SGAE: The Facts

The Sociedad General de Autores y Editores (General Society of Authors and Publishers, or SGAE) is a collective devoted to the management and defense of the intellectual property rights of its members.

It was formed on June 16, 1899 by a group of notable authors, including Sinesio Delgado, Ruperto Chapí, Vital Aza, José Francos Rodríguez, and Carlos Arniches.

SGAE currently has more than 91,000 members, including the authors of audiovisual works, playwrights, librettists, choreographers, composers, music publishers, and more.

SGAE has fourteen centers in Spain and offices in Argentina, Brazil, China, Cuba, the United States, Japan, and Mexico. It has signed representation agreements with more than 160 management societies worldwide.

3,014 members, or 6% of the total membership, reside outside Spain. Of these, 1,235 live in Cuba, 404 in Argentina, 234 in Mexico, 218 in the United States, 88 in Brazil, and 835 in Europe, Asia, and other locations.

SGAE manages a repertoire of over five and a half million works, including plays, choreographic works, and musical and audiovisual compositions such as long films, short films, documentaries, and television series.

In 2007 SGAE’s corporate income totalled 377.2 million euros. Dividends for members totalled 368 million euros in the same year.

Since 1997 SGAE has complemented its basic function of protecting and managing copyrights with various other services via the companies that make up the SGAE Group. Those companies include:

• Fundación Autor, the arm of SGAE dedicated to promotion, education, and social assistance.
• Sociedad Digital de Autores y Editores (SDAE, the Digital Society of Authors and Publishers), which is in charge of designing, developing, and implementing R&D, administration, promotion, and marketing in the digital sector.
• Instituto Buñuel (The Buñuel Institute), which is responsible for promoting audiovisual arts.
• Instituto Complutense de Ciencias Musicales (ICCMU, the Complutense Institute of Musical Sciences), which focuses on education, documentation, and research in musicology.
• Instituto de Derecho de Autor (the Copyright Institute), devoted to researching, promoting, and disseminating the concepts of Intellectual Property, especially in Europe and Latin America.
• Ediciones Autor, Sello Autor, Mutualidad de Previsión Social de Autores y Editores (the Mutual Social Welfare Society for Authors and Publishers), and Institute for Research into the Culture Market (CIMEC).

Notable members of the SGAE:

Fernando Trueba, Jorge Drexler, Pedro Almodóvar, Alejandro Amenábar, Pedro Iturralde, José María Cano, Juan Luis Guerra, Chucho Valdés, Chano Domínguez, Fito Páez, Juan Carlos Calderón, Julieta Venegas, Andrés Calamaro, Caetano Veloso, Michel Camilo, Bebo Valdés, Alicia Alonso, Diego el Cigala, José Saramago, Joaquin Sabina, and Joan Manuel Serrat.