Claiming unpaid royalties for Live Performances and Playbacks
These types of use fall within the following distribution categories:
Concerts of Serious Music (E)
Serious Music Direct Distribution (ED)
Serious Music Performances by means of Mechanical Devices (EM)
Stage Music (BM)
Music in Church Services (KI)
Events with Entertainment or Dance Music (U)
Entertainment Music Direct Distribution (UD)
Music Playback in Discotheques (DK, DK VR)
Entertainment Music Playback (M)
Points to check
Did you register your works on time and they have been used but you have not received any royalties, or do you believe the royalties you received were too low?
Please go to our Online Portal to claim your missing royalties. Our simple interactive form will take you through a series of questions to gather the information we need to investigate your concern.
Before you make a claim, have you made sure we have your setlist?
To allow us to pay you the full royalties you are entitled to and pay them always on time, we need to know which of your works were played when and where. This is what we need the setlist for.
Have you or the organiser of the event concerned not provided the setlist yet, or has the setlist been submitted but you have not received any royalties for certain works? Please use the My Setlists feature in our Online Portal and select Submit Setlist.
Do you want to request direct distribution?
If so, please email us at vtar@gema.de. To find out what exactly the hardship provision for mechanical reproduction means, and to learn more about it, please refer to the GEMA Distribution Plan under Direct distribution upon request.
The interactive form in our Online Portal will take you through a series of questions to gather the information we need to process your request. The information you will be asked to provide will include
Information we need from you
We need the following information from you:
- Date and time of the event
- Name and address of the organiser of the event
- Name and address of the event venue (including the room, if applicable)
- Name of the artist or band
- Setlist of the works performed (including work number and version, if known)
- Name of composer(s)
Deadline for claiming missing royalties:
9 months after the (main royalties) distribution date
We need the following information from you:
- Date and time of the event
- Name and address of the organiser of the event
- Name and address of the event venue (including the room, if applicable)
- Name of artist/ensemble
- Setlist of the works performed (including work number and version, if known)
- Name of composer(s)
- Duration of each work
- Instrumentation
- In the case of stage music, the title of the play
Deadline for claiming missing royalties:
9 months after the (main royalties) distribution date
Parishes conduct spot checks and may report works with a duration of over 10 minutes individually.
In discotheques, we conduct spot checks using recording devices which automatically identify music tracks being played. This is known as monitoring.
We need the following information from you:
- Work number and version
- Title of the work
- Name(s) of the creator(s) or publisher(s) whose share(s) is/are missing or is/are not correctly registered
Deadline for claiming missing royalties:
9 months after the (main royalties) distribution date
We need the following information from you:
- Work number
- Title of the work
- Name of a composer
- Year for which the distribution was incorrect
- Current distribution category/valuation and correct distribution category/valuation of the work
- Duration of the work
Deadline for claiming missing royalties:
9 months after the (main royalties) distribution date
Note:
If the point valuation of your work is incorrect, we can examine your work in detail and classify it accordingly. For information about how we do this, please click here: www.gema.de/work-categorisation.
* The current deadlines were adopted by resolution of the annual meeting of the General Assembly held from 8 to 10 June 2021.
In a nutshell
We have produced a leaflet that provides all the essential information about claiming unpaid royalties for Live Performances and Playbacks. You can download it as a PDF through the link given below: