Transfer of an author’s royalties
As an author, you may desire that your royalty payments are transferred to a third party. Thus, you may enter into a voluntary agreement between you as a member and a third party on the transfer of your royalty payments from Koda. Such a transfer agreement is often relevant in situations where you owe an amount to another party.
There are two types of transfers:
- Transfer to a music publisher
If you have received a royalty advance from your music publisher as part of the closing of the publishing deal, you can transfer your payments from Koda and NCB to the publisher, whereby the publisher becomes the recipient of your royalties from Koda. Such a transfer agreement will have no time limit, as it will be valid until your advance is recouped. We assume that the publisher gives you a status on the recoupment of your advance.
- Transfer to others
You might also enter into a transfer agreement with, e.g. a manager, booking agent or attorney. Such a transfer agreement will only be valid for one calendar year at a time, after which it is subject for renewal. In case of renewal, you should send Koda a new signed transfer agreement, covering the following year.
PLEASE NOTE that Koda charges an administration fee of DKK 500 for each registered transfer agreement. The amount will be deducted from the carrier's account in connection with the registration of the transport.
For both types of transfer agreements, the following applies:
- After signing the transfer agreement, a signed version of the agreement must be submitted to Koda in order to take effect.
- The transfer agreement should clearly state whether it applies to both Koda and NCB payments or just one of these.
- The transfer agreement cannot be unilaterally revoked by the author. Revocation should be performed by the holder of transfer.
- Usually, the transfer applies to all the member's payments during the period for which it is valid. (From the signature of the transfer agreement and one year onwards, unless it regards the recoupment of advances to music publishers, for which there is no fixed time limit).
- A signed assignment declaration must be submitted to Koda when the agreement is entered into.
- You only need to send the assignment declaration to Koda<>Clearly state whether the assignment declaration applies to payments from both Koda and NCB.
- You cannot terminate an assignment agreement by contacting Koda. This can only be done via the assignee.
DOWNLOAD Agreement on the transfer of author's payments from Koda
Notifying the tax authorities of assignments of payments
Please note that even though payments from Koda and NCB have been assigned to a third party or are sent to a separate payment address for other reasons, we will, unless otherwise noted, report the payments to the tax authorities (SKAT) as personal income for the member whose works earned the money.
This practice is followed because the rights continue to belong to you as a member, and we are obligated by law to report the income generated by the rights holder(s) even if they are not the person(s) actually receiving the payments.
Garnishments
Unlike assignments, garnishments are usually not the result of a voluntary agreement. At Koda the vast majority of requests for garnishments come from the tax authorities (SKAT) because they have an outstanding claim with the relevant member; they will then seek to cover this debt by seizing that member’s payments from Koda/NCB.
- We accept a garnishment period of no more than one year.
Assignment of royalties
Within the past year, we have seen several cases of internationally known songwriters and composers who have been offered huge sums by private investors for their rights to the public performance of their works. The phenomenon is mostly prevalent in the USA, where certain tax rules make the sale and acquisition of music rights attractive. But even here in Denmark, questions are occasionally raised by Koda members who want to know more about the terms that apply to the full or partial sale or assignment of their rights.
It should be noted that, as a member of Koda, you have granted Koda the exclusive authorization to administer the public performance rights of your musical works. The bargaining power of a strong and unified rights catalogue is an important part of the basis for Koda’s work to ensure the highest possible level of payments for the music rights for all our members. Therefore, the exclusivity criterion is part of the membership declaration that you agree upon when joining Koda. In other words, you cannot both be a member of Koda and benefit from the collective rights management and at the same time assign the rights to your music catalogue to others.
However, how and to whom you may want to transfer your royalty payments is to be decided by you as an individual member. If you want to transfer your royalty payments, in whole or in part, to a third party and you want Koda to transfer the money to this party directly, you can do so by signing a transfer agreement.
You can call Koda's Member Services if you are considering a transfer agreement or have questions regarding rights acquisition, and we will help you further.
Koda's Member Services: Tel: (+ 45 33 30 63 20), Mail: [email protected]
