The song “Quen Cach Yeu” or Forget How to Love, by Luong Huu Bich, won out over several others to become the most profitable song of last year in terms of licensing, the centre announced at a meeting to review operations of the year held on January 15.

The song has continually topped the lists of many online forums since 2012.

However, Pham Thanh Thuy, Director of the centre in the northern region, said, “The title of 'best selling song' does not necessarily mean that it was the most popular."

A local musician ranked first in terms of music copyright returns with VND700 million (USD33,120) over the past year. Several other composers are on the top 100 musicians with the highest copyright returns, earning from VND20-187 million (USD946.29-USD8,847) per quarter.

The centre collected a total music copyright licensing fees of more than VND50 billion (USD2.36 million) in 2013, which was slightly more than the VND48 billion earned in 2012.

According to Thuy, most revenues came from mobile ringing tones services and karaoke businesses, as well as licenses for covers.

Musician Pho Duc Phuong, Director of VCPMC, said there was a sharp increase in the number of members of the centre who registered for music copyright services, soaring from only 274 in 2002, to 2.787 in 2013.

Being a member of the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) since 2009, the VCPMC has signed contracts with 55 foreign music copyright agencies in 148 countries and territories around the world.

In order to prevent incidents in which singers diverted from the lyrics they have submitted, they should be registered through the VCPMC fo authentication, Truong said.

She added that musician, Nguyen Van Chung, the writer of the song “Van Trang Khoc” or Crying Moon was cleared from charges of plagiarisation.

He has also took in VND300 million (USD14,194) in copyright fees in 2010.