Hong Kong Recording Industry Alliance

Hong Kong Recording Industry Alliance Limited (HKRIA, Chinese: 香港音像聯盟) is a not-for-profit copyright management organization, formed to handle copyright issues for recording companies regarding the broadcast, public performance and relevant usage of sound recordings (recorded music) and music videos in Hong Kong, Macau and other territories. The founding companies include EMI Group, Sony Music, Universal Music (環球) and Warner Music Group (華納), dubbed the Big Four Recording Companies (四大唱片公司).[1] The group was established in October 2008.[2] Later in December 2010, BMA Entertainment (博美) joined HKRIA, turning the Big Four into the Big Five.[3]

Contents

History

As the founding members of HKRIA, the Big Four Recording Companies, Sony Music, Warner Music, EMI Music and Universal Music withdrew their membership from IFPI (Hong Kong) on 20 August 2008. They then assigned management of copyright, public performance and other related issues exclusively to HKRIA. On 21 December 2010, BMA Entertainment announced its new membership turning the "Big Four" into "Big Five" (五大唱片公司).[3]

Controversies

TVB

On December 24, 2009 HKRIA held a press conference in regards to increasing the royalty tax to TVB, the dominant local free over-the-air station, in which many of the current cantopop singers had artiste contracts with.[4] The fees were raised for three reasons.

  1. Value of the singers were underestimated before.
  2. TVB is broadcasting more music contents than before.
  3. To meet TVB's increase of music use, the raise will grant users one year of unlimited license use. The royalty price per year is to exceed HK$10 million.[1]

TVB was not satisfied with the fee and began to ban singers from the big four companies from appearing on their programming.[5] Singers Hacken Lee, Eason Chan and Kay Tse, voiced their opinions in support of their respective record labels.[4] In the past, Hacken Lee was often dubbed as "TVB's son" due to his close working relationship with the TV station.[4] However both him and Eason Chan were immediately pulled from their appearances on TVB's Jade Solid Gold and the 21st CASH Songwriter's Quest within days of the controversy.[1] Prudence Liew, signed under the Universal label Cinepoly Records, was quickly dismissed of her hosting duties from the TVB singing competition The Voice, a program she has hosted weekly since July 2009, three episodes shy of the season finale.

As a result of the ban, no artists from HKRIA record labels received any awards at the TVB-organized 2009 Jade Solid Gold Best Ten Music Awards Presentation held on January 16, 2010. Singers affected included many frontrunners of the night: Universal Music's Eason Chan, Hacken Lee, Kay Tse, Hins Cheung and Mr.; Warner Music's Fiona Sit and Khalil Fong; and Sony Music's Jason Chan. In support of their record labels, none of the artistes signed to HKRIA record labels showed up to the TVB awards ceremony.

Beginning in 2011 the Metro Radio Hits Music Award Presentation became the only complete award to allow singers from all companies.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Sun.on.cc. "Sun.on.cc." 無綫絕情割席封殺陳奕迅克勤. Retrieved on 2010-01-20.
  2. ^ HKRIA.com. "HKRIA.com." Welcome to HKRIA. Retrieved on 2010-01-20.
  3. ^ a b Hkheadline.com. "Hkheadline.com "bma加盟HKRIA成「五大」", bma join HKRIA making the "Big Five". (Chinese) 2010-12-31. Retrieved on 2011-05-16.
  4. ^ a b c Yahoo.com. "Yahoo.com." HKRIA 擬交版權審裁處解決 歌曲版稅按年增至0.4％ 限無線12．24前回覆. Retrieved on 2010-01-20.
  5. ^ HK.msn.com. "HK.msn.com." 見招拆招死咬唔放. Retrieved on 2010-01-20.

External links