UBC: We’re Preparing to Contribute to the Development of FastTrack
The UBC Heritage
UBC (União Brasileira de Compositores) was founded in 1942 by distinguished composers, UBC is the very first Brazilian organization created for the collective management of rights of musical works. The principles and purposes that moved those distinguished composers are still alive and valid 72 years after its foundation: the defense and the efficient administration of the rights creators have on their works. Guided by these founding principles we have been able to grow and develop, improving constantly our capacity and efficiency, seeking always the benefit of our members, working to maximize the revenue we collect and distribute.
UBC and CISAC
UBC is a member of CISAC and we have long lasting good relations with our sister societies all over the world. In the recent decades, especially since the boom of digital technology, communications and the diffusion of works have significantly expanded its range; our business has become effectively global and even more dematerialized. In a digital global market, cooperation between societies becomes more and more important. Cooperation is more than ever a condition for our own individual success. Following the pace of changes in the way artistic works are commercially exploited and with the endless means of diffusion being developed and made available to the public almost every day, CISAC took its responsibilities and did a great job in terms of facilitating cooperation between societies. CISAC did this through the implementation of CIS-Net, the societies’ network developed and powered by FastTrack.
UBC adopts FastTrack tools
It took us some time to realize and to prepare ourselves to all these changes brought up by digital technology; Brazil used to be too far away. It took us some time to understand the new face of the business and all the changes yet to come. Considering the importance of the Brazilian musical repertoire in the world and its global reach we then realized we should occupy our space in the cooperation structure provided by CISAC. We were already publishing our repertoire in CIS-Net, we were participating in the CIS Sessions, but we were not aware of the real role of FastTrack and its relations with CISAC. When we understood that FastTrack, the provider of the technical solution for improving the cooperation and communications within the CISAC community, was owned by societies that were providing the human resources for the development of CIS-Net, we thought UBC should be one of the FastTrack societies.
The decision happened while we were discussing Global Repertoire Database (GRD), a project that was born to be global. UBC was invited to be a member of the GRD since the very beginning and we were following up its developments. We understood the importance of FastTrack in this process and had the opportunity, at that time, to begin discussions with the societies that were, at the same time, part of the GRD and FastTrack Shareholders. We decided to officially ask FastTrack Board if they were willing to open to new shareholders.
UBC as a FastTrack Shareholder Society
It took some time until UBC’s request became a topic on FastTrack Board’s agenda, due to the complex structure of FastTrack, a group of societies, from different countries, each one with its own problems and urgent matters to solve, and due to the huge amount of work being developed by FastTrack with the participation of professionals from the shareholders societies. But we did get a very positive answer to our request, sooner than we expected.
I’ve participated in the latest FastTrack Board meeting in June in London. I was very happy to learn all the plans and new ideas that were proposed and accepted. We are very excited with the picture we foresee coming out from the new ideas and plans presented by the FastTrack management team and we are preparing and organizing ourselves to contribute to the development of FastTrack, through the work of our experts at UBC. We believe we can bring a positive contribution with our experience and our in-house business intelligence, and we can offer a different perspective of our activity coming from a new region of the world that up to now was not present in FastTrack.
We also hope that our direct involvement in FastTrack projects and in the constant construction and reconstruction of CIS-Net will give to our repertoire a stronger presence and more reliable information that can revert positively to our members in respect of the revenue collected by our sister societies all over the world.
We believe that our members are happy and excited with this new phase for UBC, with a stronger presence and participation in the CISAC community. The fact that we will involve our internal resources in FastTrack activities for sure will make our members proud of UBC and with high expectations in terms of the benefits they will get out of it. In the end, the services and solutions that FastTrack provides enable efficient and accurate royalties distributions to creators and other right-holders worldwide and this has always been one of UBC’s main missions.
Marisa Gandelman, CEO UBC
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