Netlabels vs GEMA

- free art
Post Reply
pheek
mnml maxi
mnml maxi
Posts: 1974
Joined: Thu Aug 26, 2004 6:28 am
Location: montreal
Contact:

Netlabels vs GEMA

Post by pheek »

hey guys, I received an email from Sebastian of thinner, very bad news.

it's a long text, but I think this is something everyone that runs a netlabel should know. It might become a huge issue in the upcoming months, years as anyone registered with a collecting society might need to take out their work.

check this:

Dear JP,



today we've got bad news, unfortunately.



We've got to suspend your releases from our website due to the reason that you're member of a collecting society. being a member of them you grant them the right to collect fees for your music. not reporting tracks doesn’t guarantee they don’t watch your online activity. releasing music under creative commons simply violates most collecting societies statues and thus is nothing else but illegal.



the german collecting society GEMA is founding member of an international ring of collecting societies called "fasttrack" with many international collecting societies attached. gema represents all of these agencies in germany and collects fees for them.



The GEMA statues tell that netlabels, being a contentprovider, are to pay a minimum commission for each track download (Vergütungssätze VR-OD 3, Dec

2005): this commission is 11,25 cent per download right now and raises to 12,5 cent by the end of 2006.



as we don't sell your music we can't cover these royalties.



so we take these songs down for the next time. We would like to offer your songs again with our new website ("re-upload them) and sell them at the most minimum price that is possible, so the royalties are covered and having them in the catalogue is all legal. In other words, it would be the customers paying your collecting society fees. we're not interested in making money with selling mp3s that have been online for free anyway.

--------------------

I need to look into this further more, will keep you posted.

:?
User avatar
AVX23
mnml maxi
mnml maxi
Posts: 704
Joined: Mon Jan 16, 2006 12:36 am
Location: Under Your Bed
Contact:

Post by AVX23 »

this is well pants...

is it just de at this moment in time ?

I wonder...

pants tho sureley action this ain't like illegal as in setting fire to old ladies...
User avatar
psyCodEd
mnml mmbr
mnml mmbr
Posts: 457
Joined: Fri Jun 17, 2005 3:35 am
Location: cologne/de
Contact:

Post by psyCodEd »

but that only counts fopr GEMA-artists. artists that are no royalty-member doesnt count,?! i guess
User avatar
gillsans
mnml maxi
mnml maxi
Posts: 1115
Joined: Thu Aug 11, 2005 12:55 am
Location: Rural Canada
Contact:

Post by gillsans »

Wow, thats unfortunate news. Keep us posted as to what happens.

I honestly believe a high quality label like Thinner can charge a minimum price to get around this GEMA hassle and people wouldn't mind. I know that I would respect their decision and rightfully pay a fee.

Anyway...Best of luck on this one and let us know how things develop. Thanks for the info.

For more information on GEMA you can visit their website.

--------------------------------------
Here is their About Us statement
--------------------------------------

GEMA is the German "Gesellschaft für musikalische Aufführungs- und mechanische Vervielfältigungsrechte" or society for musical performing and mechanical reproduction rights. As a state-recognised trustee organisation, we administer the exploitation rights of creators of music.

GEMA is a collecting society. It has the legal status of a commercial association and is subject to supervision and control by the German Patent Office, the German Federal Cartel Office, the Berlin Senate of Justice and the General Meeting of GEMA.

In daily practice, we have two main functions:

* Firstly, GEMA helps you to easily obtain all rights entailed in the use of music.
* Secondly, we pass on your royalty payments to the composers, lyricists and music publishers.

The GEMA makes no profit: all earnings minus administrative costs are paid to domestic and international authors whose works were performed.
Keepin' the beats deep in the groove bunker
User avatar
AVX23
mnml maxi
mnml maxi
Posts: 704
Joined: Mon Jan 16, 2006 12:36 am
Location: Under Your Bed
Contact:

Post by AVX23 »

psyCodEd wrote:but that only counts fopr GEMA-artists. artists that are no royalty-member doesnt count,?! i guess
hmm not sure if it would work like that, maybe it's mandatory you sign up when u release music or an unspoken thing if u dig.

thing is , as soon as for example , a netlabel artist was to release on a label and sell a product, that means that all of the free stuff would become illegal as soon as a commercial product would be released because the commercial product would require to be registered.

If it were by actual release it would be better as in theory gemma aren't a bad lot in some respects, but it would be better if this was allowed more flexibility to reflect the fact that musicians and artists gotta work fekkin hard and let people hear them before they can guarantee any kind of future in it.

especially at a more experimental level, how do they expect folk to take risks and try out different stuff...bit stifling really and bad for any creative comunity.

maybe a petition to change their procedures in a nice, non angry way would help ?

I mean archive.or etc don't seem to have any problem or do they, would be interesting to hear their take...
User avatar
deccard
mnml maxi
mnml maxi
Posts: 588
Joined: Fri Jul 02, 2004 7:57 pm
Location: germany
Contact:

Post by deccard »

this applies only if an artist is member of a collecting society like gema. you don´t have to be a member if you release music commercially. if you become a member later all your work is then under that licence.
techno made me do it
e/did\t
mnml newbie
mnml newbie
Posts: 45
Joined: Wed Apr 26, 2006 12:59 am
Location: Germany

Post by e/did\t »

only if you provide a track of a gema member you have to pay for it.

if you release gema free music they can suck your dck :D

*phuck gema*
gimme something to tweak!
idealstandard
mnml maxi
mnml maxi
Posts: 501
Joined: Fri Mar 17, 2006 10:28 pm
Location: FFM
Contact:

Post by idealstandard »

To put it in other words, since i'm not sure to understand all issues here: a release like the last minlove one is illegal because Andy Vaz is like a member of the GEMA? :shock:

Which means once you've done something that's being sold you cannt do free music anymore?
Who the f**k owns the rights of the music then???
Post Reply