Frequently asked questions

Should your e-mail address have changed, please send a short mail to meinegvl@gvl.de.

In order to change your personal master data, i.e. your address, account number or bank/financial institute, please use the corresponding form, sign it and send it to us - you can also mail us a scan of the hardcopy to kuenstlervertrag@gvl.de.

You are also a producer? Information, on how to change your master data as a producer of sound recordings can be found here.

If you receive an error message when trying to log in to our artist portal, please follow these steps:

1. First, check which browser you are using. We recommend Google Chrome or Firefox. Apple's standard browser Safari is unfortunately only partially compatible with our portal and using it often results in error messages.
    
2. Delete cookies and cache of your browser. This works differently depending on the browser you're using:
   
   Firefox: Menu (top right 3 horizontal lines one below the other) →Settings →Privacy & Security →Cookies an Site Data →Clear Data.
   Chrome: Menu →More Tools →Clear Browsing Data →Clear Data.
    
3. Please make sure that you are using your contract number and not the GVL ID to log in and check that the password is case-sensitive.
    
4. If necessary, use the "Forgot password" button to have a link sent to you for assigning a new password and then try again.
   Important: the password must not contain any special characters, must be at least 8 characters long, and must contain at least one uppercase letter, lowercase letter and number each.
   Please note that the link can be used only once - after that it is invalid and it is not possible to create a new password using it.

If all these steps do not help, please contact our support by phone from Monday to Thursday, 9 am - 5 pm, Fridays 9 am - 2 pm at 030 48483 677 or by email to meineGVL@gvl.de.

For more information on taxation, please visit the following page.

If you want to deposit a pseudonym or stage name with us, we need evidence for the pseudonym entry.

For other, non-official pseudonyms, please contact: meinegvl@gvl.de after signing the contract.

We accept, among other things, proof of fees, contracts, GEMA excerpts, etc., which connect the civil name with the pseudonym to be registered. Only if both the civil name and the pseudonym are mentioned, this connection is established.

If the pseudonym is an official pseudonym or an official stage name, we require a copy of the identity card/personal document in which the pseudonym was entered as proof.

For data protection reasons, you can black out any information that is not required for this purpose. Your civil name, the pseudonym, your date of birth and the validity of the document ("Valid until...") must be visible.

You are welcome to send this form and your supporting documents as a scan by e-mail to kuenstlervertrag@gvl.de. However, please note that according to the Privacy Policy, sending by e-mail is not a secure transmission and we cannot take responsibility for the protection of your data.

Yes, this is possible. You can access further information on this topic here. Information on the representation agreements GVL has for performers and producers of sound recordings is also available on our website.

The scope of remuneration from abroad does not only depend on the facilities of GVL but also the legal situation and the existing operational and technical infrastructure at the sister societies and their distribution plans. Accordingly, differences also affect the remuneration GVL receives.

Despite significant and also successful standardisation efforts, operational standards deviate. As such, payments are sometimes not made on an individualised basis or allocated to specific distribution years. This requires a manual processing of payment receipts which in turn often entails time delays for our rights holders.

Each piece of evidence basically needs to fulfil "three evidence requirements":
 

1. The evidence relates to the production for which you have registered your contribution. (E.g. Title, production period, programme/channel, original title, main artist etc. are mentioned)
2.  The evidence proves that you have actually contributed in the way you registered (Your name and your activity including details such as shooting days, narrator takes etc. are mentioned)
3. The evidence comes from the producer responsible for the production or a similarly credible source (e.g. agreement, professional fees' statement, CD booklet, producers'/directors' confirmations etc.; invoices generated by yourself are only valid if you also provide the relevant bank statement/proof of incoming payment).

If you have no access to these or if your contribution is not mentioned on them, you can also obtain a confirmation of your contribution by the producer, main artist, artistic producer and/or director. Forms for such types of confirmation can be accessed on our homepage under Documents and forms - Certificates and confirmations.

If you would like to submit evidence for film music, please note that the evidence must clearly show that the relevant music production has been used in the film. For licensed music, for example, two pieces of evidence are thus required: one for your contribution to the original music production, one for the use of that music in the film.

