GEMA is sending a powerful message: in 2027, the association aims to reduce its online commission on all on-demand music distribution from 10 to 7 percent – a drop of 30 percent compared to the initial value. As a result, payouts to GEMA members for online distribution will increase significantly, by more than EUR 6 million per year. In January 2026, GEMA will start by cutting its online commission to 9 percent, in a first step towards an even more effective distribution for the digital music market. The reduced commission applies to music distribution in the streaming and download segments.
Online streaming has long been established to be a key source of income for GEMA members. In 2024, GEMA collected a total of EUR 310 million on its digital repertoire, equivalent to around 23 percent of GEMA’s total revenue. Just reducing the online commission to 9 percent in 2026 will liberate approximately another EUR 2 million for GEMA members whose music is accessed online whenever users listen to their work on platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer or YouTube.
GEMA’s ambitious plan – to reduce online commissions to just 7 percent in 2027 – underlines the association’s commitment to paying out more money directly to its members by processing online rights even more efficiently (based on, for example, further automation). By taking this step, GEMA is taking on a pioneering role among the major European performing rights organisations as the first organisation to reduce its administrative expenses to less than 8 percent in the online sector.
Thomas Theune, Director of Broadcasting/Online with responsibility for online IP rights: “The measure of a successful collecting society is the amount of money it pays out to its members. Reducing our online commission provides further proof of our high-value licensing contracts and our operational performance. Thanks to our digital processes and fully automated IT systems, we’re already able to license and distribute more efficiently than ever. In turn, this means we can pass on even more money to our members. This is our mission as a modern collecting society – to place technology at the service of creatives.”
In Germany GEMA represents copyrights for over 100,000 members (composers, lyricists and music publishers) and over two million copyrights owners from all over the world. It is one of the largest societies for creators of musical works in the world.