The International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers

Who We Are

CISAC – the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers –is the world’s leading network of authors’ societies.

With 239 member societies in 123 countries, CISAC represents more than 4 million creators from all geographic areas and all artistic repertoires; music, audiovisual, drama, literature and visual arts. CISAC is presided over by electronic music pioneer Jean-Michel Jarre and our four Vice Presidents are: Beninese creator and singer Angélique Kidjo, Senegalese sculptor Ousmane Sow, Chinese director, writer and producer Jia Zhang-ke and Argentinean film director Marcelo Piñeyro.

CISAC protects the rights and promotes the interests of creators worldwide. We enable collective management organisations to seamlessly represent creators across the globe and ensure that royalties flow to authors for the use of their works anywhere in the world.

Founded in 1926, CISAC is a non-governmental, not-for-profit organisation with headquarters in France and regional offices in Africa (Burkina Faso), South America (Chile), Asia-Pacific (China) and Europe (Hungary).

What We Do

CISAC works to protect the rights and promote the interests of creators across all regions of the world and artistic fields; music, audiovisual, drama, literature and visual arts. We aim to secure fair remuneration for creators for the use of theirs works anywhere in the world.

Global Policy and Legal Affairs

In our work on global policy and legal affairs, we advocate in favour of the protection of authors’ rights/copyright, bringing the voice of creators to the heart of international legislative decision-making. We aim to foster a legislative environment that supports the cultural and creative industries, thereby contributing to both cultural diversity and economic growth worldwide.

Governance: Business Standards and Rules

Our Professional Rules and Binding Resolutions form a Code of Conduct to which every member society must adhere.  Through business, technical and regional committees, we share knowledge and best practices about collective management of rights, helping to drive the highest standards of operational excellence throughout the industry.  We offer legal, operational and IT support to all our members.

Creator Relations

Through our international councils of creators, we built platforms where authors in music, audiovisual, drama, literature and visual arts fields can discuss current business issues, set priorities on advocacy work and speak with a united voice in forums where the future of authors' rights/copyright are debated at the highest level.

Information Services

We provide support and tools to our member societies to help facilitate registration and documentation of artistic works, their licensing, and collection and distribution of royalties for the use of these works (and, if necessary, other rights holders of these works), enabling swift and regular royalty distribution.

Communications

We promote the work of our authors’ societies and the collective management of rights system.  To this extent, we have built CISAC University, a web-based, one-stop shop repository of information on authors’ rights/copyright that brings a wealth of insight to decision-makers, academics, journalists and the public at large.