We always check whether we already have evidence documents for a reported participation. However, we always require evidence related to each individual participation. In the past, we were often sent extensive files that had to be processed manually at great expense. For economic reasons, this is no longer possible. In such cases, we may have to request specific, individual documents of proof again.

As a rule, we no longer have evidence that was submitted under the reporting form system up to 2010.

If you have any problems providing evidence, please contact the relevant specialist team.

Detailed reports include, in short, your entitlements which are projected for a specific usage year. Said projected total amount shows how much remuneration you are expected to receive at the end of the notification period.  (The total amount is constantly updated. Usually it is adjusted upwards because successive reserves are dissolved, but sometimes downwards if, e.g. we unexpectedly receive more contribution notifications than anticipated.)

The distribution takes place in several stages due to the long statutory notification periods. There is an initial distribution with an initial amount, several subsequent distributions with further partial payments and eventually a final distribution when the notification deadlines expired and the distribution budget can be completely dissolved. You receive your overall entitlement at the end of the distribution cycle. The distributed amounts should, when added up, correspond to the amount shown in the last detailed statement.

The payout notifications you  usually receive with a settlement always state the current remuneration entitlement and the amounts already paid out in the meantime (indicating the date of any related older payout notifications). The statements therefore document the progress of the “partial payments” of the advised total amount.

The German copyright law distinguishes between so-called exclusive rights which are granted to users by contract and remuneration rights which exist by law, independently of any contractual arrangements. GVL only manages remuneration rights at this time. Interactive streaming of audio and audio-visual content is set up as an exclusive right and therefore does not fall under the rights generally managed by GVL. It is possible that exclusive rights are managed by collective management organisations or music licensing companies. However, to collectively manage these rights, it is necessary that nearly all involved rights owners grant these rights on a large scale. This, in turn, presupposes a general consensus of rights owners and other market participants or a statutory regulation. We were not able to establish a consensus so far, remuneration rights for interactive streaming rights do not exist as of now. Of course, we are open towards an expansion of our rights portfolio if required.

Upon the realisation and maintenance by GVL of the first basic functionalities for the Synchron App, further expansion stages are to follow. We are very sorry that this further development has been delayed because GVL productivity is lower than anticipated due to the COVID-19 effects. We are battling with bottlenecks among our IT resources, especially due to necessary childcare by staff, and must focus on the portal expansion for our performers. To this end, we had to adjust previous plans. In addition, we must first provide development efforts for our internal GVL project VITA so that the added value of the Synchron App for performers is a high as possible in the long run. We initially underestimated this effort.

We are aware that performers who use the Synchron App are eagerly awaiting the further development of the GVL interface. Together with the developers of the Synchron App, we are going to push the project forward with all our strength.

It increases the transparency of the calculation and shows the remuneration categorised into subject to VAT and not subject to VAT.

GVL uses two different identification numbers. 

You receive your contract number (or customer number) when you conclude a rights administration agreement with GVL. You need it to log in to the my.gvl portal.  

The GVL-ID was introduced as part of our system changes. It enables us, for example, to record more precisely whether you are represented in different functions, for example, as an artist and heir or producer at the same time.   

The GVL ID is also used for correspondence. You will find it on your payout notifications and your detailed reports, among other things.  

When contacting us personally, we can identify you equally with both numbers. Please have either your contract number or your GVL ID ready when you communicate with us.  

My Documents > Payout information > 2023 (or the corresponding current year). The documents are sorted chronologically in descending order.

Detailed:

After clicking on the "My Documents" menu item in the my.gvl menu, you will find your Payout notices in the tab of the same name.

Overview of the payout information documents available

 
In this section, payout notices are sorted by year and are available under the year in which the disbursement was made. Therefore click on the column with the current year, here in the example the year 2021.

Extended overview of available documents for one specific payout year

The listing of documents in this year folder is sorted chronologically in descending order. So you will find the new payout noticiations at the top.  

Based on the column you can see what kind of distribution it is (e.g. regular distribution, international payments, final distribution, redistribution, open budgets), as well as what document number the document has. In addition, information about the format & language of the respective document is displayed. Payout notifications are available exclusively in .pdf format. The name of the file contains your GVL ID as well as information about the type of distribution and the language of the document ("ger" for German, "eng" for English).

