Increased transparency and improved readability

Since October 2018, we send you a completely redesigned version of the documents normally sent to you during the distribution, when your works have been used. The result of extensive work by your Board of Directors, this new documentation is intended to offer improved readability and clarity.

In our continued efforts for greater transparency, as undertaken by Sacem during the July 2018 royalty distribution during which you were provided with individualised information on the deductions being made from your authors' rights payments, this new documentation aims to satisfy your desire for more simplicity and improved comprehension of your royalty distribution, as was expressed in the satisfaction survey conducted in Spring 2016. This simplified version also reduces the need to print thousands of pages, saving money and helping the environment.

 Download the Infographic and the Q&A about levies
(You must be logged in to view or download this document)

The distribution documentation consists of the following documents:

1- A letter from the Chief Executive Officer, which puts the main trends of the distribution process into perspective and describes what SACEM is attempting to achieve.

2- The Statement of your Account which now has:
- Clearer wording to make it easier to understand the various transactions.
- The points acquired under the Mutual Assistance Allowance Scheme[1] and any funds granted for cultural activities and project support.
- Detailed information on the various compulsory and voluntary contributions deducted.

3- VAT documents, completely rewritten to make them easier to understand.

4- The statement of authors' rights, a simplified version of the royalty distribution sheet, that includes:
- An overview of the amounts paid in the distribution in the same format as the "Distribution overview" available in your member area.
- Details of the deductions made from your authors' rights together with an explanation of what they are used to finance (social activities, project assistance and SACEM's running costs).
- Summary tables: a list of your most popular works that have resulted in the highest income; an overview of the royalty distribution by type of rights (Public Performance Rights (PPR), reproduction rights linked to the PPR and Mechanical Reproduction Rights); the amounts paid out categorised by the type of use.
- Details of each work and the type of use.

In the "My Distribution" section of your membership account on sacem.fr, you can find the document "Distribution News", which gives a comparative analysis of the results of the current royalty distribution as compared to previous ones, and the general summary sheet.

As the sheer volume of data continues to explode, in part because of the proliferation of content distribution platforms on the Internet, only online tools can offer this fine level of detail on how authors' rights are being distributed. The old distribution sheet can no longer keep up and just increases the volume of paper to be processed and to be sent out for every distribution. These details can be accessed in your membership area in the "Detailed distribution" section which, since 2015, has made it possible for you to browse through your royalty distribution data, carry out your own analyses, and export the results.

• Consult Q&A on documents for Distribution and the "My Detailed Distribution" service
  (You must be logged in to view or download this document).

CONSULT YOUR DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT

[1] The purpose of the Sacem Mutual Assistance Allowance Scheme (RAES) is to allocate, based on certain conditions of seniority, benefits to members over 60 years of age. Members accumulate RAES points over the course of their career in proportion to the copyright revenues they generate.
 

The category/use/user glossary

This glossary allows you to view the headings of the various categories, the types of use and the names of the users of the Sacem directory in the context of distribution of authors' royalties. The category is the generic term to designate the various performance sectors: television, radio, on-line, general rights (live music), cinema etc. For example for television the types of use are the terrestrial channels, cable… For the on-line category this is download by streaming …
Finally the user corresponds to the broadcaster or to the performer: TF1 for television, Radio France for radio, ITunes for downloads etc.

Consult the category/use/user glossary

Published January 04 2019