Audit
Offline Producers & Pressing Plants
Three AUDIT CHARTERS are at the disposal of the societies:
The two first charters deal with audits of Centralised and International Independent producers ( IIPs).
The third concerns national producers and thus societies’ audits of their local producers. It represents the minimum level of audit activities to be carried out by all the member societies of BIEM pursuant to its statutes and the conclusion of the representation agreements recommended in them.
Indeed, in view of the representation agreements, it is important for each society to ensure that its audit obligations are fulfilled in accordance with the agreed common standards. These two audit charters provide the necessary transparency and ensure that:
- audits are carried out effectively and efficiently and with sufficient regularity;
- audits of producers with a licence/agreement for the production, manufacture and distribution of carriers in the territory covered by several societies are conducted efficiently, frequently and in a well-coordinated manner;
- societies inform each other if divergences appear in the audit of the exploitation of their repertoires;
- an acceptable level of transparency is achieved;
- the information provided by the producer is complete and the royalties are correctly recorded.
Best Practice
- Have clear procedures and information on how the plant should behave and who to contact (email addresses) described on the website;
- Publish on the website details on all producers signatories of the Standard contract/AP1/DVD1 and on all pressing plants (signatories of the Manufacturing Contract);
- Publish 3rd party labels distributing under the responsibility of a standard producer;
- Keep informed the plant regarding the status of the license request within 3 days;
- Establish procedures to react toward plants that do not follow rules so it is best possible assured that all plants are treated same way and contract partners are not in a bad position;
- Establish over time a procedure to inform plants when license has been granted;
- Require reporting of manufacturing information from manufacturing contract partners once a month or else agreed between the society and the plant;
- Establish a manufacturing information distribution system so sister societies receive information within 3 months and at least as excel sheet and contain the following information as a minimum: catalogue number, title, etc (see enclosure 1);
- Contact plants with international customers in a country where the local society does not qualify for membership or even worse cannot handle manufacturing contract and request signing of contract with Best Practice societies;
- React against plants that do violate our rights and keep BIEM informed about malpractice.
- Sign the BIEM Standard Contract manufacturers inform/refer new customers about/to society;
- Respect our members rights make sure that license has been granted before manufacture;
- Provide manufacturing data for audio and audio visual carriers every month/quarter in a standard specification or other agreed format (see table below);
- Inform the society (customers information) if customers don’t want to pay mechanicals and inform the society that the customer went abroad for manufacturing.
Document approved in June 2014
Download the Best Practice Document
Online and Mobile Services
Standard Audit Clause for Societies Contract with Online and Mobile Services
This audit clause shall be considered as a non-binding good practice that BIEM members should consider when negotiating their licensing contract with an online service.
This proposed typical wording is a starting point only. When including such wording, the Society must consider the services offered and current obligations of the licensor and licensee to ensure this wording is tailored appropriately for the specific circumstances. The wording will also need to use the terms defined elsewhere in the Licence Agreement and should also be reviewed by the Societies’ own legal representatives.
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This Standard clause was prepared by the working group in charge of the audit of online services.
It was approved by the Management Committee in December 2022 as a good practice, non binding recommendation.
This audit charter is an undertaking between the member societies of BIEM for the purpose of setting standards in relation to royalty audits of Online and Mobile Music Service Providers (DSPs and MSPs) using the BIEM member societies' repertoire.
This document was approved in 2007.