Quick guide:  

My Documents > Detail destribution reports > 2021 (or the corresponding year). The detail reports are summarized by year and sorted chronologically in descending order.

Detailed:

After clicking on the menu item "My documents" in the menu of my.gvl, you will find your detailed distribution reports in the tab of the same name.

Overview of the available documents, sorted by year of usage

In this section, the documents are sorted by year of use. They are therefore located under the year in which the broadcasts took place and so on which the remuneration is based. In this example, the year 2021. The detailed reports are usually available within a few days after the distribution.

Overview of the detailed distribution reports that have been created for the usage in 2021

The listing of the documents is sorted chronologically in descending order for a better orientation. Detailed distribution reports are always created in two language variants (German and English), as well as in the formats .pdf and .xlsx (Excel) and numbered consecutively. You can recognize the respective file format by the corresponding symbol.

Thus, you will find four documents above, which contains the year of use in the file name. The respective language of the document can also be seen in the file name (ger/eng). In addition, the file name begins with your GVL ID.

Please note: Since the remuneration entitlements are adjusted with each distribution, older detail reports are no longer relevant from this point on and are only retained for transparency reasons. The most recent detail report with the highest consecutive number is always decisive for your total remuneration entitlements in a year.

If there is no use of your productions in a year, e.g. because they were not broadcast on stations evaluated by the GVL or there was no GVL mandate for this year, no detail reports will be created. The corresponding year will then not be listed.

There can be many reasons for filing a complaint. Due to the complexity of the data, it is therefore important to check in advance whether a complaint is justified and can therefore be processed.

Reasons for a complaint can be:

• missing products (in the product search on my.gvl)
• missing usages
• wrong product descriptions

Missing products:

Please note: Your productions only become relevant for remuneration when they are used in TV and radio! It is not a prerequisite that a sound carrier producer reports his repertoire to the GVL. And even usage reports only come from the evaluated broadcasters (see distribution plans) and can often only be mapped a whole year late.

If you cannot find your production despite broadcasting on an evaluated station, please send us corresponding proofs by mail to meinegvl@gvl.de. Accepted proofs would be for example:

• Station confirmation of broadcasting with station designation, date and duration of use
• Original GEMA listing with station, date and duration of use.

Missing Usages:

Please note: Usage reports only come from stations evaluated by us (for more info, see Distribution Plans) and can only often be implemented about a full year later.

If you still do not find any usage on your product under my.gvl, please send us appropriate evidence by email to mygvll@gvl.de. Accepted proofs would be for example:

• confirmation of broadcasting with station name, date and duration of use
• Original GEMA listing with station, date and duration of use.

Incorrect product designations:

Please note: The product information that you find on the products at my.gvl is usually meta-data that is transmitted as additional descriptive information from the broadcasters to GVL. Unfortunately, this information can often be incorrect and is therefore generally not used for the verification of contributors. They are intended solely to make it easier for you to find your productions. Also, different spellings or minor spelling mistakes will not be corrected, as these will be overwritten again incorrectly with each new usage report from a broadcaster.

Product names can therefore only be changed in exceptional cases, if essential information such as artist and title are completely wrong.

In this case, please send us a proof showing the name of the main artist and the product title. This can be the same evidence that we accept as proof of your contribution: https://gvl.de/en/rights-holders/performers/frequently-asked-questions#general_items

In addition to the ID copy of the performer (under 18), we also require a copy of the ID from the parent or legal guardian. A power of attorney is not required.

At the time of the registration, we do not need any evidence regarding your activities as a performer. You only need to upload a valid ID document in order to be able to verify your identity.

If you would like to send us more than one file you can put your JPEGs together in a text program such as Word. Simply insert your JPEG/scan-file into the Word document and save as PDF. Then you can upload this PDF-file via our upload function.

Please send us a copy of your valid ID to kuenstlervertrag@gvl.de. We will then provide you with your contract number.

Please send a copy of your ID to kuenstlervertrag@gvl.de.
We can then tell you whether you are already registered with GVL.

Please contact us at kuenstlervertrag@gvl.de. We will then provide you with the necessary documents.

An "official pseudonym", also known as "stage name", is entered in the ID card or passport. You can send us a copy, scan or photo of your ID in order to prove your pseudonym/stage name. For any other used pseudonyms please contact: mygvl@gvl.de. 

If you do not currently have a tax number, please enter "NONE".
We would like to point out that a tax number is mandatory for payments.

You can find more information about tax here.

The following details must be clearly legible on your ID copy: Date of birth, name, date of validity, signature, nationality.  You can blacken everything else.

Please enter your IBAN in the format DE021203000000202051.

In Germany, the IBAN contains of 22 digits. This may differ from country to country.

You can check your data at the end in the contract preview and have the option to jump back to the individual pages if you want to correct an entry in the online form. If you have already clicked "Complete" and want to make a change afterwards, you need to contact us, either by email at kuenstlervertrag@gvl.de or by phone  030-48483-744.

Yes, you can enter a GVL rights administration agreement even if you are a GEMA member.

There is no charge for signing a rights administration agreement with GVL - it's free.

Please contact us at kuenstlervertrag@gvl.de. We will then send you the necessary documents.

No, you only register once for all artistic activities managed by the GVL.

No, you do not need a label code in order to conclude the rights administration agreement as a performer.

Yes, multiple selection under "Role" is possible.

You do not have to enter all your activities and band affiliations. As soon as you are a GVL member, you can use our

meingvl.de portal to report your contributions to your productions, e.g. as a band member.

You can find language manual for the artist portal my.gvl here.

Please note that we will update the manual continuously to document new features and developements.

There may be various reasons if you cannot find specific productions.

• We strive to keep our database current and to ingest productions after their transmissions as soon as possible. This can, however, sometimes take several months. If the production you are looking for has only been broadcast recently it probably has not found its way into our database yet. Just check back after a while.
• Specific production types belonging to the “open budgets” are not listed in our database due to cost reasons. Please check out the according page for more information.
• GVL only analyses productions which have been transmitted via common, free-to-air broadcasters within Germany. Which broadcasters are taken into account is subject to the corresponding distribution plan.
  This also means that neither streaming providers nor other online publications or transmissions on niche channels are currently relevant to GVL.

If you still cannot find individual productions please contact the corresponding team of experts which will happily assist you with your search.

For word directors & artistic speakers/narrators:

Due to the nature of the broadcast data provided to us, it is unfortunately not possible to display broadcasts on different stations as well as reruns bundled on one product. All broadcasts can be found separately in the product search. Your contributions to spoken Radio productions must therefore be reported again each year if additional broadcasts are added. An indication of this can be, for example, repeat fees that you receive from the stations.

Productions that were already part of a final distribution become obsolete as a result of this process and are deleted by us after the complaint deadlines have expired, if necessary. In this way, we avoid that reports on obsolete productions are submitted by mistake. Your contributions will then also no longer be visible in the "Reported" area. In the event of remuneration, however, you will still find the corresponding productions in the detailed reports of the respective distributions.

Radio productions word include broadcast radio productions from the following genres:

• Audio book/radio play
• Readings
• Children's program
• Radio feature
• Cabaret

Reports on so-called "Small Literary Formats" can be made using the corresponding form in the my.gvl menu.

For contributors to music in radio radio plays:

Reporting music in radio radio plays is done via the form for radio and TV extra formats.

You normally have four years time in order to register your contribution in a broadcast product. Nevertheless, we recommend to submit your contribution notifications early on via meineGVL so that you get paid in the course of the initial and regular distributions.

The notification phase ends with the notification deadline prior to which contributions by performers must be registered in order for them to have an entitlement to receive remuneration.

You normally have four years time in order to register your contribution in a broadcast product. Nevertheless, we recommend to submit your contribution notifications early on via meineGVL so that you get paid in the course of the initial and regular distributions.

The notification phase ends with the notification deadline prior to which contributions by performers must be registered in order for them to have an entitlement to receive remuneration.

In order to ensure that all contributions are taken into account for the final distribution, we ask our rights holders to submit their registrations via my.gvl by the deadline.

Since GVL cannot provide usage information delivered by the broadcasting stations, contributions must be reported via a separate form. Within the certain periods which we will disclose via e-mail, you will find the menu item "Radio/TV extra formats" in the my.gvl portal, which will take you to the submission form. After the reporting deadline, the form will be deactivated again. As usual, we will inform you about the oportunity to report contributions for these„Radio/TV extra formats“ for the coming distribution years in a timely manner by e-mail.

