Neighbouring rights for musicians and record companies.
About Sena
In 1993, the government appointed Sena (in Dutch: Stichting ter Exploitatie van Naburige Rechten) to manage the remuneration rights of all Dutch artists and record producers under the Neighbouring Rights Act, or WNR (Wet op de naburige rechten).
In addition to all national artists and producers, Sena also represents international top acts including Phil Collins, Coldplay, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Mumford & Sons, Black Eyed Peas, David Guetta, Ed Sheeran, Ida Engberg, The Rolling Stones and Christina Aguilera. Unlike the authors of music with Buma, these national and international artists and producers are unable to make payment agreements with users of their works themselves.
The work of Sena
Sena has two main functions. The first is to grant licences on behalf of the rightholders to companies or organisations that use music, and to collect the associated fees. Sena carefully monitors and registers where, how and with what purpose music is played in the commercial sector, and which licences are applicable.
Sena’s second job is to ensure that the fees are correctly distributed among the artists and producers. To make this possible, Sena first registers rightholders’ details, including the repertoire they have worked on or produced.
The next step is to calculate who is entitled to what; this is achieved using information such as playlists from radio and television stations. Sena also uses the results of a large-scale market research study that it conducts in conjunction with Buma, which produces an overview of listening behaviour within the Dutch commercial sector.
Lastly, Sena issues payments to the rightholders. In this respect Sena is a non-profit organisation, and views it as its mission to pass on the fees as correctly and with as few costs as possible. Payments are issued four times per year.
Sena is a member of VOI©E, the Association of Organisations for the Collective Exploitation of Intellectual Property (Vereniging van Organisaties die Intellectueel eigendom Collectief Exploiteren). Click here to read about the differences with Buma.
Sena collects fees on behalf of national and international artists and producers, and passes these on to the rightholders as quickly, correctly and with as few costs as possible.
