Where the five rights come from, and why the Act grants you none of them
The Copyright Act 2021 is the source of every music right a Singapore business has to clear. It is also, from a buyer’s point of view, entirely permissionless: the statute creates the rights and hands them to somebody else.
A rewrite, not an amendment
The Act replaced the Copyright Act 1987 outright. It was not a set of patches to the old statute.
The Copyright Act 2021 was passed in Parliament in September 2021 and came into force on 21 November 2021, replacing the Copyright Act 1987 that had governed Singapore for over three decades. It was a complete restructuring and rewriting of the law in plain English, adopting a principle-based formulation intended to hold up as technology changes rather than requiring amendment each time distribution methods shift.
For a business playing background music, that architectural change matters less than one consequence of it: the exclusive rights are now stated more clearly than they ever were, and clarity cuts in the rights holder’s favour as much as anyone’s. The provisions are drafted to apply to acts in a physical setting exactly as they apply to acts online. A shop floor and a streaming platform are treated by the same language.
Two changes in the Act are directly relevant to venues. Owners of copyright in sound recordings gained the ability to collect fees for public broadcasts of their recordings — a new revenue stream attaching to the recording rather than the song. And authors and performers gained a right to be identified when their works or performances are used in public, an obligation that sits with the user, not the supplier.
The commencement nobody mentioned
The Act did not arrive in one piece. The part that governs the societies you pay took another two and a half years.
21 November 2021. The Act comes into force and repeals the Copyright Act 1987 — except for Part 9, which deals with the regulation of collective management organisations. The societies administering music rights continue operating without a statutory oversight regime.
31 October 2023. The Copyright (Collective Management Organisations) Regulations 2023 are gazetted under Part 9, following a public consultation run from November 2022 to January 2023. Societies are given six months’ notice to bring their operations into compliance.
1 May 2024. The class licensing scheme takes effect. Every entity carrying on business as a collective management organisation is automatically licensed, with no registration and no fee, and must comply with the licence conditions. The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore becomes the regulator, and operating as an unlicensed collective management organisation becomes an offence.
What the scheme regulates, and what it deliberately does not
This is the single most commercially useful thing in the Act for a business negotiating a licensing position, and it is almost always misread. The class licensing scheme raises standards of transparency, accountability and governance among collective management organisations. It does not regulate what they charge.
The scheme expressly does not interfere with the fees a society sets. Societies remain free to determine their own tariffs, and the regulator will not take regulatory action against a society in respect of the fees or other terms of a tariff scheme. Where a dispute over fees arises, the forum is the Copyright Tribunals, not the regulator.
So a business that assumes the 2024 scheme put a ceiling on what it will be asked to pay has misunderstood the reform. Governance was regulated. Price was not. The cost of a collectively administered licensing position is still a market outcome, which is exactly why the structural alternative — clearing rights directly at source — changes the arithmetic rather than merely tidying the paperwork.
Which rights this page covers
All five, and none of them. The Act is the origin of the public performance right in the composition, the public performance right in the sound recording, the reproduction right, and the underlying publishing and recording rights. It defines them, sets their duration and specifies the remedies for infringing them. It grants a business no permission whatsoever to exercise any of them.
Permission comes from the rights holder, either through a collective management organisation or directly. For what a performance licence actually clears, see public performance licence in Singapore. For who answers when a right has not been cleared, see music licence for business in Singapore.
One further point on ownership, relevant to any business commissioning custom audio: under the Act, copyright in commissioned work belongs to the creator by default, including sound recordings. That default can be reversed, but only by written contract. A venue that pays a composer for original music does not own it merely by virtue of having paid.
A Singapore statute grants Singapore rights
Territoriality is the quiet consequence of all of this. The Copyright Act 2021 operates in Singapore. Rights cleared under another country’s statute are cleared under that country’s statute, and the reproduction right in particular is granted by territory.
A supplier holding entirely valid reproduction rights in its home market cannot confer Singapore coverage by invoicing a Singapore client. When a file is cached or stored on a device sitting on your premises, the act of reproduction happens here, and it is the Act that governs it. The exposure lands on the operator of those premises, and no clause in a supply agreement moves it.
- Ask whether a supplier’s rights are granted for Singapore specifically, not for a region assumed to include it.
- Establish whether the arrangement clears reproduction as well as performance.
- Confirm what evidence of coverage you could produce if a rights holder wrote to you tomorrow.
Common questions
When did the Singapore Copyright Act 2021 come into force?+
It was passed in Parliament in September 2021 and commenced on 21 November 2021, replacing the Copyright Act 1987. Part 9, covering the regulation of collective management organisations, was held back and took effect through a class licensing scheme on 1 May 2024.
Does the Copyright Act 2021 give my business permission to play music?+
No. The Act creates the exclusive rights and assigns them to authors, performers and rights owners. It grants a business nothing. Permission has to be obtained from whoever holds each right, either through a collective management organisation or directly from the source.
Do I need a licence to play copyrighted music in public in Singapore?+
Yes. Public performance is one of the exclusive rights the Act reserves to rights holders, and it applies to any space that is not a private domestic setting. Where the music file came from does not change the analysis.
Did the 2024 rules cap what the collecting societies can charge?+
No, and this is widely misunderstood. The class licensing scheme regulates transparency, accountability and governance. It expressly does not interfere with the fees societies set, and disputes over tariffs go to the Copyright Tribunals rather than the regulator.
If I commission original music for my venue, do I own the copyright?+
Not by default. Under the Act, copyright in commissioned work — including sound recordings — belongs to the creator unless the position is reversed by written contract. Paying for the work is not the same as acquiring the rights in it.
The statute sets the rules. We clear the rights.
MUSICVYBE licenses directly from rights owners, in territory, so performance and reproduction are covered together with no society position to hold or reconcile. Fully managed across Lite, Pro and Signature — clients do not schedule, curate or operate anything.
Related pages
| Page | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Public Performance Licence Singapore | What the performance right clears, and the four rights it leaves open |
| Music Licence for Business Singapore | Who is liable, and how to verify a supplier before signing |
| Music Licensing in Singapore | The overview of every licence a Singapore business may need |
| The Essential Guide to Background Music Licensing | The full five-rights framework, set out end to end |
| COMPASS Licence Singapore | The society administering the composition, and what its tariff covers |
| MRSS Licence Singapore | The society administering sound recordings in Singapore |
| Pricing | Lite, Pro and Signature, fully managed |