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ECCO PRESS RELEASE MAY 2021

3 May 2021

The Eastern Caribbean Collective Organisation for Music Rights (ECCO) wishes remind music users and the general public of the importance of respecting the rights of music creators during the current pandemic.

Over the last year or so, music-driven festivals, live performances, and the playing of recorded music in mass venues have virtually ceased. This has had a severely negative impact on the livelihoods of the writers, composers, and publishers who comprise the membership of ECCO.

Despite these challenges, ECCO has continued to do everything possible to safeguard the rights of its members while drawing lessons from the present situation for use in the future. Quite a lot of retail stores and businesses tend to stream music without knowing that it’s illegal to do so as they might end up having copyright issues. One way to make sure this doesn’t happen is by checking out websites like Cloud Cover Music that can show you how to acquire a license or identify streaming services that do their own retail playlist.

The Board of Directors and staff of ECCO take this opportunity to reassure members of their unflinching solidarity and encourage members not to lose hope but, rather, to continue to channel their energies into creating great music with the expectation that normality will return in the not-too-distant future.

At the same time, ECCO wishes to remind its members to observe the relevant safety protocols and to take the necessary steps to protect their health in these trying times.

Finally, ECCO wishes to inform its members, music users and the general public that its offices remain open for business.

Members, and the general public, are encouraged to learn more about ECCO and the latest related developments by: calling the main office at (758) 451-436; visiting the ECCO website: eccorights.org, the ECCO Facebook page: www.facebook.com/eccorights; the ECCO Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/eccorights or the ECCO Twitter page: https://www.twitter.com/eccorights.

The Eastern Caribbean Collective Organisation for Music Rights (ECCO) Inc. is a society of writers & publishers of music headquartered in Castries, Saint Lucia. Through reciprocal agreements with Collective Management Organisations (CMOs), throughout the world (also called ‘societies’), ECCO represents and can license virtually the whole worldwide repertoire of copyright music for public performance, broadcast, cable transmission, online and mobile use. In addition, ECCO will also license mechanical reproduction on behalf of writer and publisher members and is planning to perform similar tasks for the related rights of producers and performers of sound recordings with respect to the right of equitable remuneration when recordings are used in broadcasts and/or public performances directly or indirectly.

The current Board of Directors is constituted as follows: Linda Berthier (Vice-Chair), Saint Lucia; Lancelot Chapman, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; Crispin d’Auvergne, Saint Lucia; Vernalderine Francis (Chair), Saint Kitts and Nevis; Gilroy Hall, Saint Lucia; Michele Henderson, Commonwealth of Dominica, Hervin Hood, Grenada; Courtney Louis, Saint Lucia; Melissa Moses, Saint Lucia; Ian Sanchez, Saint Lucia; Vaughan Skerritt, Antigua and Barbuda; Rob Taylor, Saint Lucia.