Festivals

A crowd at a concert, hands raised, with bright stage lights and phones capturing the moment.
Faster. More transparent. More predictable.

New Festival Distribution

Festivals enrich cultural life, bring people together, and provide important platforms for music creators. To enhance financial planning reliability and transparency for creators, and to strengthen fairness in distribution, revenues from large festivals will, from 2026 onwards, be distributed faster and more frequently – entirely in the interest of our members.

Why a new distribution? Approximately 300 large festivals take place in Germany each year, featuring more than 10,000 artists across all musical genres. Thanks to modern monitoring technologies, usage data is often fully available just a few weeks after the events.

From 01.10.2026, festival revenues will be distributed on a quarterly basis. This regulation applies to all festivals from 2026 onwards, provided a GEMA license fee of at least €10,000 net is reached.

What changes from 2026 onward

  • Festivals with revenues of €10,000 or more will automatically be included in the UD category from the 2026 fiscal year, without the need for an application.
  • A separate commission deduction of 15 % will apply.
  • If applicable to the festival, revenues will be split between headliners (30 %) and other acts (70 %)*.
  • Otherwise, individual acts will continue to be remunerated in equal shares on a pro rata  basis.
  • Distribution will take place quarterly starting from 01.10.2026.

*The percentage split remains flexible and may be adjusted by the Supervisory Board.
 

The new festival distribution: Here’s how it works 

To ensure that royalty distributions are accurate and efficient, structured reporting before, during, and after the festival is essential. Depending on whether monitoring is used, the procedures differ as follows:

Before the festival
All relevant works should be registered in advance. This includes:
 
  • Registration of works
  • Uploading of audio files (or promotional recordings)
Go to work registration Login Online Portal
During the festival
Without monitoring: Performing acts document their performances. The following information is needed:

  • Name of the live act

  • Date and time of the performance

  • Song titles or works, including the creators

With monitoring: By using a monitoring system, music usage is automatically recorded and identified.

My setlists Monitoring
After the festival
Without monitoring: The organizer provides the performing acts with a link for submitting the setlists. Alternatively, setlists can be submitted via the GEMA Online Portal (via Excel upload, work search, PDF, image upload, or direct entry).

With monitoring: The monitoring provider transmits the recorded setlist data directly to GEMA. After four weeks, the setlist search in the Online Portal will display the reported setlists and allow for additional submissions.

How to submit setlists Login Online Portal
After the distribution
Once the distribution has taken place, comprehensive information is available:
  • Publication of distribution details on gema.de

  • Detailed statements on the festival distribution in the GEMA Online Portal

  • Claims can be submitted via the GEMA Online Portal up to 9 months after distribution date
Payouts royalties Online Services

 Good to know: Once the setlists have been submitted, the processing of usage data begins in the GEMA systems. If setlists are missing, efforts will be made to obtain them by contacting the organizer or performing acts. However, this may delay the distribution in order to avoid the need for subsequent corrections.

Important dates and deadlines for you

Work registration deadline:
All works should be registered to GEMA, at the latest upon release, preferably using our online work registration service. For festival distribution, it is recommended to complete registration no later than one month after the performance.
 
Submission deadline for usage reports:
Setlists must be submitted by the organizer within 4 weeks after the festival. To enable quarterly distributions, it is essential that setlists are submitted as promptly as possible.
More info: Registration - GEMA.de.
 

Distribution dates per year:
Festivals from 2026 onwards with collections exceeding EUR 10,000 will be distributed on a quarterly basis. The first distribution date is 01.10.2026, followed by 01.01.2027, 01.04.2027 and 01.07.2027.

Claims deadlines:
Complaints can be submitted within 9 months after the respective distribution date via the GEMA Online Portal under Complaints. Please also refer to our distribution news updates, where we inform you, which festivals were included in each distribution date.

Do you have questions?
Feel free to contact us by email at: mitgliederservice@gema.de, Contact for societies: societies@gema.de. Please always include the keyword: “Festival distribution”.

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