A glossary including a translation of key words from the form can found here.

Why can I not submit any evidence when I submit my notification?
Many notifications that reach us can now be processed automatically so that it is not always necessary to attach evidence. Should we require evidence we will inform you directly and ask you to upload the corresponding documents via our artsys portal.

Please therefore refrain to send us evidence by e-mail.

GVL processes your notifications in good time until the final distribution of the respective usage year. However, due to new, partially automated procedures, we are increasingly able to process notifications that concern more recent broadcast years.

Please understand if it takes a little longer to process your report. In any case, you will always receive full remuneration, even if you miss an initial or subsequent distribution.

The reasons for rejecting a participation report can be found directly under the corresponding production in the "Registered" section of my.gvl.. Additionally, they are displayed in the Excel-File that can be generated and downloaded using the button provided.

The majority of all rejections can be traced back to duplicate reports. These were either submitted repeatedly by mistake or occur when we combine identical productions and transfer all existing participation reports. If a report is received in our system that already exists for the same production, the system automatically rejects this duplicate report. This is then logged accordingly.

If no reason for rejection is stored in the system, please do not hesitate to contact the relevant specialist team.

The answer is a bit more complex, as it may differ depending on the combination of media type, contribution type, and budget.

Audiovisual Productions (Excluding Video Clips):

For audiovisual productions (AV), a maximum of two artistic contributions can be compensated. However, one of these must be performing, the other instructional. Examples and some important exceptions or special cases are listed below.

Please note: Even if you have participated in different musical components of an AV production, e.g. in the title music as well as in a licensed song, you will only be remunerated for a maximum of one instructional and one performing role.

Instructional roles are:

• Conductor
• Studio conductor
• Artistic producer
• Stage director
• Dubbing director
• Literary director

All other contribution roles refer to performing activities.  (More detailed definitions of the different types of contribution roles can be found here).

Examples for the combination of performing and instructional roles:

• In dubbing, it is possible to register as a dubbing director and as a dubbing actor in the same production.
• Artistic producers could, for example, report an additional contribution as an instrumental musician or as a singer.

Please note: The rule is that you cannot instruct yourself. Therefore, other artists must always be involved in order to be recognized in an instructional role.

• Comedians who perform their own standup program can therefore register as actors, but not as stage directors.
• Producers who record/sing or program all their own tracks can apply as instrumental musicians or singers with the function "soloist", but not as artistic producers.

Special cases:

• Contributions in the AV sub-budget "Individual Television Contributions".

In this sub-budget, which is reported via the reporting form for the open budgets, only one contribution is remunerated. Therefore, if there is more than one contribution, it is best to report the one in an instructional role, as it is usually weighted higher.

• Actors who are involved in an international co-production or in a foreign production that is filmed in a language other than German: If you dub your dialogue yourself, please report your dubbing activity additionally.

The reason for this is that contributions are evaluated differently, depending on whether they affect only the visual or the sound level of an artistic piece or both together. The remuneration for actors consists, so to speak, of a share for the visual and a share for the vocal performance. The latter is omitted in non-German-language productions in order to enable reports from dubbing actors.

In German productions, on the other hand, you should refrain from reporting an additional contribution as a dubbing actor, even if you are rerecording your dialogue in whole or in part. In this case, the contribution as an actor already contains the remuneration share for picture and sound. We cannot guarantee that the higher-value contribution will be taken into account if multiple reports are submitted.

Radio Productions and Broadcasts (NTT):

For radio productions and broadcasts, the same rule applies: a maximum of two artistic contributions are remunerated. One of them has to be performing, the other one has to be instructional (see above).

In the case of live radio concert broadcasts, only one musical contribution is usually recognized, since it is not possible to perform an instructional and a performing role at the same time.

Musical contributions to spoken word productions (such as radio features, radio plays, readings, etc.) belong to the so called open budgets and are reported using the appropriate form.

Examples of combining performing and instructional contributions:

• You may be both a literary director and an artistic narrator in a radio play.
• For the soundtrack of a radio play, you may both be an artistic producer and an instrumental musician/singer.

