Categories of works
For music authors
As a collective administration organisation, LATGA represents the rights of over 3,100 Lithuanian and hundreds of thousands of foreign authors of musical works (composers of popular music and lyrics, composers of serious music) and publishers.
Benefits of membership
By becoming a member, music authors and publishers entrust us with the management of their copyright. We collect royalties from the users of their works, represent them internationally and advise them on legal matters. Members can participate in the Association’s funding competitions and in the management of the organisation.
Royalties for authors of musical works are collected for the right to broadcast works to the public from public, non-commercial, online and commercial radio and television stations; for the right to retransmit works to the public from cable television; for the right to perform works to the public from organisers of concerts and other events featuring music (both commercial and public organisations), and for the right to use works to the public in places of commerce and service (shopping malls, cafés, petrol stations etc.).
Royalties are paid quarterly to authors of musical works for the right to perform, broadcast and retransmit musical works to the public.
Also, authors and publishers of musical works/lyrics receive compensation for reproducing works for personal purposes. It is also called the Blank Media Tax and is collected from sellers of blank media and devices on which music can be reproduced (recorded) (computers, mobile phones, USB keys, CDs, etc.). This fee is compensation for the fact that the Lithuanian copyright and related rights law allows making one copy of the work for personal use without the permission of the author of the work from legal sources. Compensation is paid once a year.
Authors and publishers of musical works are represented in foreign countries under mutual representation agreements with copyright collective management societies. Also, authors of musical works are included in the global catalog of authors The Interested Parties Information System (IPI).
Association members are provided with free consultations of the association’s lawyers. Also, our lawyers have prepared a whole package of standard contracts. To get them, contact our specialists.
Music authors who have become members of the Association LATGA have the right to submit applications and participate in the competition for partial funding of projects from the Creative Activity Fund and Music Authors Fund of the Association LATGA.
The documents regulating the activities of the organization are approved once or twice a year at the General Meeting of Members (GMM), to which all members are invited. Also, our members have the right to participate in Council elections (both to put forward their candidacies and to vote), which are held every four years.
How to become a member
The most important condition for becoming a member is that the popular/serious music you have created (music, lyrics and arrangements) has been/is being publicly used.
We may already be looking for you to pay the royalties we have collected, so please check if you are on our list of authors/heirs.
Publishers wishing to become our members must submit copies of their copyright assignment agreements.
Step 1
Fill in the online application form and wait for our notification of the next steps.
Step 2
Pay a one-time joining fee of EUR 10 by transferring it to our account at SEB Bank LT71 7044 0600 0038 2455, indicating “joining fee” in the payment details.
Step 3
Sign the membership agreement sent by our specialist. Congratulations, you are now a member of LATGA!
Already a member in another artistic field?
If you are already a LATGA member in another artistic field and want to receive remuneration for the use of musical works, please contact our experts at the Music Department.
Aistė Jankauskienė
Senior Specialist of Documentation and Distribution
For copyright heirs
If the author was a LATGA member, we will issue a certificate confirming that, according to Law on Copyright and Related Rights, the heir was the owner of the copyright in artistic and scientific works. This certificate allows notaries to issue an inheritance certificate, passing the author’s property rights to the heir.
If the author was not a member, we do not issue certificates Heirs must provide other documentation to the notary proving the deceased was the author. These can be contracts with publishing houses, museums, proof of membership of a particular creative union, the work itself (e.g. a book, a record) or an inventory of works drawn up by a bailiff.
Property rights last for 70 years after the author’s death.
Manage your works in Self-Service
- View royalty distribution reports
- See registered/unregistered works
- Submit work registrations for compensation/royalty distribution
For login assistance, contact us at +370 619 84926 or aiste@latga.lt.
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Frequently Asked Questions
I am an author and organise my own concerts. Do I have to obtain a licence from LATGA?
By concluding a membership agreement with LATGA, the author entrusts the collection of royalties to LATGA. This means that you can no longer receive or waive royalties directly from users, and LATGA is the only entity authorised to collect royalties. Consequently, there are no exceptions, regardless of whether the author organises their own concert or this is done via a third party. It is worth noting that authors, performers, and promoters who manage all roles themselves do not lose anything by signing licensing agreements. In fact, when they do, their concert royalties are supplemented by additional compensation for the private reproduction of their works, known as the Blank Media Levy.
Is it in the author’s interest to provide information about the use of their works in concerts and other public events?
Yes, it is very useful for the author to provide us with information about where and which of their works have been performed, whether by themselves or by other performers. The organiser of an event is obliged to provide information on the works performed at the event by signing a licence agreement with LATGA, but there are cases where the organiser fails to do so or the programme is inaccurate. Also, not all event organisers approach us to sign a licence agreement as required by law, in which case the information you provide helps us to find the event organiser in question and collect the royalties for you. So in all cases, the information you provide on the use of the works is also useful for the authors themselves, as the royalties collected from public concerts and events are distributed only according to the programmes submitted.
I plan to release an album, do I need a licence?
Our licence is required if the album uses works by authors represented by LATGA who have transferred the reproduction right to the collecting society. The licence agreement with LATGA must be signed by the user of the works, who can be either a natural or a legal person. If a member of LATGA—an author—publishes an album containing works from the repertoire represented by LATGA, they become a user of the works and must contact our specialists to conclude a licence agreement.
What remuneration does the author receive for the broadcast or rebroadcast of their work?
The rates at which we collect royalties for authors vary widely. For a 1 minute broadcast/rebroadcast of a work, an author can receive between €0.007 and €15.
Does registering a musical work with LATGA protect it against plagiarism?
No, it does not. We only register the titles, duration and authors’ names in order to collect and distribute remuneration for the use of the works. We do not keep or store recordings of the works themselves, either in physical or digital media, nor do we collect or store sheet music manuscripts.
Are you the author of the work, or do you want to use the work?
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