The General Society of Authors and Editors (SGAE) has sued the Bilbao Court of Bilbao to the promoter Last Tour for not having paid the amounts derived from the copyright from 2022 to 2024: more than four million euros, of which half correspond to the two concerts of Taylor Swift in Madrid. Last Tour is responsible for other musical events such as the Bilbao BBK Live, Azkena Rock and Kalorama festivals in Madrid where they have played names such as Sting, Leiva, Juan Luis Guerra or Rigoberta Bandini, among others, as confirmed to the EFE Sources of the SGAE, responsible for collecting those income in the name of those affected by the default.
As explained by society, the relationship with Last Tour is “complicated for years”, with two previous demands, the last in 2019, which ended up solving in favor of the authors and forced the promoter to pay the amounts owed, but “with the corresponding delay in the collection” for those affected. The current conflict began in 2022, when the promoter finished paying and complying with the last sentence against him. Then “a very prolonged silence began again,” they denounce from the collective management entity, which began to claim what was owed, they say, “in good tone.”
The trigger for this new demand was the notice by the BMI collective management entity, the largest music rights organization in the United States, that Spain was the only country that had not yet received the amounts of Swift for its last tour: about two million euros. After several claims, a meeting was held between the parties in October in which it was placed on the table “a very complicated proposal”, SGAE sources indicate, with a possible arbitration before the Intellectual Property Commission (CPI). But an agreement was not reached to liquidate everything due and the demand was produced.
In a statement issued Thursday, Last Tour explains that “he does not oppose the copyright, or the payment of equitable remuneration corresponding to the rights holders, but rejects the practices of the management entity.” The promoter emphasizes “the abusive nature of the SGAE rate, which is especially evident in the case of Taylor Swift concerts in Madrid, to which SGAE intends to apply a rate of 8.5%, while the rate that is applied in the artist’s country of origin is limited to 1.15%.” It also emphasizes that “the British rate, for example, is 4.2%, that of Germany between 5.75%and 8%, which is in any case lower than the SGAE rate, in Belgium an escalation applies that in cases as in the concert that concerns us would be limited to 3%.
The promoter also ensures that “the figure in which SGAE estimates the claim is not correct. Last Tour has provided SGAE with the official certificates issued by the ticketera that was in charge of the sale of tickets of the Taylor Swift concerts and which was designated by the artist herself. SGAE has ignored those figures, which are the real ones, and that have been confirmed by an entity Absolutely independent of Last Tour, and has issued invoices for these concerts that practically double the figure that would correspond to. ”
The SGAE replicates the promoter arguing that “this dissension does not occur in any country. Each management entity of each country has its rate and the promoters of all countries have paid without grinding, even in places with rates superior to that of the SGAE.” And remember that in intellectual property there is a principle: “The law that governs is that of the country, not of the author’s origin, but that the fact that generates the right is produced.”
The Eras Tour Taylor Swift, which passed through Madrid on May 29 and 30, became the most lucrative tour in history, raising more than 1.9 billion euros, 13 of which left Spain.