Statement of the General Management
Guido Evers and Dr. Tilo Gerlach, GVL Managing Directors, take a joint look at the past financial year in their statement: “The challenges of the 2020ies, still in their early stage, have changed many aspects of our lives forever, be it our consumer behaviour, our media consumption or our employment environment. Considering our collections of €235m, we are looking at solid results for the year 2022.”
2022 key operating figures
Annual comparison of total revenues*
With collections of €235.4m, we are looking at solid results for 2022. The decrease of our income to the previous year (2021: €248.6m) is mainly due to one-off special items in the private copying sector. As such, GVL received particularly high back payments in 2021 for previous distribution years. In contrast, other income sectors increased in the 2022 financial year even if the revenues from the public performance, the so-called “Kneipenrecht” (pub rights) did not reach pre-COVID-19-levels.
*To display the figures, please move the mouse pointer over the graphic.
2022 revenue structure
Overall, GVL recorded a stable development of revenues in the 2022 financial year. In the copying and reproduction sector, one-off special items realised in the previous year did not occur in 2022. The decrease in this financial sector thus amounts to €25.2m (-22.6%). In comparison, all other income streams were subject to an increase of €11.9m (+8.7%). Specifically, compared to the previous year, income from public performance were increased by €8.4m (+27.5%), the revenues from retransmission by €1.5m (+22.3%) and the broadcast remuneration of private and public service radio and TV channels by €0.7m (+0.8%). The overall income therefore clearly exceeded the expected budget.
Annual comparison of the number of GVL right holders
GVL has been continuously growing the number of the performers and producers it represents since its inception in 1959. At the end of 2022, more than 170,000 direct rights holders had mandated GVL with the management of their rights: among them 157,317 performers, 13,105 producer of sound recordings and 71 event organisers.
Via more than 70 representation agreements with international sister organisations, GVL acts on behalf of more than one million performers and more than 100,000 producers across the globe.
Since the beginning of 2023, it has been even easier to enter into a rights administration agreement with GVL.
Distributions and distributable sums
Annual comparison of distributable sums
Despite another challenging year for the industry, the GVL was able to distribute a total of €257 million to creators and their partners in 2022. Since the start of Corona, the GVL has thus allocated remuneration of €886 million to its beneficiaries.
In the year 2022, GVL paid remuneration to more than 175,000 performers and producers as part of a total of 13 national and four international distribution runs. 2022 also marked the last year with a double final distribution for performers which means that from 2023, GVL will be running its distributions completely in the cycle provided by the law.
“We manage to solve a mountain of issues each year”
Interview with Jens Conring, Division Manager Product & Service Innovation
GVL invests heavily in its further development each year. As a data-processing service provider, it is not just important to remain at the current technical level at all times but also to be there for our rights holders with improved services. We spoke with Jens Conring. As Head of the Product & Service Innovation division, project and portfolio management of GVL is one of its key topics.
Review: On the road in the music industry
The event diary of GVL was well-filled once again in 2022: The Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg in September, the c/o Pop in Cologne in April and the Most Wanted: Music in November in Berlin were some of the events where we attended on site for our rights holders. We consider it a great opportunity to have a personal exchange with musicians and labels and talk to other industry players.
Photos © CAPADOL, Stefan Wieland, F. Reimann, Frank Soepgens, Marius Faulhaber, Jacob Schröter
GVL expands its international cooperation
New agreements with foreign collective management organisations: GVL concluded as much as three new international representation agreements with sister organisations in 2022.
GVL - in sound and image
As a joint society, GVL appeals to a rather large audience. So that we can explain our daily business and make the context even clearer, we use a multitude of information formats and media. Our videos of the series “GVL explains” and infographics are particularly well received; we published quite a few of them in 2022.
Help for performers and labels in Ukraine
Soon after the attack on Ukraine it became clear to us that we take a clear stance against the war as participants of the creative sector. Together with our committees, we decided to create a financial Ukraine support programme for the performers and producers affected by the war in addition to our grants.
GVL grants and culture support schemes
Above and beyond our distributions, we have taken on responsibility for the creative sector; this includes our grants. We make up to five percent of our annual distribution volume available for supporting measures. On the basis of grants for cultural and social purposes, GVL rights holders benefit directly, but also indirectly when money reaches them via the promotion of cultural-political projects. Apart from other projects ,we supported the following organisations, among others, in 2022:
We say thank you for a successful 2022
GVL staff would like to thank our rights holders, friends and partners in the creative sector for a collaborative 2022!