International Federation of the Phonographic Industry

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) is the organisation that represents the interests of the recording industry worldwide. It is a non-profit members' organisation registered in Switzerland and founded in Italy in 1933 by Francesco Braga.^[1] It operates a secretariat based in London, with regional offices in Brussels, Hong Kong, Miami, Abu Dhabi, Singapore and Nairobi.

International Federation of the Phonographic Industry

Abbreviation	IFPI
Formation	1933; 91 years ago (1933)
Headquarters	7 Air Street Piccadilly, London, United Kingdom
Chief executive	Frances Moore
Main organ	Main board of directors
Website	www.ifpi.org

Function

IFPI's mission is to promote the value of recorded music, campaign for record producer rights, and expand the commercial uses of recorded music.^[2] Its services to members include a legal policy programme, litigation, content protection, sales reporting for the recorded music market, insight and analysis and work in the areas of performance rights, technology and trade.^[3]

Structure

IFPI is governed by its Main Board, a group including representatives from across the organisation's members (including major and independent record labels), representatives from certain IFPI National Groups and the organisation's CEO.^[4] There are also two regional boards (the IFPI Asia/Pacific Regional Board and IFPI Latin America Regional Board) which oversee regional matters.^[4]

Frances Moore is the current CEO. She was appointed the chief executive with a term effective from 1 July 2010.^[5] She replaced John Kennedy, who had headed the organisation since 2005 and was also one of the co-producers of Live Aid and Live8.^[6] She was awarded an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List in 2021 for her services to the music industry.^[7]

Scope of influence

IFPI represents the recording industry worldwide; there are some 8,000 members across IFPI and its National Group network, operating in over 70 countries and over 70 national groups, affiliated music licensing companies and IFPI offices.^[2] According to its criteria, IFPI membership is open to "a legal entity or person which is either a producer of phonograms or music videos, copies of which are made available to the public in reasonable quantities",^[2] though the organisation does not define "reasonable quantities".

National groups and affiliate bodies include SNEP in France; BVMI in Germany; RIAJ in Japan; BPI in the UK; RIAA in the US; ARIA in Australia; Music Canada; AMPROFON in Mexico; Recorded Music New Zealand; Promusicae in Spain; FIMI in Italy and others.^[8] Record labels can be members of both their local industry body and IFPI.

History

Members of the international phonographic industry formed IFPI at the industry's first international congress in Rome, Italy, held from 10 to 14 November 1933.^[9] IFPI described its mission as representing "the interests of the recording industry worldwide in all fora"^[10] by promoting legislation and copyrights^[11] and "to protect the largely British-based recording industry" by promoting a global performance right in gramophone sound recordings.^[12]

Phonogram copyrights established

The IFPI lobbied at the Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organisations of 1961, which established an international standard for the protection of sound recordings, live performances and broadcasts. This convention was opposed by trade groups representing authors and composers, who were concerned that establishing such "neighbouring rights" would undermine their own control over how their works were used and would result in prohibitively expensive licensing.^[13] Pressure from United States-based broadcasters who didn't want to license the records they broadcast, among other factors, kept the United States from signing the convention; the United States would not recognise a separate sound recording copyright until 1971.^[14]

Phonogram copy protection efforts

In an effort to combat copyright violation, in 1971, the IFPI advocated for the Convention for the Protection of Producers of Phonograms Against Unauthorized Duplication of Their Phonograms (the Geneva Phonograms Convention), which 72 countries signed.^[15]

In 1986, the ISO established the International Standard Recording Code (ISRC) standard, ISO 3901. In 1989, the IFPI was designated the registration authority for ISRC codes. ISRC codes "enable the use of copyright protected recordings and works to be controlled; facilitate the distribution and collection of royalties (performances, private copying); and assist in the fight against piracy".^[16]

To further combat infringement of recorded works, the IFPI and the compact disc manufacturing industry introduced Source Identification (SID) codes in 1994. The SID codes are markings on optical discs such as compact discs (CD) and digital versatile discs (DVD) that identify the manufacturer, equipment, and master discs used to create each disc. There are two codes: the SID mastering code and the SID mould code. The SID mastering code identifies the manufacturing facility used to produce a master from which moulds are produced. The SID mould code identifies the plant where the disc was moulded (replicated). Since not all optical disc manufacturing facilities have the ability to both produce master discs and replicate discs, the SID mastering code and SID mould code on a given optical disc may or may not represent the same manufacturing facility.^{[17]: 3, 4}

