How to handle double claims?
Methods of conflict resolution
Royalties associated with conflicting sound recordings become payable once the rights holders involved resolve the conflict. If the conflict is not resolved by the statute of limitations, the first N/A distribution following expiration will allocate the royalties proportionally based on the registered rights of the affected parties.
Possible ways to resolve a conflict:
- Withdrawal
- Sharing the claim based on mutual agreement
- Indicating version to differentiate sound recordings
- Coordinating the claiming period
To resolve a conflict, you may use the Sound recording template, an Excel file downloaded from the system that matches the template structure and already contains sound recordings, or you can manually modify the data directly within the: Sound recordings/My double claims menu item.
Note: Waiving rights may be necessary not only in cases of conflicting sound recordings. For not conflicting sound recordings use the Sound recordings/My sound recordings menu item.
The Excel file already containing sound recordings can be downloaded from the relevant menu items, see: My double claims/Double claims to Excel and My sound recordings/Recordings to Excel. Before saving to Excel file, apply filtering within the relevant function. The modified Excel file, as described below, can be uploaded via the Sound Recordings/Upload new list menu.
Withdrawal
If a sound recording was registered by mistake and the rights holder never actually held the rights, a full withdrawal of rights is required. If the rights were only missing during a specific period, then a partial withdrawal is sufficient.
Full withdrawal
- Bundle via Excel:
- Leave both the Attainment and Expiration fields blank
- Enter 0 in the Share rate column
Once the Excel file is uploaded and accepted by the system, the specified sound recordings will no longer appear under Sound recordings/My sound recordings — unless the same recording appears in a later row of the Excel file with a non-zero percentage.
Individually
- If the sound recording is in conflict, use the Sound recordings/My double claims menu and proceed as described here.
- If the sound recording is not in conflict, use the Sound Recordings/My sound recordings menu and follow the instructions provided there to withdraw rights to the recording.
Partial withdrawal
- Bundle via Excel:
- If you no longer hold rights during part of a previously entered period, adjust the period boundaries accordingly.
- If you have multiple periods and no longer hold rights during one of them, enter 0 in the Share Rate column for that specific interval.
- Individually
(In both cases, the procedure is the same — it is simply carried out under a different menu.)
Important: When specifying the end of your rights period, enter the date of the last day you held rights. Your declared rights period must not overlap with the conflicting party’s rights — not even by a single day. If the other party did not provide start and end dates during registration, the conflict can only be resolved if they also enter these dates in their own account. This requires contacting the conflicting party, clarifying the rights periods together, and ensuring that they record their own rights dates in the system
Sharing the claim
Conflicting parties have the option to agree on sharing the rights percentages between themselves. In such cases, the resulting royalties are distributed and paid out to the rights holders according to the specified share percentages. Both parties must implement the agreed percentage settings in the system as described below.
If the combined rights percentages of the parties exceed 100% during a given rights period, the sound recording will remain in conflict.
- Bundle via Excel:
- Enter your share rate in the Share rate column.
- Individually
(In both cases, the procedure is the same — it is simply carried out under a different menu.)
Indicating version
If a song by the same performer with the same title is re-released in a different version (e.g. live performance, re-recording) or by another rights-holder, it is possible to distinguish the two identical recordings by specifying the “Version.” In this case, the owner of the new version must waive rights to the original, versionless recording and re-register the sound recording with the version clearly indicated (e.g. “live,” “2022 version,” etc.).
- Use one of the withdrawal methods described above to withdraw rights to the versionless sound recording.
- Register the sound recording with the specified version. See: Sound recording metadata registration.
- If you are submitting the withdrawal using the Excel file exported from the system, you may also include the newly registered, versioned sound recording in the same Excel file. Important: due to protected fields, copying and pasting an entire row is not allowed
Coordinating the claiming period
If the conflict arises due to incorrectly specified claiming periods, the parties must agree on who holds the rights of the sound recording during each period. They must enter the Date of Attainment of Rights (start date) and Date of Expiration of Mandate (end date) in such a way that their resulting entitlement periods do not overlap on any single day.
- Bundle via Excel:
- Modify the entitlement period boundaries in the Excel sheet to reflect your actual rights.
- If you have specified multiple periods and no longer hold rights in any of them, enter “0” in the Share rate field for the affected period.
- Individually
- Use the Sound recordings/My double claims menu and follow the instructions provided here to update your entitlement period boundaries.
Important: A conflict will only be resolved once all parties involved have updated their entitlements in accordance with the agreement.