Over the last 13 years, a number of incompetent governments in succession have caused the most severe crisis in Brazilian history, bringing back situations that we thought we had overcome. Inflation has made a vigorous comeback, destroying the purchasing power of the Brazilian people; foreign exchange fluctuation has soared to levels that are on the verge of ruining the Brazilian currency; economic uncertainties have caused a recession in productive activity; entrepreneurs have halted their investments: the political and economic crisis has affected the historic will of national evolution.
In a Dantesque scenario like this, it was to be expected that Authors' Rights laws and the Brazilian system of collective music management would also suffer the repercussion of the situation prevailing in Brazil.
However, as popular Brazilian songs state, nothing resists a great song, and in this adverse situation ABRAMUS (Brazilian Association of Music and Arts) has grown and Authors' Rights have received significant amounts of copyright, arising from the use of both their own works and cover performances. If on one hand the Brazilian currency lost almost 50% of its exchange value, on the other the collection of rights grew by about 2.4%, allowing not only the maintenance of the whole system, but for the system to flourish to its full potential. Furthermore, the distribution of rights, at least regarding ABRAMUS, reported a 12.27% increase as compared to the previous year.
ABRAMUS' growth ultimately resulted from the increasingly better management of directory documentation, which is represented by the striking number of (millions of works and phonograms).
We have had a huge increase in membership, with more than 48 thousand rights holders now members of the association. This therefore caused an even better performance in the documentation area in order to accommodate the vast directory that ABRAMUS' management has received.
The International Author Department met its target of increasing remittance sent to sister associations and managing the directory of Brazilian copyright holders abroad more efficiently. The department had an excellent result, with an increase equivalent to 183% of the amounts received from foreign entities in comparison to 2013.
The International Neighboring Rights – Related Rights has formed important partnerships, entering into two new agreements with the Canadian Mroc and the Belgium PlayRight. In addition, many foreign copyright holders have chosen ABRAMUS to represent them in Brazil.
The Theater and Dance Department (Dramaturgy) continues to make significant developments, attracting the membership of new authors and seeking increasingly faster rights management arising from Theater and Dance productions. In 2014, Theater & Dance ended the year with a significant increase in revenue and affiliation.
In 2014, AUTVIS (Brazilian Association of Visual Artists Rights) redesigned its website, presenting a new visual project and providing a more user-friendly interface. The work was arduous over the year, with affiliations of acclaimed names such as Oscar Niemeyer and Eduardo Kobra.
The Audiovisual Department had an important advancement in 2014; a special system for its category is now being developed and new domestic and international partnerships were made.
In that same year, the ownership interest changed to 6.89%. ABRAMUS, different from the other associations, assigns a 0.89% bonus to its copyright holders.
ABRAMUS ended 2014 with an outstanding increase in all its areas and starts 2015 with the organization and planning required to grow even further, focusing on member's customer service, the market and the defense of Authors' Rights.
The fact is that regardless of the Brazilian crisis and the loss of value of the national currency, the organization continues to grow; an unequivocal demonstration that nothing resists great pressure, and also, that working with its usual efficiency, ABRAMUS will always fulfill its historic destination.