SID codes follow a standard format consisting of the letters "IFPI" followed by four or five hexadecimal digits. A number prefaced with "L" is a "mastering code", a serial number taken from a pool assigned by Philips to the manufacturer. The mastering code identifies the Laser Beam Recorder (LBR) signal processor or mould that produced a particular stamper or a glass master disc from which moulds are produced. Non-"L" numbers are "mould codes", which identify the manufacturer that replicated the disc. Phillips assigns the first 2 or 3 digits of the mould code and the remaining digits are a serial number assigned by that plant to its moulds.^{[17]: 4, 7}

The Pirate Bay incidents

In mid-October 2007, after IFPI let the ifpi.com domain registration lapse, ownership of the ifpi.com domain was transferred to The Pirate Bay, a group which claimed it received the domain from an anonymous donor.^[18] The group set up a Website under the domain titled "International Federation of Pirates Interests", a replacement backronym for IFPI. Ownership of the domain was returned to IFPI in late November, when a WIPO arbitration panel concluded that "the Disputed Domain Name is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark in which the [IFPI] has rights" and that the Pirate Bay's representative "registered and [was] using the Disputed Domain Name in bad faith" and failed to adequately rebut IFPI's contention that he "has no rights or a legitimate interest in the Disputed Domain Name".^[19] The organisation's website www.ifpi.org was unaffected during the dispute.

Milestones

• 1996 – Platinum Europe Awards established^[20]
• 2003 – Pro-Music established, a website with a directory of licensed music services in each country, supported by a cross-sector industry groups and set up and run by IFPI^[21]
• 2004 – IFPI's Global Music Report first published (an annual publication; first edition called Online Music Report and subsequently renamed Digital Music Report in 2005. Rebranded to current name in 2016 and combined with separate publication Recording Industry in Numbers as combined report Global Music Report)
• 2005 – IFPI instrumental in litigation against illegal file-sharing site Kazaa, which later became a licensed service^[22]
• 2009 – coordinated music industry action against The Pirate Bay, resulting in a high-profile ruling against the site's operators^[23]
• 2013 – IFPI's Global Recording Artist of the Year Award is established; a list of the world's top 10 most popular artists across a calendar year. The artist in the number one spot is presented with a physical award by IFPI.^[24]
• 2015 – Launch of New Music Fridays, the global switch to all markets releasing music on a Friday, driven by a steering committee including IFPI^[25]
• 2015 – IFPI led legal action against Russian site vKontakte which led to a Russian court ordering the service to stop its "large-scale infringement"^[26] and later saw the site become licensed in 2016^[27]
• 2017 – IFPI co-ordinated legal action leading to the closure of the world's largest stream-ripping site, YouTubeMP3^[28]
• 2019 – Changes to the European Copyright Directive—designed to great a fairer licensing environment for recorded music online—are adopted by the European Parliament, following a campaign by the creative industries, including IFPI^[29]
• 2020 – A Sub-Saharan Africa IFPI regional office was opened in Nairobi, working across the region's 46 markets.^[30]
• 2021 – IFPI opens first office in the MENA region in Abu Dhabi.^[31]
• 2022 – A new Southeast Asia regional office was opened in Singapore.^[32]

Certifications and awards

IFPI publishes six annual top-ten charts: the IPFI Global Recording Artist Chart, IFPI Global Single Chart, IFPI Global Album Chart, IFPI Global Album Sales Chart, the IFPI Global Vinyl Album Chart and (from 2023) the IFPI Global Streaming Album Chart.

Launched in January 2014,^[24] the IFPI Global Recording Artist Chart (sometimes called just the IFPI Global Artist Chart) was the first global chart to accurately capture the popularity of artists across streaming channels, alongside digital and physical album and singles sales. The independently verified^[33] chart includes sales of albums across digital, CD and vinyl formats; singles, both downloaded and physical; and streams across the calendar year. The chart includes all the music of each artist featured, not just one track or album. It uses album equivalent units to combine measurements of downloads, physical sales and streams.

The Top 10 Global Artist Chart is published each year, with the number-one artist being presented with a physical award, as the Global Recording Artist of the Year. The winners have been: One Direction in 2013,^[24] Taylor Swift in 2014,^[34] Adele in 2015,^[35] Drake in 2016,^[36] Ed Sheeran in 2017,^[37] Drake in 2018,^[33] Swift in 2019,^[38] BTS in 2020^[39] and 2021,^[40] and Swift in 2022.^[41]

IFPI also publishes a list of the top 10 best-performing global singles and albums each year. The most recent winners, for 2022, were Harry Styles' 'As It Was'^[42] and Bad Bunny's 'Un Verano Sin Ti'^[43] respectively. In March 2022 IFPI launched the first Global Vinyl Album Chart (most recently topped by Taylor Swift's 'Midnights', announced in March 2023) and in March 2023 they introduced the IFPI Global Streaming Album Chart, with Bad Bunny's 'Un Verano Sin Ti' taking the top spot. The most recently announced IFPI Global Album Sales Chart saw Jay Chou's 'Greatest Works of Art' at no. 1^[44] – the first Asian artist to top an IFPI Global Chart.

