Promusicae began in 1958 as a representative of the IFPI in Spain under the name of the Spanish Group of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (Grupo Español de la Federación Internacional de la Industria Fonográfica), although not officially an association, since Spanish law during the Francoregime did not recognize the right of association until 1977. In 1978, it was registered as an association under the name Spanish Phonographic Association (Asociación Fonográfica Española) (AFE). In 1982, with the emergence and popularization of the music video, the AFE changed its name to Phonographic and Videographic Association of Spain (Asociación Fonográfica y Videográfica de España) (AFYVE). Finally, in 2004, AFYVE partners adopted the name, Spanish Music Producers (Productores de Música de España), abbreviated Promusicae, which is also a play on words with the Latin expression "pro musicae", which means "for / in favor of the music". The new name was instituted on 1 January 2005.[3]
Since 30 April 2003, Antonio Guisasola has been president of Promusicae, replacing Carlos Grande.
Charts
The charts are calculated once every week on Sundays. They are based on retail music sales within Spain for the week from the preceding Saturday to the Friday prior to calculation. The new charts are usually uploaded to the Promusicae website on Sunday night Spanish continental time. As of January 2015, the Top 100 songs are based on streaming and both download and physical sales.[4]
Certifications have existed in Spain since the mid-1970s. During this period, both singles and albums had to sell 100,000 copies to qualify for a Gold disk, the only certification awarded at the time.[5]
Promusicae is currently in charge of certifying records in Spain. It certifies Gold and Platinum recordings based on the shipment of albums and the sales of digital downloads.
Albums
Until 1 November 2005, the certification levels for music albums in Spain were 50,000 copies for Gold and 100,000 for Platinum.[6] The levels were change to 20,000 for Gold and 40,000 for Platinum in November 2011[7] and are still the same, as of June 2022[update].[8]
This table contains the certification levels, when the program of Gold and Platinum is operated under Promusicae.
In January 2008, due to a decline in Physical singles, Promusicae added to the charts of the physical singles two separate Top 20 charts, one for "Digital downloads" and the other for "Original Tones" (similar to Ringtones). The change was reflected to the certifications as well, and allowed each single title to receive two separate types of certification awards.[13] The two certification formats were combined in January 2009, reflecting, again, the charts becoming a single chart. At the same time, the physical singles chart and certifications were discontinued, and the certification-levels were raised to 20,000 for Gold and 40,000 for Platinum from the previous 10,000/20,000.[14]
Streaming certifications were instituted in November 2013 at Gold for 4,000,000 streams and Platinum for 8,000,000.[21] and run until January 2015, when they were merged with the digital downloads certification, at the same time raising the equivalent certification levels to 5,000,000 and 10,000,000.[22] From 2018, the streaming equivalent levels are no longer listed.[23]
Promusicae has monitored P2P networks gathering data about its users downloading music. In April 2005, Promusicae claimed that they were monitoring the Kazaa P2P network and they had sent "messages" containing warnings and legal threats to more than 10,000 users.[24] In early 2008, Promusicae started a judicial process against Telefónica, the biggest Spanish Internet service provider, demanding that personal data of Kazaa users they monitored should be handed over to Promusicae, so they can start suing them. The Promusicae v. Telefónica case continued until the European Court of Justice ruled that Telefónica did not have an obligation to hand user data over to Promusicae.[25]
Promusicae is one of the founders of La Coalición de Creadores e Industrias de Contenidos, a group of companies whose mission is changing Spanish law to be able to prosecute file-sharing.[28]
