SIMIM EN

About SIMIM

SIMIM (Société de l'Industrie Musicale - MuziekIndustrie Maatschappij) is the only Belgian company for the collective management of the neighboring rights of music producers. SIMIM was founded on 21 June 1995 and currently has more than 2,000 directly affiliated members. It also has several reciprocity contracts with foreign management companies. SIMIM strives to collect and distribute the rights for music producers in the most effective and efficient way possible among the rightholders.

Collection of fees

SIMIM puts a lot of energy into collecting the fees to which the affiliated producers are entitled. These efforts focus on various aspects: ensuring the fullest possible market coverage, negotiating with debtors or their representatives, discussing tariffs, developing the modalities and the like. Where possible, mandated partners are called upon to collect the fees.

Distribution of fees

SIMIM has also invested a lot in this domain: both in highly skilled personnel and in high-performance software.

Twice a year we repart the funds collected, so that the sums we have received can be paid to our members after a maximum of 6 months.

Assigning ISRC codes

SIMIM is the local ISRC agent. You can therefore contact us for the application of a 'registration code' if you want to assign ISRC codes to your recordings yourself.

We are currently investing in our own platform on which ISRC codes can be requested and assigned quickly via the Internet.

Neighboring rights

Neigboring rights are related to copyright and belong to the music producers and artists. SIMIM manages rights for the music producers. The rights for the artists are managed by PlayRight. For copyright, Sabam is the most well-known management company.

Three Categories

Exclusive Rights

The law is based on the principle that the producer manages the music repertoire he produced. These are "exclusive rights": it concerns the right of reproduction, distribution and rental.

Mandatory License

Under certain circumstances, producers lose the right to manage their repertoire. Their music repertoire can then be used without prior permission. This is the case for the use of recorded music in public places (Fair Remuneration), radio broadcasts and copies for personal use (the home copy). The producer will receive a fee for this. The management of these rights is done collectively.

Exclusive Rights In Collective Management

Also for certain 'exclusive' rights one can manage collectively. In Belgium, three types of rights are collectively managed by SIMIM: the rights for cable transfers, compilations for background music, the use of phonograms in audiovisual Belgian broadcasters productions and the rights for a number of Internet applications.