Formerly, IFPI ran certifications called the IFPI Platinum Europe Awards and the IFPI Middle East Awards. The IFPI Platinum Europe Awards were founded in 1996.^[20] They are awarded for actual retail sales (as opposed to shipments) of one million albums, in one of the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and United Kingdom.^[45] The IFPI Middle East Awards were established in October 2009.^[20] They were awarded for sales in either Lebanon or the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. In the GCC, gold certification was awarded for sales of 3,000 units and platinum for sales of 6,000 units. In Lebanon, gold certification was awarded for sales of 1,000 units and platinum for sales of 2,000 units.^[46]

See also

•  Record production portal

• Belgian Entertainment Association
• IFPI Danmark
• IFPI Greece
• List of music recording certifications
• List of largest recorded music markets
• Musiikkituottajat (IFPI Finland)
• Peer-to-peer file sharing

References

1. Vita, Vito (23 June 2020). Musica solida. Miraggi Edizioni. ISBN 9788833860534.
2. "IFPI's Mission". IFPI. from the original on 5 November 2006. Retrieved 18 May 2010.
3. "What We Do — IFPI — Representing the recording industry worldwide". www.ifpi.org. from the original on 11 July 2019. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
4. "Our Boards — IFPI — Representing the recording industry worldwide". www.ifpi.org. from the original on 8 July 2019. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
5. "Frances Moore to be new CEO of IFPI" (Press release). IFPI. 24 June 2010. from the original on 8 July 2010. Retrieved 24 June 2010.
6. "John Kennedy to succeed Jay Berman as Chairman and CEO of IFPI" (Press release). IFPI. 13 September 2004. from the original on 16 May 2008. Retrieved 2 July 2008.
7. "Frances Moore, Chief Executive of IFPI, Awarded MBE in Queen's Birthday Honours". IFPI. 12 June 2021. Retrieved 1 June 2022.
8. "National Groups — IFPI — Representing the recording industry worldwide". www.ifpi.org. from the original on 11 February 2020. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
9. Thalheim, Dr. R. (1938). "Der Schutz der Schallplatte nach italienischen Verordnung vom 18. February 1937.". Archiv für Urheber-, Film- und Theaterrecht. Vol. 11. Berlin: Julius Springer. p. 39.
10. Drahos, Peter; Braithwaite, John (2002). Information Feudalism: Who Owns The Knowledge Economy?. Earthscan. pp. 181–182. ISBN 1-85383-917-5. The key actor in coordinating the industry's piracy strategy became its international trade association, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. Formed in 1933, its mission was to represent 'the interests of the recording industry worldwide in all fora'.
11. Davies, Gillian (May 1984). Oral History of Recorded Sound (Abstract). British Library National Sound Archiv e. from the original on 27 January 2009. Retrieved 10 April 2008. IFPI founded in 1933 to deal with [r]ecord industry at inter-governmental level; promoting legislation; copyrights for industry worldwide.
12. Frith, Simon (January 1988). "Copyright and the Music Business". Popular Music. 7 (1): 57–75. doi:10.1017/S0261143000002531. JSTOR 853076. S2CID 153812624. IFPI was founded in 1933, in its own words, 'to protect the largely British-based recording industry', but, as Gavin McFarlane points out, its brief was more specifically 'to promote on a world-wide basis the performing right in gramophone records'...
13. Drahos & Braithwaite (2002), p. 181: "Authors and composers became increasingly worried by copyright's technological turn. They saw it as compromising the artistic purity of copyright. At a more practical level, authors were worried that the recognition of a 'neighbouring right' in the form of a sound recording would undermine their control over the use of works as well as add to users' costs. Users would now have to pay additional licence fees to producers of sound recordings. It was the resistance of key author associations that helps to explain why it took more than 30 years for an international standard for the protection of sound recordings to emerge in the form of the Rome Convention of 1961."
14. Drahos & Braithwaite (2002), p. 181: "The US did not join the Rome Convention. Aside from some constitutional issues, powerful broadcasting organisations in the US did not want to endanger a status quo in which they received records from the recording industry for free or at a discount. Domestically, the US did not recognise a separate copyright in sound recordings until 1971."
15. Drahos & Braithwaite (2002), p. 181: "After its major lobbying effort on the Rome Convention [of 1961], IFPI began a campaign against piracy. It pushed for and obtained in 1971 the Convention for the Protection of Producers of Phonograms against Unauthorised Duplication of their Phonograms."
16. ISRC Practical Guide, 3rd edition, 1998, International ISRC Agency, London.