However, in both cases it is important to note that you cannot direct yourself. Therefore, other artists must always be involved in order for an instructional activity to be recognized.

Sound Recordings (TT) & Video Clips (VC):

For sound recordings (TT) and video clips (VC), a maximum of two contributions are remunerated as well. The strict rule that one must be performing and the other one instructional does not apply here. However, there are other rules to consider.

Certain combinations of contributions are excluded, e.g.

• contributions as artistic producer AND conductor
• contributions as conductor AND studio conductor
• identical participation roles with different functions, e.g.
  • singer as soloist AND as background/studio singer or
  • instrumental musician as band member AND as studio musician.

Please note that for contributions as an artistic producer to be recognized in the field of classical music, a conductor's certificate is required.

Due to the many possible combinations in the field of sound recordings, please note the following rule:

In the case of two valid contributions, according to the distribution plans, the higher-ranking contribution is fully weighted, the second with only one category point.

If you have performed different activities in a sound recording and are wondering which should be reported in order to achieve the highest possible remuneration, the following rule of thumb applies:

• Main artists (soloists, band members, conductors - but not studio conductors!) receive the highest number of points.
• This is followed by the role of artistic producer and finally the performing roles (studio musicians, background singers, orchestra musicians, etc.).

In the other media (AV, NTT), the weighting of the two possible roles is self-evident, since the instructional role is usually scored higher or identically compared to the performing role.

Details on the scoring can be found in the distribution plans.

You can only register your contribution if you know the film or series production where the relevant music title is included. A licence for the use of library music titles is often issued without e.g. the film producer having to commit to report this to GVL. As a consequence we do not know that the title has been used in the respective film.

If you do not know the film title and you cannot research this information or find it out e.g. from the library music label, you cannot register this contribution.

Orchestras/Choirs are groups starting from 10 contributing musicians/singers who often perform and record productions in a consistent formation and under a permanent, proper name.

 
Orchestra/choir representatives are persons authorised by the orchestra/choir who register the contributions on behalf of all members of the orchestra/choir. This significantly reduces the number of individual registrations as well as the processing operations at GVL.

For the release and sale of DVDs or Blu-Rays there is no evaluation by the GVL. The reason for this is that we can only pay out royalties for so-called time exploitation rights. Theatrical films and disc releases are so-called primary rights that are already compensated via the production contract.

Only if you register your contributions to artistic productions to GVL, can we match them against the broadcasts on radio and TV. Your registration is the prerequisite for being paid a remuneration for your productions that have been used by radio/TV.

With the changeover to the usage-based distribution system, the review criteria for the reported participations were changed. Since we have been looking at your participations on a track-by-track basis since 2010, our review criteria are now much more detailed than they were before the system change. Furthermore, evidence submitted prior to 2010 was generally returned to the artists, so we no longer have it as a basis for verification. In order to verify your participation reports, today we first research all sources available to us to ensure confirmation of your participation. Only in exceptional cases, when our research has been unsuccessful, do we contact you with a request for proof.

In order to use our online portal meine.gvl.de and submit your contribution notifications, you require a computer with internet access. Your contribution notifications are centrally stored in our system and automatically matched against the respective product data submitted by the users. This makes our work very efficient. A manual matching process between contributions received in writing and the respective product data would be very time-consuming and would entail high costs. We deal with money in a very responsible manner on behalf of our members.

Nevertheless, we offer performers who have no computer and/or internet access the possibility to provide their contribution notifications in writing. As we are a fiduciary collective management organisation, we hope you appreciate that we need to raise a processing fee for this additional effort. The fee level is currently being coordinated with our supervisory authority - the German Patent and Trademark Office.

Our new service provides support for you when you submit your online notifications! With the new notification area in the online portal meine.gvl.de, we now offer you a more comfortable user guidance and a simplified notification platform. We would be happy to guide you through the online portal in order to support you with your searches for productions and online notification of your contribution(s). After all, this helps us to avoid charging you a processing fee.

A "small word format" is a short radio feature that is usually one to two minutes long (but no longer than 10 minutes) and is included in broadcasts that are not made available in the product search.

This can be, for example, a daily changing sketch in a morning magazine or a poem/gloss etc. in a program not available in the database because of its content being irrelevant to performance protection law.

