House concerts & collecting societies
Guidelines and practical information for concert organizers
Information about performing rights organizations and fees for live music performances
Are you hosting a living room concert and wonder whether GEMA or similar fees apply and how you should handle the registration? Registering concerts with a collecting society like GEMA or another performing rights organizations is easier than you may think - and it is not required for every concert. Read more to find guidelines about how to handle public house concerts and other events with live music - with or without entrance fees - at a glance.
This page discusses guidelines for Germany in particular. For specific information about your particular country and the respective rules and copyright collecting society or PRO, follow this link to a list of international copyright collecting societies.
Updated in 2020, this information is supplied without liability.
The GEMA is a German authority and stands for 'Society for Musical Performance and Mechanical Reproduction Rights.' As a collecting society, GEMA performs a mediation role, that means it claims copyrights that its members (composers, lyricists, music publishers) have assigned to it and makes them available to the music user for a fee. Thus, organizations like GEMA contributes to music creators being able to live off their work. More extensive information can be found on the official GEMA website. In other countries, there are similar institutions, like AKM in Austria, SUISA in Switzerland, several different PROs in the US and Canada and the PRS in the UK.
Most PROs distinguish between two types of events, private and public. For concerts in Germany, the following rules apply:
- Private events (for example, private living room concerts): Not subject to GEMA.
- Public events: GEMA-liable.
A concert is considered a 'public event' when a large number of visitors are not linked by 'mutual relations or by relationship with the organizer'. Whether a concert is public depends on the group of people attending the concert. It does not matter whether the musician plays pieces that are subject to GEMA or not or whether the event takes place in a private venue or not. The basic guideline is the greater the number of participants in an event, the more speaks for the public nature of this event, since in a large group of people all parties cannot be personally connected with each other. But it is precisely this 'personal connection' that is the outstanding criterion that determines before the law whether an event is public or not.' (cf. GEMA website).
Which GEMA fare applies depends on various factors like type of event, number of visitors, admission, etc. For public living room concerts the U-K fare applies. 'Concerts in the sense of this fare are entertainment music events in which music is played and attracts the attention of an audience assembled primarily for this purpose.' The applicable fee for up to 150 people is 23.55 € per event in this fare. For other events such as street parties, festivals or dances other rates apply, which can be found on the website of GEMA.
Choose the right fare for your event and fill out the registration form before the concert and send it to GEMA. After the concert, all you have to do is send in a set list (a so-called music sequence) with all songs performed at the gig which your artists can supply. The form can also be found on the GEMA website.
On the page of the GEMA you will find all forms for the registration of concerts and music sequences:
- Fare overview
- Public house concert: U-K fare
- Find the right fare for your event: Find fare
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