17. "SID Code Implementation Guide" (PDF). IFPI. International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. (PDF) from the original on 2 December 2012. Retrieved 10 January 2012.
18. Ernesto (12 October 2007). "Anti-Piracy Organization Domain IFPI.com Now Owned by The Pirate Bay". TorrentFreak. from the original on 23 October 2007. Retrieved 10 April 2008.
19. "WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center Administrative Panel Decision: IFPI Secretariat, IFPI International Federation of the Phonographic Industry v. Peter Kopimi Sunde aka Brokep (Case No. D2007-1328)". 19 November 2007. from the original on 24 February 2008. Retrieved 10 April 2008.
20. . ifpi.org. Archived from the original on 29 July 2010. Retrieved 16 May 2011. IFPI Middle East Awards
21. "Pro Music : All You Need To Know About Getting Music On The Internet". www.pro-music.org. from the original on 14 November 2019. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
22. "Kazaa site becomes legal service". 27 July 2006. from the original on 25 October 2019. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
23. Kiss, Jemima (17 April 2009). "The Pirate Bay trial: guilty verdict". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. from the original on 25 October 2019. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
24. "One Direction named top global recording artists in new award". The Guardian. 30 January 2014. from the original on 25 October 2019. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
25. ""New Music Fridays" go live as albums and singles switch over to global release day". www.ifpi.org. from the original on 25 October 2019. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
26. "Russian court orders VK to stop infringement". www.ifpi.org. from the original on 25 October 2019. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
27. "VKontakte launches licensed Spotify rival – but waits on Universal". Music Business Worldwide. 4 May 2016. from the original on 25 October 2019. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
28. "World's largest music stream ripping site shuts down after successful international legal action from record industry". www.ifpi.org. from the original on 25 October 2019. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
29. "European Parliament approves new copyright rules for the internet | News | European Parliament". www.europarl.europa.eu. 26 March 2019. from the original on 23 October 2019. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
30. IFPI, IFPI (18 June 2020). "IFPI opens Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Office in Nairobi, Kenya".
31. "IFPI appoints Rawan Al-Dabbas as MENA Regional Director". IFPI. 2 November 2021. Retrieved 1 June 2022.
32. "IFPI Opens Southeast Asia Regional Office in Singapore". IFPI. 17 March 2022. Retrieved 1 June 2022.
33. "Drake named Global Recording Artist of 2018". www.ifpi.org. 26 February 2019. from the original on 9 July 2019. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
34. "Taylor Swift named IFPI Global Recording Artist of 2014". www.ifpi.org. from the original on 8 March 2020. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
35. "Adele confirmed by IFPI as the number 1 global recording artist". www.ifpi.org. from the original on 25 October 2019. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
36. "Drake named IFPI Global Recording Artist 2016". www.ifpi.org. from the original on 21 October 2019. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
37. "Ed Sheeran officially named the best-selling global recording artist of 2017". www.ifpi.org. 26 February 2018. from the original on 25 October 2019. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
38. "Taylor Swift Named IFPI Global Recording Artist of 2019". www.ifpi.org. 2 March 2020. from the original on 2 March 2020. Retrieved 2 March 2020.
39. "BTS announced as the winners of 2020's IFPI Global Recording Artist of the Year Award". IFPI. 4 March 2021. Retrieved 4 March 2021.
40. "BTS announced as the winners of IFPI Global Recording Artist of the Year Award". IFPI. 24 February 2022. Retrieved 24 February 2022.
41. Hatton, Carl (22 February 2023). "Taylor Swift Named IFPI's Global Recording Artist of the Year". IFPI. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
42. "Harry Styles wins IFPI Global Single Award for As It Was". IFPI. 23 February 2023. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
43. "Bad Bunny's Un Verano Sin Ti announced as winner of IFPI's Global Album Award". IFPI. 24 February 2023.
44. IFPI. "IFPI Twitter announcement – Global Album Sales Chart 2022 Top 10" – via Twitter.
45. "Platinum Europe Awards – Terms and Conditions". ifpi.org. from the original on 28 January 2010. Retrieved 16 May 2011.
46. (PDF). ifpi.org. October 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 August 2012. Retrieved 16 May 2011.

External links

• Official website