NEWSLETTER Q4 2021

Stream-ripping campaign in Brazil leads to blocking order against 24 targets

On 7th December, IFPI's National Group in Brazil, Pro-Música Brasil, secured a blocking order against 24 stream-ripping targets (21 sites and three mobile apps)., The injunction - granted by the court for 180 days - covers app removals, IP and DNS blocking across all internet service providers and Open DNS services and, as a result, will severely disrupt the stream-ripping landscape in the country. Importantly, the decision took only three weeks between its formal presentation to Cyber Gaeco (the public prosecutor's office) and the judge's preliminary decision - demonstrating a commitment to target this harmful practice. There are currently 36 stream-ripping sites and over 90 mobile apps blocked in Brazil following a sustained campaign by IFPI, Pro-Música Brazil and local organizations.

IFPI's Latin America regional office hosts region-wide meetings with national International Standard Record Code (ISRC) agencies

The IFPI Latin America regional office has embarked on region-wide presentations and ongoing communication to promote the proper uses of ISRC and to further develop national ISRC agencies in the region. ISRC is an essential tool that enables music creators to identify their recordings and manage how they are used in all parts of the world. IFPI works globally to ensure music markets have access to vital data systems such as ISRC and that they develop in line with international best practice.

Public Prosecutor in Brazil presses criminal charges against operator of stream-ripping site Yout

The Public Prosecutor's office in Brazil, via its special unit, Cyber-Gaeco,, has pressed criminal charges against the operator of Yout for mass copyright infringement. The case follows a referral by IFPI's local group in Brazil and it will now be assigned to a criminal judge and prosecutor who will be assisted by the Cyber-Gaeco unit. Whilst the criminal case is ongoing, the Prosecutor is also seeking a dynamic blocking injunction against the site. In 2020, IFPI's local group in Brazil, Pro-Música Brasil, was successful in its first criminal blocking action, resulting in ISPs being ordered by the São Paulo Criminal Court to block 15 global priority stream-ripping sites. The operator of Yout appealed the site block. Yout is one of the most popular stream-ripping sites globally, receiving on average over six million monthly visits.

Mexico named as the country where consumers spend the most time listening to music

The IFPI survey Engaging with Music 2021, published in October 2021, places Mexico at the top of the list of countries where fans spend the most time listening to music. The goal of this survey was to learn how a sample of 43,000 people across 21 countries engages with music. One of the survey's results shows that the time devoted to listening to music globally amounted to 18.4 hours per week, per person. In Mexico, by contrast, this increases to a staggering 25.8 hours per week. This and more data on the Mexico survey can be found here.

Music streaming charts launched in Honduras and Paraguay for first time

As the rapid growth of streaming continues in Latin America, two more countries in the region have rolled out charts in the last quarter, providing robust measurement tools to gain deeper insight into music consumption in those markets. Together with BMAT, IFPI has worked towards the creation of a weekly chart that ranks the most popular songs on Honduras' and Paraguay's digital music services by using statistically representative samples. The Honduras chart has been running since [month] and the Paraguay data will be available from January 2022. With these two new launches, IFPI has been instrumental in making streaming charts available for its members in 17 Latin American countries.

The licensing campaign across government-owned mass media continues

In November 2021, Uruguay's government-owned TV station, TVCiudad (owned by the Montevideo City Hall), paid a license to broadcast music repertoire and phonograms for the first time in history, a significant development, reflecting the growing acknowledgement of the value of music. IFPI hopes that the coming months will see a similar agreement put in place with the Ministry of Education and Culture, one that would enable the collection of the same rights holder fees across government-owned radio and television broadcasters, which have historically not paid licenses for music usage.

In addition to the TVCiudad developments, work continues on licensing agreements for government-owned radio stations. In September 2017 a contract with these stations was signed but payments to rights holders ceased after two years and the new administration, which took office in 2020, expressly deemed the contract invalid. Now music licensing companies have now joined forces with their members (authors, performers and producers) and work is underway to bring a new agreement to fruition.