A Brazilian concert streamed from your own site and the same concert carried by a major streaming platform do not follow the same Ecad distribution route. For an independently transmitted internet show, the published rules use the event’s musical setlist or recording and distribute the collected composition money monthly. For streaming platforms, they use the platform’s usage file and a quarterly processing calendar. That distinction should shape the paperwork before the cameras switch on.
Ecad, Brazil’s Central Office for Collection and Distribution, collects public-performance royalties. Its distribution rules, Articles 44 to 47, separate internet shows from audio and video streaming. The internet-show category expressly excludes shows transmitted through streaming platforms. This is a classification rule, not a promise that every webcast automatically earns a separate cheque.
Start with the transmission route
If a label or promoter operates its own webcast, ask Ecad which licence and reporting category applies before setting the event budget. Its May 2026 collection schedule lists internet live-show transmissions separately from social media, on-demand music and other webcasting. Those are different uses; treating a platform account, a ticketed webcast and a sponsored brand stream as one generic “online show” can produce the wrong cost assumption.
For an internet show within Article 45, the setlist or an event recording is the allocation evidence. The rule pays the holders of the composition rights in the songs performed, then divides the event’s distributable amount across the reported performances. The distribution cycle is monthly. A monthly cycle is not a one-month guarantee: the organiser’s payment, usable programme and processing still have to arrive.
The practical decision is to make the promoter responsible for a final musical programme. List the actual titles, writers and medleys, and preserve a recording if the running order changes. UBC, the Brazilian Union of Composers, tells members to submit the event details and song titles with author references through Ecad’s musical-programme workflow. A video file alone may document what happened, but a clean programme makes matching easier.
Platform delivery changes the audit
When the concert is transmitted through a streaming platform, Article 45 excludes it from the internet-show bucket. Article 47 instead describes direct distribution using each platform’s electronic usage report, subject to that platform’s contract with Ecad. The stated processing months are February, May, August and November, with timing also dependent on receipt of reports and payments. Do not forecast a platform-hosted show’s songwriter royalty from the independent-webcast calendar.
A platform’s view count is useful evidence, but it is not the royalty statement. Preserve the channel, event URL, date, territory, track timings and any usage report available to the rights team. Compare those facts with the composition registrations and the eventual association statement. If a song is missing, the first investigation is the usage and work match, not an assumed fixed rate per view.
The composition and master also need separate accounting. UBC distinguishes the musical work from the phonogram, which identifies performers, session musicians and the phonographic producer. If the stream uses a prerecorded master, clear and report that recording under the relevant platform and master-rights arrangements. A live performance of a song does not create a payout on a studio master that never played.
Put three fields in the deal memo
Before signing the stream deal, record who licenses the transmission, who sends the musical programme or platform data, and which association receives the songwriter claim. Also note whether the broadcast uses a live performance, backing tracks or commercial masters. The person who distributes the released recording may hold clean International Standard Recording Code, or ISRC, metadata, but that code identifies a recording; it does not replace a composer’s work registration.
InterSpace Distribution’s release reporting can help a label reconcile delivered masters against its own stream evidence. The live-show setlist and composition registration still need owners. For a wider catalogue check, see our guides to Brazilian concert setlists and Ecad’s retained credits. The useful habit is the same in every route: make the usage record match the registered song before expecting the royalty statement to resolve itself.
