![Teleskolan, Stockholm](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Teleskolan%2C_Stockholm.JPG)
STIM, ''Svenska Tonsättares Internationella Musikbyrå'' (Swedish Performing Rights Society), is a Swedish
collecting society for
songwriter
A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music ...
s,
composers and
music publisher
A music publisher is a type of publisher that specializes in distributing music. Music publishers originally published sheet music. When copyright became legally protected, music publishers started to play a role in the management of the intellect ...
. Its role is to act as an agent for its members in order to collect license fees whenever their musical works are performed in public, broadcast or transmitted, and to pay out
performing royalties.
STIM was founded in 1923, a few years before
Sveriges Radio began regular broadcasting. Initially an organization for collecting concert fees for composers of classical music, it has since expanded to all genres of music, and license fees from broadcasters have become an important source of income. The organization now has more than 71,000 members. In 2003–2007 the annual turnover was slightly more than 1000 million SEK.
Once an organization is set up, representing a majority of copyright holders within a type of works (as STIM is for composers of recorded music), Swedish copyright law (1960:729, chapter 3a, sections §42a–f) grants users of such works (e.g. broadcasters that use recorded music) the right to use all such works under a single contract with that organization. The collected fees are set by STIM, depending on the size of the audience but independent of the individual work or composer. An individual composer who disagrees, must actively opt out (§42b–e, 2nd paragraph) of this collective arrangement. A composer who wants a share of the fees has to join STIM as a member.
Copyrights are administered through another organization
NCB of which STIM is part owner.
In 2019 they launched a new part of the office – Stim Music Room – which is a work space where all members can hang out, take meetings, study as well as working in one of the well equipped studios. Everything is for free and is, according to STIM, a way of creating a space for songwriters where one can make new connections, write music and develop.
See also
*
List of copyright collection societies#Sweden
References
External links
Swedish Performing Rights Society, STIMSwedish copyright law, chapter 3a
{{Authority control
Music licensing organizations
Music organizations based in Sweden
Organizations established in 1923