CCB Magazine

Everyone knows it, but many don't know how it works: GEMA. Svenja Tikovsky knows all about it and was invited to speak at this year's Most Wanted Berlin. One of her tasks is to communicate the distribution of royalties, the heart of GEMA. We wanted to know from her: Who earns what here and how is the money distributed?

INTERVIEW  Boris Messing

CCB Magazine: Hello Svenja, you are a committee and communications manager at GEMA and responsible for royalties distribution. If you had to summarize it in one or two sentences: Why is it worth it for musicians to be a member of GEMA?

Svenja Tikovsky: I would say there are two reasons. First, because it's a community of solidarity and you can get to know other authors through the networking opportunities and good symbioses can come about. On the other hand, GEMA ensures fair remuneration. With us, you also get royalties for uses that you probably wouldn't get otherwise. As an individual, chasing after every stream on YouTube or Spotify and negotiating remuneration for it is an impossibility.

CCB Magazine:GEMA is a collecting society for authors of all kinds, songwriters, bands, composers, producers, but also for music publishers. Essentially, the concept is based on collecting royalties for its members. How does GEMA control and check which of its members' songs are played live, on the radio, on television or via a streaming platform?

Svenja Tikovsky:That's a good question. As a rule, we are informed about where which song is played. In the live sector, for example, we license the event and the set list of the songs played is then sent to us afterwards. We can then distribute the royalties directly to the authors. Or the authors report the setlist themselves. Sometimes we also have to remind the organizers to submit the setlist. But because the inhibition threshold is so low with our online reporting portal, the reporting rate is very high. It took a relatively long time for streaming providers to report their click figures to us. This is part of the license negotiations that GEMA conducts for its members. It's more difficult with radio, television and clubs. There we now receive the usage reports via monitoring procedures.

GEMA is a collecting society for authors of all kinds. In principle, there is an obligation to inform GEMA about licensed songs that have been played or streamed - and we can also claim the money retroactively

CCB Magazine:So does that mean that there is a high number of unreported cases, for example in radio?

Svenja Tikovsky:The number of unreported cases is not very high. Especially in the live sector, the organizers want to support their artists. As a rule, it's not due to a reluctance to report music played, but to the ways in which it is reported. In radio, the number of unreported cases is very low for the vast majority of stations due to the monitoring process.

CCB Magazine:Can GEMA take action if music is not reported?

Svenja Tikovsky:Yes, in principle, there is an obligation to inform GEMA about licensed songs that have been played or streamed, and we can also claim the money retroactively. If we fail to do so, we send a reminder.

CCB Magazine:The royalties are calculated in a complex process using a distribution plan. How exactly does this work? What percentage of the royalties does GEMA take for its services?

Svenja Tikovsky:We have three cases of distribution: direct distribution, collective distribution and supplementary distribution. An example: We grant a license for a live event, the organisers send us the set list of the songs played: we can pass on the income directly to the authors - after deducting the administration fee. Then we have the second case. I just mentioned radio, where we distribute the income collectively. On the one hand, we know how much revenue we have and we know from the programs which works have been used. What we don't know: Which specific amount of revenue belongs to which specific work. For such cases, there are complicated formulas in our distribution plan as to how the money can still be distributed fairly. For example, in television we take into account how the music is used, whether as background music or whether a band is performing live in a show. Certain works can also be weighted higher than others in the context of cultural promotion. The third case is the surcharge, or analog distribution. Here we know how much license income we have, but we don't have a list of works used. We therefore distribute the income analogously to other distributions, such as in the radio or live sector. In all distributions, we then deduct the cost rate, which can be found in the annual report for 2023 at around 15 percent.

Has studied philosophy and is now committee and communications manager at GEMA: Svenja Tikovsky. Photo: Svenja Tikovsky

CCB Magazine: But who decides what is worthy of cultural promotion? What kind of scoring system is it?

Svenja Tikovsky: At the plant level, certain works can be given a higher weighting through a points system, for example because of the instrumentation or because it is so-called serious music. This is decided by a committee of the membership.

CCB Magazine: As a lyricist or composer, is it possible to clearly see how GEMA collects the royalties?

Svenja Tikovsky: Yes, you can track this quite precisely on our online portal. You can see graphically in which area you collect the most or the least royalties. It doesn't say exactly how we get the royalties, you have to look that up in our distribution plan, which unfortunately isn't very clear.

CCB Magazine: For instance a song is composed by several artists - how is this assessed and utilized by GEMA?

Svenja Tikovsky: The distribution plan sets out exactly who gets how much. For example, let's say a song was composed by one author and the lyrics were written by another author. Then the royalties are split two thirds and one third in the live sector, for example. Unless the two have negotiated something else between themselves. There are clear rules for the division of royalties for all possible variants, including the participation of publishers.

CCB Magazine: Is it possible to sign a record deal with a major label without GEMA?

Svenja Tikovsky: In principle, it is possible. But I think that you can't avoid GEMA membership with a major label. It's simply too financially rewarding not to join.

CCB Magazine: But if you're not a member and your song is played on the radio or streamed on Spotify, GEMA still gets money. Isn't that unfair? What happens to this money, some of which belongs to these musicians?

Svenja Tikovsky: GEMA holds so many licenses and rights that it represents the world repertoire of music, so to speak. We are connected with similar foreign collecting societies worldwide and represent their music rights in Germany, whereby we naturally pass on the royalties to them. The income from radio is distributed collectively, which means that no specific amount is allocated to specific works. The total income is then distributed evenly across the works played. Spotify, on the other hand, has fixed stream values. So we get exactly the money from the GEMA repertoire played, which we then distribute. If you want to benefit from this, you simply have to become a GEMA member.

CCB Magazine: Many people have a negative image of GEMA and wrongly see it as a kind of collector of compulsory fees. Where does this bias come from?

Svenja Tikovsky: This is often a question of perspective. Usually it is not the authors who find GEMA bad, but the users of the music, for example festival organizers. They are then annoyed that they have to pay for the licenses. Music is so ubiquitous that we no longer even notice its value, we simply no longer think about the fact that there must have been someone who composed the music. Yes, and then of course GEMA could be better at cultivating its image.

GEMA has so many licenses and rights that it represents the world repertoire of music, so to speak, and is connected with similar collecting societies worldwide and represents their music rights in Germany

CCB Magazine: How do you join GEMA and how much does the membership cost? Do all members have the same rights and privileges? What about co-determination rights, for example?

Svenja Tikovsky:In principle, anyone who composes music, writes lyrics or publishes music can join GEMA. Membership currently costs authors fifty euros a year. We are an association, which means that not everyone has the same rights; there is an association structure made up of ordinary and non-ordinary members. The latter is the broad base, while ordinary members have direct co-determination rights. However, the non-regular members can indirectly influence decision-making, for example through the election of delegates at the General Assembly. In principle, however, the following always applies at GEMA: our members are the focus, regardless of whether they are ordinary or non-ordinary members.

CCB Magazine:Svenja, to finish, you studied philosophy and have been working for GEMA since 2022. What brought you there?

Svenja Tikovsky:My neighbor at the time was at GEMA and had so many good things to say about it that I simply applied. And then it worked out straight away. I'm currently in charge of three committees that mainly deal with the distribution plan and I coordinate a lot of meetings. I am also involved in many communication issues relating to distribution topics. We are a very cross-functional department. And sometimes I get requests like the one asking me to be a speaker at Most Wanted. Then I'm happy to do that too.