Established in Milan in 1882 with the active participation of some of Italy’s leading artists and intellectuals, SIAE (an acronym for “Italian Society of Authors and Publishers” in Italian) is one of the oldest collection societies in the world. But for years, this significant historical legacy had made it impervious to innovation — until market liberalization and technological evolution came knocking. Today, with new leadership and a completely different strategic vision than in the past, SIAE is facing the most radical transformation in its history, and is placing itself at the forefront of the technological revolution.
The year 2025 marked a true milestone for SIAE, which for the first time surpassed 1 billion euros ($1.16 billion) in revenue, with the distribution of €849 million ($987 million) to rights holders — up 15% compared to 2024.
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Simplification of processes, digitalization, stronger negotiation capacity with digital platforms, and a progressive reduction in commissions are some of the ingredients that, according to SIAE CEO Matteo Fedeli, have contributed and will increasingly contribute to the growth and modernization of the former monopolist, now the Italian market leader with a renewed vocation for innovation.
What drove such significant growth in 2025, which had been maintained at this pace for several years?
There are three main factors. One is beyond our control: it’s the market, which continues to grow for both recorded music and live events. With a market in recession, it would be much tougher. The other variables are internal. First, the issue of negotiation: our ability to negotiate with major players has certainly improved compared to the past. And then there’s the profound transformation of SIAE’s structure and functioning.
Speaking to financial newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore about SIAE’s 2023-2025 business plan, you said, “We’ve moved from a predominantly legal structure to a model in which data, technology, and analytical capabilities are central.” Can you explain?
SIAE should be seen as a digital infrastructure serving the author. We’re moving from being a body that focuses solely on the formal/legal aspects of the business to building a data-driven structure. To move in this direction, it’s also essential to bring in new skills and attract “future-proof” people.
We see AI in two different ways: on one hand, we must protect our rights holders from those who want to exploit it in the most unfair way possible; on the other, if you as a company don’t use tools like Claude (Cowork and Code) nowadays, you’re certainly missing out.
What are some new professional skills that the world of copyright protection is actively seeking out today?
The AI engineer is the person you need to implement artificial intelligence in the best possible way. Now we have an in-house software development kit. For the first time, we can give AI — not the developer — the guidance on how we want SIAE to behave, from the code of ethics to the user experience. If you use the right tools, properly configured, the barrier between the person with an idea and the object that is created is completely broken down. We are therefore looking for professionals who can lead us from a world without AI to an “AI first” world.
There is also the need to restructure knowledge, which in every company around the world is designed for humans. Sooner or later, Anthropic, OpenAI, and Microsoft will come up with good solutions that allow this to happen, but today the challenge is figuring out the steps to transform knowledge in the broadest sense: you can have it in network folders, on OneDrive, on SharePoint, or even in emails or on paper. The moment you activate these knowledge pillars and attach a good AI to them, your capabilities become supernatural compared to before.
The future of copyright protection depends on interaction with generative AI platforms. What are your proposals and what licensing models could be applied?
We’re operating in a market that’s just beginning to look for solutions. Take Udio, for example. It managed to secure more deals than Suno but remains a “closed” platform: if I go in, distort a song and then upload it to Spotify pretending to be its author — it’s hard for us and creators to accept that.
The real issue is a structural problem of the market. With the AI Act, the European legislation was one of the first interesting attempts at solving it. But the opt-out formula tends to fail because it’s very impractical. Anyway, I’m optimistic about this. Think about those first laws that introduced the concepts of the internet and digital rights: were they the perfect norms we still use today? No, but it’s the first step.
The Court of Justice recently issued a ruling against Meta and in favor of the Italian state, highlighting a fundamental issue facing these big players: transparency. If we don’t know the business model and how training works, any licensing solution will be flawed. The risk is that we’ll end up with a flat tax, like this: I’ll ask you for 2% of your revenue without even understanding how it works. Even if one of these players gave us €100 million ($116 million), who would we redistribute it to?
My hope is that someone will come along and build training algorithms that connect the training data to output generated. If you participated in the part of the training data that influenced output, then the latter should provide you with a micro-fraction of value that is truly connected to the value you put into that product.
How can streamlining processes — simplifying administration, digitizing services — reduce commissions and therefore increase earnings for the rights holders?
Our goal isn’t to generate a billion in revenue, but to redistribute as much as possible. And the fact that, as a percentage, distributions are growing faster than revenues is a wonderful result because it means that our efficiency has more than proportionally repaid those entitled to them.
From 2013 to today, our average commission has decreased from 16% to 13.7%. We’ve already reduced digital commissions from 10% to 8%, and a further cut to 7% is planned for next year. We’ve also reduced TV commissions from 11.5% to 10.5%. Both of these figures are among the most competitive in the world. We’ve increased the commission on live events to 5%, and reduced the audiovisual sector — Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, etc., worth €50-€60 million a year to us — from 10% to 8%. If you look at it in absolute terms, it doesn’t change much: two percentage points. But if you look at it in relative terms, it means we’ve reduced our costs by a fifth.
Catalogs have returned to the center of music industry strategies for a few years now. What is the strength of the catalog from SIAE’s perspective, with its nearly 30 million registered works?
It lies in the field of negotiation. Some catalog conglomerates in small countries lack the bargaining power to secure a good license. We’re probably somewhere in the middle: SIAE is the sixth-largest collection society in the world, but compared to the large conglomerates, we’re considered small.
However, the catalog is large enough to secure excellent contractual conditions with major players like Google, Meta, Spotify and Netflix. All of this leads to a higher value per stream. In the global market, 50% of a SIAE author might be worth more than 50% of their co-author abroad.
Looking at the present and future of musical creativity, what strategies are you implementing to attract new talent and build tomorrow’s catalogs?
We need to be as frictionless as possible, providing the digital infrastructure that allows you to avoid worrying about copyright. Until about 10 years ago, to file a copyright application you had to send a registered letter or come to our offices. The SIAE+ app was created for this: the author should not have to deal with unnecessary complications. Last year, we had 225,000 applications filed via the app — without even touching a computer.
How do you envision the collection society of tomorrow?
We must remain at the service of our authors. How do we do this? By maximizing their catalog, fighting — if necessary — for greater transparency from platforms, increasingly focusing on digital infrastructure and maximizing efficiency. We are building the foundations for the next five years to become a company that brings more money to rights holders more quickly and at the lowest possible cost, especially through digitalization and artificial intelligence.
