Guides

Music publishing in Italy

How music publishing actually works in Italy: who claims which rights, what the national copyright system does, and what it takes for a publisher to set up and collect.

Who claims which rights

Performance and mechanical: SIAE (competitors like Soundreef now handle some repertoire). Sync: direct.

Copyright registration in Italy

SIAE itself runs Italy's public deposit registry for works — a legacy of its statutory role — though Berne protection is automatic.

Setting up to claim publishing rights

SIAE admits publishers with an Italian administrative footprint in mind; foreign catalogs overwhelmingly enter via Italian sub-publishers. Since liberalization in 2018, some repertoire routes through independent managers instead — check which body actually claims your writers' works.

The societies

SIAE — each linked page covers the society’s history and how registrations reach it.

Rules, fees, and society requirements change, and none of this is legal advice — confirm current requirements with the society or local counsel before committing. Registrations bound for Italy can be checked free on the validator · more: setting up country by country · which societies accept CWR.

Two free checks for your CWR file. Is the file correct? Every record, share and control total against the spec, each problem on its exact line. Do its writers match their registrations? Every writer cross-checked against public registration data, including works registered under another spelling or IPI. Nothing stored: check a file at cwrcheck.com.