Register your event with GEMA
Whether it’s street parades, carnival, fairs, comedy or a theatre performance: Music enriches many events; they are, like concerts, discos or parties not imaginable without music. Just register your event with music here.
- Determine the price and register quickly and easily.
- Find out all about events with music.
- Manage your event online.
All about how to register events
Those who earn their living composing music, writing lyrics or publishing music want to get a fair payment for their work. Just like everyone else. That is what copyright is for. It protects music creators with a statutory right to fair pay, or equitable remuneration, when their works are used in public. This fee is your contribution.
Access to musical world repertoire
Did you know that copyright applies irrespective of GEMA? Your advantage: Instead of contacting and paying each creator individually for your event, you can simply contact us – and get access to musical world repertoire. After all, we do not just represent the rights of more than 95,000 GEMA members but also more than two million rightsholders abroad.
When do I have to register my event with GEMA?
For your private party, you do, of course, not require a licence. It is different, however, if you plan a public event. This includes events such as A-level graduation balls, street parades, outdoor markets and many more. Events are usually considered to be public if people can visit them and have no personal relationship with the event organiser. That is why flyers, posters, online advertising or admission tickets are characteristic of a public event. Personal invitations indicate a private party.
When am I an event organiser?
You usually become an event organiser when you are responsible for the organisation of the performance, presentation or communication to the public. If you are a DJ, this is usually not the case - except where you are also the event organiser.
DJs, however, must pay us before their set if they make copies (reproductions) of musical works for their performance (DJ tariff).
How long in advance do I register my event?
There is no specified timeframe, but of course, we recommend: The earlier, the better! This way, you can clarify any unresolved issues and are on the safe side. What’s important is that you notify us of your event before it takes place.
This is how you register your event in the GEMA Online Portal
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Determine the price for your event
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Log on to/register for the Online Portal
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Enter data and complete your notification
Tips for reporting via the Online Portal
In the case of many concerts
If you notify us of many concerts, you can use our Excel sheet for the monthly report. Simply download it in the price calculator of the Online Portal (you have to be logged in), complete it and upload it. Please do not enter more than 80 concerts per Excel sheet.
Keyword search
You also have access to a keyword search in the price calculator (on the first page below the suggested event types). It helps you to find the right tariff, especially if your event matches none of the types of events listed above.
In the case of live events, please submit a setlist.
If there is live music at your event, we need a setlist no later than 6 weeks after the event. It is only on the basis of this title list that we are able to pay out the collected fees to the creators of the performed works.
Please submit the setlist in the GEMA Online Portal by using the service My setlists.
Delegate the setlist submission: As an event organiser, you can delegate the setlist submission to the musicians. By clicking on the red envelope in the event overview, a link will be sent to your e-mail address. You can then forward said email. As soon as the band has submitted the setlist, you will receive an email.
GEMA Encore
Our customer programme includes attractive offers, exclusive discounts and above all: useful partners that help event organisers like yourself to ensure that your event becomes a hit. From ticketing and well-founded booking decisions, technology choices to sustainability - benefit from GEMA Encore now.
Made for event organisers: the GEMA Online Portal
The GEMA Online Portal provides many practical services to you. Under My events, you can see what the processing status of all your events is or whether we need you to submit a setlist. You can also apply for amendments. Where applicable, you can also modify your customer data and get all matters GEMA sorted.
FAQs – frequently asked questions for GEMA on events
An event is free of charge from a GEMA perspective, if there is no GEMA repertoire included. What is important, however, is that you still report the event to us and submit a setlist. This is important due to the GEMA presumption.
On the basis of the setlist - a list including the titles performed or played - we can check whether they really are GEMA-free songs. In such cases, you do not pay any GEMA fees for your event.
You can submit a setlist via the service my setlists in the GEMA Online Portal. Just tick the box where it says “report as GEMA-free” while entering your data.
Our customer advisers check events and public places regularly. If music is played there, and we have not been notified about it in advance, additional payments are due. This means that you also face additional costs. After all, we do not want to encumber our members or music users who pay their fees correctly with the additional financial costs which we incur.
It depends on the type of event and what kind of role the music plays in it. An example: At a rock concert (tariff U-K) the musical performance is at the centre of attention. At an event with live music (tariff U-V) music may be played live but the musical performance is not in the foreground. It is more about socialising and other aspects. This is why the GEMA fee is usually lower in the case of the latter. Other factors are, for example, the number of visitors, whether it’s live music or the size of the event premises.
Our price calculator helps you further. Enter the data there regarding your event and calculate the price. Or check out our tariffs.
We are just the trustee of our members. That is why we may - from a pure legal aspect - not renounce on ensuring the fair pay of our members even in the case of charity events.
We can, however, subject to specific conditions, grant a charity discount of 10%. This applies for events with live music in cases where the musicians do not charge for their performances, for example.
No, for music that you play at a private party, for example, or a birthday party or at home with your friends, you do not have to pay GEMA fees. The situation is different when it comes to office parties or club events which are usually open to the public.
E music is serious contemporary music which is linked with the tradition of classical music. The artistically valuable compositions contribute to the cultural identity and diversity of a country.
U music includes all music genres which do not belong to E music and do not have a so-called pure function, e.g. all types of pop and rock music, all categories of electronic music, Schlager and folk songs and most compositions of jazz.
Each person who is responsible for the use of music in public – in an organisational and economic function. These include, but are not limited to: Event organisers, restaurant owners, retailers, online suppliers, labels, doctors, clubs etc.
In order to establish whether a music use is public, European Court of Justice case law applies.
This summary is quite useful:
For public music use, a not insignificant number and undetermined group of potential listeners is required. In such cases it does not matter whether they can listen to the music simultaneously (e.g. at a concert) or one after another (e.g. in a shop).
The basic rule is:
The higher the number of listeners (audience) is, the more likely it is that this music use is public. Advertising with flyers, posters or similar materials and admission fees also are a feature of public events.
A place of use is the place where music is used in public. It is not unusual that the address of the place of use and the address of the licensee are not the same. A licensee, for example, can have several places of use if the licensee (a concert organiser) holds events with public music use in several places. This is why those who run a venue and the actual organiser can be different people, but the person running the venue is liable vis-à-vis GEMA.
So that music creators can make a living with their work, just like other people. Creative performance does not come from nothing but is the result of hard work. Just like patent law ensures that inventors benefit from their ideas, copyright protects music creators. Whether it’s a composer, a lyricist or a music publisher, they all have a basic right to fair pay if their works are used in public.
We manage this right for our members, 95,000 and counting. If you play or perform music in public, you can rest assured: Your financial contribution benefits the music creators directly.
Yes, if you perform as a DJ at an event, you need to pay fees to us if you make reproductions or copies for your gig. The tariff that is applicable to you is VR-Ö. You can report the music in our
Online Portal.
Yes, because we do not only manage the rights of German music creators. We also represent the rights of foreign music creators. The basis for this are representation agreements with foreign collective copyright management organisations.
Just like we manage the song rights by e.g. US-American, British or Swedish composers in Germany, their collective copyright management organisations manage the rights of German creators in their countries.
If this wasn’t the case, you would have to pay licence fees for using music to collective copyright management organisations abroad. Luckily, that's not the case. After all, this would be so much more cumbersome for all parties involved, and thus also more expensive.
