The Cologne c/o pop has already been around for 20 years now and has just been granted the Pop Culture Award. We spoke with co-founder Ralph Christoph to enquire what currently makes the festival stand out and where the journey will take it next.

GVL: The c/o pop has just been granted the GVL-sponsored Pop Culture Award in the category “Practised Pop Culture”. What does this mean for c/o pop and yourself?

"Our task is to support creative people in their work," emphasise GVL Managing Directors Tilo Gerlach and Guido Evers. "Only if the creative industry sticks together and speaks with one voice can we jointly influence the consequences of the use of artificial intelligence - e.g. for music or voice generation. Together we are strong!"

GVL supports its rights holders in international associations, legal discussions and vis-à-vis legislators and points out challenges and legal loopholes.

Pop musicians, actors, classical musicians or labels: GVL's rights holders are just as diverse as the entire creative industry.

This is why there are just as many industry awards that recognise exceptional talent, unique personalities or special courage. 

As GVL, we support numerous awards as part of our grants and are proud to make our contribution to cultural diversity.

(Graphic in German.
Translation: Our sponsored award ceremonies 2023. #culturaldiversity)

The distribution dates are being finalised on an ongoing basis. We regularly inform rights holders about all distribution-relevant news on gvl.de and our social media channels. The following chart shows GVL's distribution plans for 2024.

This year, GVL was able to extend the rights management for its musicians abroad by five more territories and has also negotiated an additional agreement with SAI in France.  

We have signed new bilateral agreements with the following sister societies for the mutual exchange of remuneration for the exploitation of sound recordings:

• AMANAT in Kazakhstan
• FKMP in South Korea
• GNRA in Georgia
• PI in Serbia
• SFH in Iceland

als well as

Traditionally, the grant applications for the following year were approved at the Associates' and Delegates' Assembly's autumn meeting. The committee approved a total of 84 projects in the area of cultural policy grants.

Against the backdrop of the ongoing war, the associates and delegates also supported the funding of further projects as part of the Ukraine aid programme, including

Art has always characterised the identity, values and world view of our society. Creativity is the ability to mould ideas, create art and solve problems. Through music, text, film or any other form of creativity, we humans express ourselves and shape the world around us. This is what makes our lives profound, multifaceted and unique. That is why it is important that the work of creative professions is recognised and protected.

GVL's rights holders receive their remuneration based on the use of audio or audiovisual productions. In order to determine this remuneration, GVL requires information on who owns which rights to a production or who has contributed to it as well as detailed data on the use of these productions.

Our speakers Sandy Backhaus (Head of Rights Service Artists) and Dirk Löwenberg (Head of Rights Service Producers) will explain why GVL is such an indispensable part of the music landscape and how artists and labels can earn money via GVL.