{"id":280577,"date":"2024-08-07T10:00:49","date_gmt":"2024-08-07T08:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.recordjet.com\/?p=280577"},"modified":"2024-07-29T10:59:17","modified_gmt":"2024-07-29T08:59:17","slug":"recordjet-recommends-when-does-a-gema-membership-make-financial-sense-for-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.recordjet.com\/en\/recordjet-recommends-when-does-a-gema-membership-make-financial-sense-for-you\/","title":{"rendered":"recordJet recommends: When does a GEMA membership make financial sense for you?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this guest article, EASYGEMACHT<\/a> expert Anke Fischer<\/a> tries to answer all your questions about GEMA. EASYGEMACHT has been a partner of recordJet since spring 2024 and Anke Fischer has already made it clear in her masterclass <\/a>with us how important it is to regularly take care of this passive income from authorship and how essential it is to keep a proper check on it.<\/em><\/p>\n

Today we’re going to take a look at the finances, with money that you don’t necessarily expect. The GEMA distributions. If you are a composer or songwriter, you should get to grips with GEMA sooner rather than later. This is because many artists can only make a living from their own music thanks to GEMA’s passive income, which is why it always makes sense to check whether GEMA is right for you. Before we go into detail, we would first like to explain what GEMA actually is.<\/p>\n

Who or what is GEMA actually?<\/h3>\n

GEMA is a society for musical, performing and mechanical reproduction rights. It has the “Copyright Act” umbrella over its head. This means that as soon as you are the author of your songs, you are entitled to royalties, which also apply as soon as your songs are used publicly.
\nGEMA members are lyricists, composers and music publishers.<\/p>\n

Public use means any supermarket, restaurant, pub, company celebrations, simply any public event, radio, streaming, CD, etc. So, even if you play your music live in a pub without a fee, for example, you are entitled to royalties from GEMA in addition to the fee!GEMA has the task of collecting licenses from music users and paying you, as the author, your royalties for the use of your songs (works). GEMA membership costs you \u20ac50 per year. An admission fee must be paid when applying for membership. If you are 30 years old or younger in the year of application, you only pay the membership fee of \u20ac50. The admission fee of \u20ac90 is then waived!<\/p>\n

What income can you expect?<\/h3>\n

There are various “royalty calculators”<\/a> on the GEMA website to help you decide whether GEMA membership is financially worthwhile for you.<\/p>\n

To give you some additional orientation whether GEMA membership is worthwhile for you, I will give you a few examples from my practical experience.<\/p>\n

Live concerts<\/h3>\n

140,- \u20ac <\/u>per concert, a total of 19 concerts per year, with an average of 80 ticket buyers<\/p>\n

400,- \u20ac as a support act at a concert with 4,000 tickets sold<\/p>\n

1.300,- \u20ac for a slot at a festival for 6 songs played<\/p>\n

Let’s move on to the factors that determine the amount of royalties paid out at live events. How much money you receive depends on the following things:<\/p>\n