Sound recordings

"Sound recordings are the embodiment of all kinds of sounds in some enduring material form, thus permitting them to be repeatedly perceived, reproduced, broadcast or otherwise communicated." WIPO Glossary, p. 240.

With regard to recordings of music and published literature, many different performers may record the same work e.g. Georgia on My Mind, Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, or Shakespeare's Tempest. Also the same performer(s) may record the same work more than once. In each case, although the original work is the same, its realisation in sound will always be different every time that it is recorded. Hence each new recording is different.1

 

Footnotes:

1.Note: Often a recorded performance or event is simply referred to as a recording. Implicit here is the content of the recording, not its physical format for which the terms physical item or item are used

2. Coarse groove era here means the period from the 1890s to the 1960s, when recorded sound discs were predominantly made of shellac, and the playback speed of which may or may not have been standardised at 78 rpm.

3.Microgroove era here means the period when vinyl discs were manufactured and distributed, from 1948 to the 1990s.

4. CISAC. Draft ISWC : International Standard Work Code. - (CIS Brief No. 2). p. 1

5. CISAC. Draft ISAN : International Standard AudioVisual Number. - (CIS Brief No. 3). p. 1.

6. indecs (interoperability of data in e-commerce systems) http://www.indecs.org/results/persons.htm

7. Single-sided discs are recorded on one side only. The other or B side is blank.