Statement of the General Management on the year 2023
In their joint statement, Guido Evers and Dr. Tilo Gerlach, Managing Directors of GVL, acknowledge the last financial year, during which a significant increase in revenue has been achieved. “We want to support creative people in their work with everything we do. With this mission, GVL is an important part of the cultural landscape.”
2023 key operating figures
Annual comparison of total revenues*
GVL concludes the 2023 financial year with a significant increase in revenue: Overall, the collective management organisation and music licensing company managed to book EUR 249.2m (previous year: EUR 235.4m, +5,9%). This development is based, among other things, on growing income from sister companies and increased broadcasting revenues.
Another area of growth was the public performance section; GVL thus leaves the lower income of the COVID-19 pandemic years behind for good.
*To display the figures, please move the mouse pointer over the graphic.
2023 revenue structure
Remuneration for radio, TV and retransmission amounted to EUR 99.9m in 2023 and exhibited growth compared to the previous year (+5.5%).
Collections from public performance, the so-called “Kneipenrecht”, increased by EUR 6.4m (+16.4%) to EUR 45.5m once all COVID-19-related restrictions had been lifted. As such, results in the 2023 financial year did not only reach but actually exceeded pre-pandemic income levels (for comparison, 2019: EUR 42.3m).
The revenues from reproduction (copying) rights decreased in 2023 by 10.2% to EUR 77.3m. The reason for this is a back payment realised in the previous year which had led to income way above the recurring levels in 2022. On the other hand, the restrictions brought on by COVID-19 had a positive effect on the sale of devices due to a rise in the requirement for home office equipment, a trend which did not continue in 2023.
Income from representation agreements with collective management organisations and music licensing companies abroad amounted in 2023 to EUR 14.4m which signifies a clear increase compared to the previous year (2022: EUR 8.4m, +72,2%). This is mainly the result of a one-off back payment realised from Spain.
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 2023, more than 173,867 direct rights holders had mandated GVL with the management of their rights: among them 160,024 performers, 13,772 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.
In total, GVL carried out 13 distribution runs and four international forwarding runs. It therefore paid out EUR 222m overall to creatives and to its partners.
Focus topic: Services at GVL
“Our members take centre stage”
Interview with our departmental managers
Dirk Löwenberg and Sandy Backhaus
GVL has two highly specialised service areas – for the entitled producers of sound recordings and performing artists. This way, we can ensure that we respond precisely to the individual needs of our rights holders. We talked with the departmental managers Sandy Backhaus (performers) and Dirk Löwenberg (Labels) about individual services and personal consulting at GVL.
Expansion of services
As a collective management organisation and music licensing company, it is our paramount objective to see that our rights holders receive their remuneration as quickly and easily as possible. At the same time, we endeavour to be there for them in an unbureaucratic way whenever they may have a question or need our support. We see ourselves as service experts who are swiftly on hand for assistance to those who may need us. In order to achieve this, we have focussed on a first-class individual support and invested in user-friendly, digital services over the last one and a half years, such as:
- our new online rights administration agreement
- our label.gvl chat as real-time support
- our virtual individual consulting services as personal support
GVL on the road in the music industry
Once again, GVL’s event diary was well-filled in 2023: The Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg, the c/o Pop and the Most Wanted: Music and pop/kultur in Berlin were some of the events where we were in attendance on site for our rights holders. Otherwise, it is mainly our two Managing Directors who feature as guests at various industry events, ranging from APPLAUS to the 70th anniversary of the Deutscher Musikrat [German Music Council].
Photos © Stefan Wieland, Peter Adamik, Kevin Münkel, Martin Bliedung, Frank Schoepgens, Juliane Fiedler and Roman Obst
International income: Record year 2023
GVL is active for its rights holders all across the globe. 2023 marked a year of success for GVL in the international sector. Not only did we manage to pass on a record-breaking EUR 14.6m in remuneration from abroad to our rights holders, but also did we enter into eight new representation agreements. A special highlight was the SCAPR working group meeting in Berlin in October.
Working together with commitment for the creative sector
GVL is a reliable partner and a staunch supporter of the German creative sector. With its commitment and its support, it is contributing to Germany’s cultural landscape remaining as diverse and vivid in future. Regular statements and campaigns made in close cooperation with our shareholders’ associations and partners was a central pillar of this engagement.
Company faces
GVL grants as a building block of the funding landscape
Diversity is reflected in the creative sector in the breadth and depth of artistic forms of expression – an entire ecosystem which needs to be protected. In order to maintain a fertile soil for cultural diversity in the long term, sustainable supporting structures are crucial – our grants which amounted to almost four million euros in 2023, are a building block for these structures. Apart from funding a selection of individual projects, we consciously focus on the support by promotion platforms such as Initiative Musik or the Deutscher Musikrat. Both have established themselves as indispensable pillars of a lively German music and cultural landscape. Apart from other projects ,we supported the following organisations, among others, in 2023:
We are looking to 2023!
In the name of the entire GVL team, we would like to thank our rights holders, committees and partners in the creative sector for a successful and inspiring financial year 2023. Your support and your trust are hugely important to us and form the foundation for our joint mission to protect and promote the rights of creatives and their partners.