Income

Questions and answers

• Does GEMA make a profit?

  GEMA is not aimed at making a profit.
  Instead, we pay out our collections to composers, lyricists, arrangers and publishers who are GEMA members or members of a foreign sister organisation and whose works have been used.
  
  The collections are only subject to a deduction for social and cultural purposes and our own administrative costs.

• Which deductions are made from the income?

  We differentiate between two types of deductions:

  • For social and cultural purposes, we thus founded the GEMA Social Fund, for example, a social compensation fund which pays out benefits in old age, cases of illness, accidents and cases of hardship.
  • For our administration costs which are set by the Supervisory Board and the Managing Committee by mutual consent.

  
  Deductions for social and cultural purposes:
  
  From admission fees and membership fees, we take 10 percent for social and cultural purposes. The same applies to the public performance categories where we also make 10 percent of the income available.
  
  For the category international A (performance and reproduction rights), no deduction is made for social and cultural purposes. Exception: In the categories online GOP, MOD D and MOD S, the deduction is 1 percent from the distribution for the 2023 financial year (distributions in 2024).
  
  Deductions for our administration costs: 
  
  Please refer to your detailed statements for the amount of the commission rates in the areas of reproduction and distribution. In the case of online uses, we applied until the end of 2025 a 10 percent deduction from the income. From 2026, GEMA will reduce the deduction for the MOD D, MOD D VR, MOD S, MOD S VR and GOP, GOP VR categories to 9 per cent. For VOD and WEB, the familiar 10 per cent will remain in place.

  In the category international A (performance and reproduction rights), 5% was withheld, and in the category international A VR (reproduction rights), 2% was withheld. Exception: For sound recordings from Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Switzerland, Scandinavia, Spain, and the United Kingdom, the rate was 0%.

  
  From 01.01.2026 GEMA will significantly reduce the commission on settlements from abroad

  • For France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Poland, Denmark, Czech Republic, Belgium, Sweden, Australia, Brazil, Japan and South Korea, the foreign commission will be lowered to 2 %.
  • For income from Austria, Switzerland, the USA and the UK, no commission will be deducted in future.
  • For all other countries, a deduction of 6 % will apply.
• What is the income used for?

  After having deducted our administration costs, we pay out all income directly to our domestic rightsholders and to rightsholders abroad via our sister organisations. We also promote culture. As such, income collected under rights stated in section 30 VGG [German Collecting Societies’ Act] that cannot be allocated, and other undistributable amounts pursuant to § 30 of our distribution plan in the version as determined by the General Assembly 2016 are made available to social and cultural purposes. We actually do not make any profit as we are barred from doing so as per our Statutes.

• Where do I find details on cases where it has not been possible to determine or locate the rightsholder in the course of a distribution?

  If income cannot be distributed because it is not possible to determine or locate a rightsholder, GEMA has the duty to publish specific details in its role as a collective management organisation pursuant to Section 29 (3) of the VGG, Verwertungsgesellschaftengesetz (Collecting Societies' Act).
  
  We make them available here:

  • Details on deceased rightsholders where no legal successor could be determined or located.
     
  • Details on rightsholders who moved to an unknown address and can thus not be located.
     
  • Details on works for which rightsholders could not be determined or located in the course of the distribution for the 2023 financial year.
     

  Should you be able to provide details on the rightsholders shown in the lists that we could not identify or locate, please e-mail us at: vgg-listen@gema.de
  
  When doing so, please tell us which of the above mentioned lists your information relates to.