rights stated in such contracts in accordance with this article.

In case a musical work is used in public premises, the economic rights of the relevant rights holders are triggered, including the author of the work (composer, lyricist, arranger, and publisher), the phonogram producer, and, if applicable, the performing artist.

In other words, when music is used in publicly accessible places such as stores, hotels, bars, restaurants, cafés, shopping malls, gyms, hair salons, etc., licenses for music use must be obtained either from the rights holders or from the professional associations representing them. Otherwise, such use of music is considered as an infringement of economic rights.

Indeed, Article 71 of the Law provides that “Any person who, by infringing the moral, economic and related rights regarding intellectual and artistic works, adapts, performs, reproduces, changes, distributes, communicates to the public by devices enabling the transmission of signs, sounds or images or publishes a work, performance, phonogram or production without written permission of right holders or puts up for sale, sells, distributes by renting or lending or in any other way, buys for commercial purposes, imports or exports, possesses or stores for non-private use any works adapted or reproduced unlawfully, shall be sentenced to imprisonment from one year to five years or a judicial fine.”

Collecting societies are organizations established to protect the common interests of owners of intellectual and artistic works, related rights holders, and those reproducing or distributing non-periodical publications. Their duties include managing and monitoring the legally recognized rights, collecting royalties, and distributing them to the rights holders. In Türkiye, there are several professional associations representing both authors (composers, lyricists, arrangers, and publishers) and related rights holders (phonogram producers and performers).

The leading collecting societies representing music authors in Türkiye are the Musical Work Owners’ Society of Türkiye (“Türkiye Musiki Eseri Sahipleri Meslek Birliği” – “MESAM”) and the Musical Work Owners Group (“Musiki Eseri Sahipleri Grubu Meslek Birliği” – “MSG”). These two associations represent the rights of their members (composers, lyricists, arrangers, and publishers) to license musical works which hold the representation right of the vast majority of the musical works. In 2023, MESAM and MSG established the Federation of Work Owners in the Music Industry (“Müzik Sektöründe Eser Sahipleri Federasyonu”–“MSF”), and now jointly license music use under the federation’s umbrella.

Therefore, a public performance music license must now be obtainedfor use of musical works included in the repertoire represented by these two collecting societies and used in public premises such as stores, hotels, cafes, restaurants from MSF.

In addition to the above-mentioned collecting societies which represent the rights of the work owners (in Turkish, “Eser Sahipleri”), there are also collecting societies representing “related rights owners” (in Turkish, “bağlantılı hak sahipleri”). These include the Turkish Phonographic Industry Society (“Bağlantılı Hak Sahibi Fonogram Yapımcıları Meslek Birliği” – “MÜ-YAP”), representing leading music producers, and the Music Performers’ Society of Turkey (“Müzik Yorumcuları Meslek Birliği”-“MÜYORBİR”), representing performing artists. If a phonogram or a performance represented by these associations is used, a separate public performance license must be obtained from them as well.

Furthermore, in 2023, among other collecting societies representing related right owners MÜ-YAP and MÜYORBİR also came tog (in ether to establish the Federation of Related Rights in the Music Industry (“Müzik Sektöründe Bağlantılı Haklar Federasyonu”-“MÜZFED”), which now offers a unified licensing point for hotel/accommodation licenses. However, for public venues other than hotels (such as restaurants, gyms, or retail stores), licenses must still be obtained separately from each relevant collecting society established in the area of related rights owner.

Especially during the summer months, music collecting societies conduct legal inspections through regional law offices – particularly in touristic destinations – to detect whether there is any unauthorized use of musical works or not. Based on these inspections, criminal proceedings are initiated against business representatives under Article 71 of the Law for unauthorized use of music.

For this reason, obtaining the appropriate music licenses in advance from the music collecting societies is crucial to avoid any criminal complaints or legal consequences.

Our Law Firm remains at your disposal for any further clarifications you may need.

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