GEMA: Financial performance in 2012

GEMA finished the 2012 business year with a satisfactory result. The sum of the returns for copyright holders from all over the world was €820.2 million. Although this represents a decrease of about 0.6 percent, or €5.3 million, compared to the previous year, income overall has remained at a high level. The cost unit rate increased slightly to 15.6 percent, compared to 14.9 percent in the previous year. The share of mandates for collection on total income amounted to €175.0 million.
Both positive and negative developments could be seen in GEMA’s different sources of income.

At a glance, GEMA’s most important sources of collection income

Recordings
For several years now, we have been witnessing a move away from traditional recording media toward music use on the Internet. That trend remained in place in 2012, with income from the recordings business continuing its sharp decline. In the past business year, revenue from this source totalled around €117.0 million, a decrease of €9.6 million compared to the previous year (2011: €126.6 million, 2010: €161.5 million, 2009: €164.5 million, 2008: €171.6 million). Online
GEMA saw income from its online business fall in 2012. When compared to last year, the sum of the returns dropped €4.3 million to a total of €16.9 million. One reason for this is the concluded arbitration process with BITKOM on music-on-demand tariffs, which resulted in GEMA having to reimburse more licensing income than had been set aside for this purpose. Furthermore, music authors’ share of the economic results in this area still remains at a very low level and is by no means proportionate to the actual amount of music used on the Internet (2011: €21.2 million, 2010: €13.3 million, 2009: €10.6 million, 2008: €7.3 million). Radio and Television
Collection proceeds from radio and television remained stable due to a slight improvement in the advertising market of private broadcasters and higher income in the cable retransmission area. The sum of the returns income amounted to €260.8 million, an increase of €3.4 million compared to the previous year (2011: €257.4 million, 2010: €257.1 million, 2009: €283.0 million, 2008: €237.5 million). Regional offices
Proceeds from the regional offices remain high. They again posted a significant increase in income, improving €11.4 million to a total of €323.4 million compared to the previous year. With this performance, the regional offices represent GEMA’s most important source of income, a position they have held for several years now (2011: €312.0 million, 2010: €299.1 million, 2009: €294.6 million, 2008: €286.1 million). GEMA represents in Germany the copyrights of more than 64,000 members (composers, lyricists, and music publishers), as well as over two million copyright holders all over the world. It is one of the largest societies of authors for works of music worldwide. Press contact:
Ursula Goebel, Head of Marketing & Communication
E-mail: ugoebel@gema.de, Tel.: +49 89 48003-426 Katharina Reindlmeier, PR Manager
E-mail: kreindlmeier@gema.de, Tel.: +49 89 48003-583