Hi,
We all think artist, especially artists who create music, should get rewarded properly for their hard work, when it is used by others. In Germany, the GEMA (Gesellschaft für musikalische Aufführungs- und mechanische Vervielfältigungsrechte) is an organization that protects those rights of "compensation" for the use of music and they do it by acquiring and distributing money for the usage of music by others (like DJs in night clubs). They have new rules as of January 1, 2013 and they seem to me to be totally off the wall. Not only off the wall, but it seems the GEMA has lost sight of their purpose.
As I've read more and more about their actions and the results in the past, like the shutdown of a ton of videos on Youtube and other streaming media web sites or now these drastically high increases in fees (700% in some cases) for replaying music in venues like night clubs, it seems the GEMA is now overdoing its monopoly position and actually hurting the music writers/ creators more than helping them. For instance, young artist don't have a chance to show their music off to the German audience on Youtube, since the conflict between the GEMA and Youtube about how much Youtube should pay hasn't been settled. This is killing a good platform for gaining inexpsensive publicity. I am not sure the conflict is still ongoing, but to even ask for 12 cents per viewed video seems a mighty high fee and mighty wrong, even for Google. Also, if club owners can't financially make the new payment fees and have to close down, a lot of music stops getting played as entertainment = less recognition for the artists and a lot less fun for club goers who enjoy the music.
The GEMA has now set up fee rates based on the size of the club and the price for entrance and there is no differentiation between a full house and an empty one. An example of what this change means.
"An average club with 10 open nights with 2 dance floors with a total room space of 410 and 310 square meters with an entrance price of 8 Euros goes from 21,553 Euros per year to 147,916 Euros per year net. (a price increase of +686%)"
This has started a wave of outcry among the club owners and club goers in Germany and even an online petition has been started to protest against the new fee schedule and the increases. Over 200,000 people have signed the petition to date.
As I see it, last year the GEMA distributed just over 700 million Euros to its around 64k members. I am not really sure how the money is distributed, but still, that is theoretically about 11k Euros for each member each year. Is that really not enough? Is an increase of up to 7 fold really necessary? I don't think so and I think the GEMA is now hurting musical artists more than helping them.
What do you think?
scamo
Articles of reference (some in German)
https://www.gema.de/fileadmin/user_u...richt_2011.pdf
http://www.rollingstone.de/news/meld...in-berlin.html
http://www.tgdaily.com/business-and-...eos-in-germany
http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/indus...05250002.story
http://www.dehoga-bundesverband.de/p...dehoganews_pi1[nid]=763
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