Late musician Trinh Cong Son topped the nation's musicians in copyright fees in 2014, earning more than VND100m for his music, the Vietnam Centre for Protection of Music Copyright (VCPMC) said.
A show of late musician Trinh Cong Son's songs in 2014
VCPMC deputy director Nguyen Thi Luu said that, as of January, 3,116 musicians had signed with the centre, which collected a total of VND67bn on their behalf in 2014.
“We found it hard to collect music copyright fees in 2014 because many organisations did not want to pay,” said musician Pho Duc Phuong, who is the centre’s director.
The centre attracted considerable coverage for its repeated attempts to have organisers of the Khanh Ly live show pay copyright fees. There was also a row when the song “Because I Miss You”, by South Korean singer Jung Yong Hwa, of Rock CNBLUE, was covered by a Vietnamese singer without permission or payment.
The centre is upgrading application software to better manage copyright protection in 2015. On top of protecting local musicians, it has contracts with 63 organisations covering 153 countries and territories to protect copyright of foreign works.
