What is AARC?

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The Alliance of Artists and Recording Companies, Inc. (AARC) is the leading organization representing featured artists and recording companies, both domestically and abroad, in the areas of hometaping/private copy royalties and rental royalties. AARC, a non-profit organization, was formed to collect and distribute Audio Home Recording Act of 1992 (AHRA) royalties to featured recording artists and sound recording copyright owners (usually record companies.) However, based on its success in administering the AHRA royalties, AARC’s mandate was expanded to include foreign hometaping/private copy and rental royalties.

Prior to 1992, there were no provisions in US law for recovery of royalties lost due to hometaping, although other countries included such protections in their copyright laws as early as 1965. Passage of AHRA corrected this unfairness.

Following the successful administration of AHRA royalties in the United States, AARC moved toward the administration of foreign hometaping royalties. AARC has negotiated hometaping agreements with the following foreign collectives:

• Japan’s CPRA (reciprocal featured recording artists hometaping agreements)
• Japan's RIAJ (reciprocal Indy label hometaping agreements)
• Spain’s AIE (reciprocal featured recording artists hometaping agreement)
• Netherlands ’ SENA (reciprocal featured recording artists and Indy labels hometaping agreements)
• Ireland’s RAAP (reciprocal featured recording artists hometaping agreement) 

AARC also administers foreign rental royalties for its artist members. It negotiated a landmark agreement with CPRA for the distribution of Japanese record rental royalties to entitled artists on US recordings. This agreement guaranteed US performers entitlement to royalties for rental of their works in Japan. The agreement stems from provisions in the TRIPS Agreement, an international trade-related agreement to protect intellectual property.

Formation of AARC follows the pattern established in other countries where hometaping royalties are collectively administered, such as Spain, Ireland, Japan, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. In these countries, the artist community and the record companies have chosen to work together in establishing a simple, efficient and cost-effective means of distributing the collected royalties.

Overseen by a board of thirteen (13) artist representatives and thirteen (13) record company representatives, AARC provides equal representation to the artist community and recording industry, looking after their mutual interests. AARC currently represents over 60,000 artists and 400 record companies (which translates into nearly 6,000 labels including all the major record company labels in the US). AARC is headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, just minutes from downtown Washington, DC.

In summary, AARC provides the following services to its members:

• Represents members in all proceedings before the Copyright Royalty Board, Copyright Office, any other US agencies or courts in connection with AHRA royalties; and foreign collectives and government entities, including filing of claims, negotiating settlements, filing of legal papers, and fully prosecuting claims in administrative trials or other procedures;
• M inimizes legal and administrative costs, and expedites payment of royalties by settling US proceedings;
• Reduces claimants' costs through centralized, common royalties’ administration and data collection;
• Produces fair and accurate data upon which to base distribution;
• Provides detailed reports summarizing the titles, featured artists, labels and royalty amounts for each sound recording earning royalties.
• Ensures that claimants are part of an organization that looks after the long-term interests of artists and sound recording copyright owners.

If you want more detailed information regarding any of the above, please browse through the rest of our site or contact us.

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