Argentina’s royalty for recordings played on radio, TV and in public used to be split by decree: 67 percent to performers, 33 percent to the label, and 22 percent of every peso reserved for session musicians. Decreto 143/2025, published on 28 February 2025, deleted that formula.
Neighbouring rights means the royalties owed to performers and recording owners, not songwriters, when a recording is broadcast or played in public. In Argentina they rest on article 56 of Ley 11.723.
What the 1974 decree guaranteed
The original Decreto 1671/74 fixed the split in article 5. Users paid one fee, and it divided like this:
- 67 percent to performers, distributed by AADI, the Asociación Argentina de Intérpretes.
- Inside that, 67 percent to principal performers and 33 percent to secondary performers, which the decree spelled out as 45 and 22 percent of the total the user pays.
- 33 percent to the phonogram producer, settled by CAPIF, the record producers’ chamber.
Article 7 required collection through a single entity formed by AADI and CAPIF. Article 6 sent the money for foreign recordings with no Argentine release or distribution deal to the Fondo Nacional de las Artes.
What Decreto 143/2025 changed
The current text of Decreto 1671/74 says the fee is distributed “conforme a lo previsto en el Estatuto de cada sociedad”, within caps set by Ministry of Justice resolution. The 67/33 and 45/22 numbers are no longer in the law.
- Articles 6 and 7 are repealed, so the decree no longer names a joint collector or a destination for unreleased foreign repertoire.
- Performers and producers “podrán optar” for a collective society. Membership is a choice, not a default.
- Both may sign direct deals with users, and an authorised society cannot charge for the uses those deals cover.
- Societies got 180 days to rewrite their statutes, and AADI and CAPIF continue operating, Microjuris reported on publication day.
Two registered societies, and one sits on both sides
Disposición 1/2026, signed 15 January 2026, authorised CAPIF to manage the rights of phonogram producers and of performers. The producers’ own chamber can now hold a session musician’s mandate. AADI has its own separate registration, as our piece on the SADAIC registry showed.
The oversight rules sit in Resolución 536/2025, which created the registry:
- Draft changes to a society’s statute or internal rules go to the copyright office (DNDA) at least 20 business days before members vote on them.
- The annual balance must be published within 30 days of approval.
- After a 90-day notice to fix breaches, the DNDA can ask the Minister of Justice to suspend or revoke an authorisation, as Marval summarised in December 2025.
Disposición 1/2026 also obliges CAPIF to keep its repertoire online for free public lookup. That is your audit tool.
What to do with an Argentine catalogue
If you own your masters
A self-releasing artist is both producer and principal performer, so every play carries two claims. One mandate does not cover the other, so file both.
If you play on other people’s records
The 22 percent session share now depends on a society’s distribution rules, not a decree. Before you sign a mandate, ask AADI and CAPIF for their current rules and compare what secondary performers receive.
If you license users directly
- A direct deal with a gym chain or broadcaster takes those uses out of the society’s billing.
- It only pays if you can monitor plays and invoice yourself, which most independents cannot.
If nobody is credited, nobody is paid
A society can only pay a session player it knows played on the track. DDEX means Digital Data Exchange, the standard format distributors use to deliver releases, and it carries contributor roles per track.
Credits written into the delivery at release are the cheapest evidence a player will ever have. A DDEX-native distributor such as InterSpace Distribution ships them from day one, instead of a label reconstructing the line-up years later.
Related reading: Argentina’s public distributor keeps 15 percent, Chile’s performer line got 9 million pesos, and how Korea’s performer society pays foreign artists.
