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For years, the Middle East has been regarded as the next hot music market – for talent, streaming and even the live business. But few countries there have modern collective management organizations that can take in and pay out royalties for performing rights or mechanical rights on the publishing side, or neighboring rights when recordings are used on radio or television or in bars or restaurants. On Oct. 23, the start-up Music Nation, which has a partnership with BMI, will begin collecting for those rights in the United Arab Emirates, which includes Dubai and Abu Dhabi – and it will not be the only player in the market.  

The UAE’s 2021 update of copyright law established public performance and neighboring rights in the country. Since then, the UAE has given permits to two collection organizations: Music Nation and the Emirates Music Rights Association (EMRA), which has the backing of some foreign societies, including SACEM, and plans to operate as a nonprofit. (A third company has been collecting royalties for several years.) Music Nation, which is technically a Rights Management Entity (RME), is a private company. It has a partnership with BMI, which gives it access to important U.S. repertoire, and it has a deal with SoundExchange to provide neighboring rights administration, so it can license both publishing and neighboring rights for the use of recordings.  

“With Music Nation’s technology and a leadership team that understands both the UAE’s cultural fabric and global music operations, we’re delivering a simple, transparent and modern licensing solution that easily licenses businesses and quickly pays creators,” said Music Nation founder and chairwoman Rasha Khalifa Al Mubarak.

The executive team includes CEO Amer M. Samhoun, COO James K. Petrie and chief creative officer Ali Dee.

The launch of Music Nation is the first international partnership of its kind for BMI, after that organization shifted to operating as a for-profit company backed by private equity.

It also represents the opening of a potentially important new market, since the UAE has said it is making the music business and the creative industries an economic priority, and Saudi Arabia is moving in the same direction. The markets are different, however. Foreigners make up about 88% of the population in the UAE, with significant numbers coming from elsewhere in the Middle East, the U.S. and Europe, India and the Philippines. Anglo-American songs and recordings are said to be popular, which means that the country could generate significant royalties for ASCAP, BMI and the UK CMO PRS for Music.

There will be competition, however. As a nonprofit in the traditional European model, EMRA has been championed by SACEM. Since 2020, the UAE has also had another RME, ESMAA, a subsidiary of PopArabia, which is majority-owned by Reservoir Media and run by Hussain Yoosuf, who goes by the nickname “Spek.” Although ESMAA does not have a permit to operate as a collective management organization under the UAE copyright law, it has an Abu Dhabi business license for rights management that allows it to collect and distribute royalties. Right now, it also has more reciprocal agreements in place than its competitors, including with PRS, GEMA (the German CMO) and STIM (Sweden).

Both Music Nation and EMRA will presumably pursue deals with those entities, as well as others, and the market could get very competitive.