GEMA, a financial and bureaucratic challenge
Would you like to avoid the stress and leave the GEMA registration to professionals? No problem with sonicsense. One example: Hans S., a fitness studio operator, owns three studios in and around Cologne. Around 5,000 Cologne residents keep themselves in shape with him. "We opened our fourth facility in September," explains Hans S. "When we heard what the GEMA wanted from us, it took our breath away: 10,000 Euros per year!
With his monthly fee of € 29.90, Hans S. is one of the cheaper ones in the industry. "But I wouldn't have been able to keep this fee if I had to pay 10,000 euros to GEMA," he says. "They charge for the courses alone according to a formula: Average monthly membership fee x courses x members x 0.3%. However, as we only generate 10% of our turnover through courses, the demand is far too high." In addition, a licence is charged in relation to the size of the area supplied with music.
But that is not all. If Hans S. is planning an event, a party or is considering offering a TV program as well, new, additional fees will be incurred immediately. Any kind of use, even for one day only, has to be registered in advance (!) with the GEMA, otherwise the license is doubled! And that GEMA-field staff are not always squeamish has been experienced by many traders.
Music is not just music
With the purchase of a music CD or a contract with the streaming provider, one only acquires the right to listen to the music in a private setting. Using Spotify, iTunes and all other private services in a business is illegal.
But if you want to play music in your business, e.g. in a fitness studio, shop or restaurant, you have to obtain written permission from the authors, sign a licence agreement and of course pay regular fees to GEMA.
These performance fees are basically dependent on how many people listen to the music, regardless of whether it is played from a CD, from the radio or even from sonicsense. The fees are collected by GEMA on behalf of its members according to fixed tariffs, of which there are hundreds, by the way. This means that the larger the area covered by sound, the more courses the gym offers, etc. the higher the GEMA fees.
Conclusion
To summarise, GEMA registration is not that easy and it is not easy to find your way through the maze of hundreds of different tariffs and legal provisions. The correct classification and selection of the tariffs that apply to you alone can make a considerable difference to the licence fee.
Do you already have a GEMA contract?
Did you know that GEMA's tariffs, regulations and allocations of the individual types of use have changed over the years? It can certainly be assumed that older agreements no longer reflect the tariff that applies to you today. Perhaps you are still paying too much to GEMA? However, it is better to leave it to professionals to check this.
As a sonicsense customer, the above-mentioned Hans S. used the sonicsense GEMA administration service. As a result, his contract was restructured and his studio, which was the largest at 2,300 square metres, was reduced to 2,160 square metres of licensable space by subtracting rooms, walls and pillars that were not "sounded". In addition, Hans S. switched to GEMA-free music in several areas, which reduced the GEMA payments there to zero.
sonicsense takes care of determining the optimum tariffs, checking existing contracts, the necessary negotiations and everything else to do with GEMA registration. Even the punctual payment of the licences is handled by sonicsense. For Hans S., the all-round carefree package.
By optimising the licensing process and commissioning sonicsense with the administration of all its GEMA licensing matters and the special sonicsense discounts, not only did the stress level decrease, but the remaining license in particular fell noticeably. "I am now putting the money I saved into new equipment and advertising for more members," says a satisfied Hans S.
Do you also want to save money? Enquire about our GEMA administration service:
team@sonicsense.eu
040/55 700 60
By the way::
How you can save GEMA fees, you can read in our article "royalty-free music, a clever solution to save fees"