If you have participated in a production to which the above explanations apply, you can create a new small word format via the corresponding link in themy.gvl portal and thus register your participation in it.

For any further queries, please contact the relevant specialist team on 030 48483 764 or wort@gvl.de.

This is difficult to predict in concrete terms.

As an artist, you assert your claims to remuneration by notifying GVL of your contributions. To give you enough time to do this, there is a notification period of three years. This is convenient, but it also means that the number of submitted contributions is not known until the end of the notification period.

Since the budget has to be distributed among all the valid contributions that have actually been submitted, we can only distribute part of the distribution amount until then and have to wait and see which contributions are still submitted.

At the same time, the claim is calculated from various variables that influence the amount: Type and extent of contribution, frequency of use, broadcasting station and airtime, to name just a few factors.

An overview of how remunerations are calculated can be found here.

In addition, you can find all the details in the corresponding distribution plans.

You can find information here.

The amounts shown consist of two different portions: The first is GVL's administrative costs, which are a percentage of this remuneration share. The second component is costs that are charged to us. On the basis of Section 44 of the German Collecting Societies Act (VGG), GVL has entered into agreements with various partners regarding the collection of revenues, e.g. the proceeds from private copying and rental & lending. This is taken care of by organizations such as the Central Office for Private Transfer Rights (ZPÜ), the Central Office for Library Royalties (ZBT) or the Central Office for Video Rental (ZVV).

Collection costs must be reported separately and are subject to VAT since a change in the way revenue from private copying is viewed under tax law. This new regulation now makes their offsetting against revenues transparent.

The remuneration itself does not change as a result. Of course, the costs will only be charged proportionately if you actually receive money for the distribution. 

A distribution cycle consists of a notification phase, initial and subsequent distributions and a final distribution.

Initial and subsequent distribution

After the initial distribution, a minimum of two subsequent distributions are scheduled; these include e.g. payments for newly registered contributions, new calculations of individual parameters or distributions of retroactive user payments. Remuneration paid to our members in the initial and subsequent distributions are provisional amounts until notification phase has ended and it is known how many performers have registered their entitlements for remuneration from the distribution year.

Final distribution

The final distribution takes place once the registration phase is over. Any remuneration held in suspense for the respective distribution year unclaimed by performers shall then be released for onward payment to all performers with existing contribution notifications. The final distribution closes the distribution cycle.

In order to ensure that all contributions for the final distributions are taken into account, we ask our eligible artists to submit their reports via my.gvl.

An overview about current deadlines and target dates can be found here.

An overview of the stations we evaluated in the respective years of use can be found here.

The stations evaluated for the other media types can be found in the respective distribution plans.

It increases the transparency of the calculation and shows the remuneration categorised into subject to VAT and not subject to VAT.

You will usually receive two payout notices and the total amount, which is the sum of the two documents, should be positive. So you will participate in the distribution even though one of the documents shows a negative payout amount.

Background: The GVL's remuneration comes from the domains "rights transfer" and "private copying and rental/lending". These two areas are reported separately due to different taxation, so you will usually receive two payout notifications. However, your remuneration will be transferred in one sum.

You have probably received an advance or instalment payment from GVL in the past. Such advances are usually granted on revenues from the "rights transfer" area and could previously only be offset against revenues from this area.

However, we are now able to offset the two revenue sources. The advantage: Advances are refunded more quickly, i.e. you receive remuneration from GVL more quickly.

All AV products are always shown in full minutes - only audio productions are also shown in seconds. However, since there are productions in the "Radio/TV extra formats" (formerly "Open Budgets"), such as commercials on TV, that last less than a minute and are exclusively in the seconds range, the display remains at "0 minutes". Based on the usage value and your distribution amount, you can see that the production was nevertheless remunerated for the actual duration.

The irritation about the "repeated" deduction of payments is a common misunderstanding. The items listed in the payout notification under "Deduction of advance payments already made" are remunerations that you have already received, see the respective document date mentioned.

Payout notices always contain a kind of "payout history". They show an updated status for each payout. Displayed above in the disbursement documents are your current total claims for the respective distribution years. Since the GVL pays out the corresponding funds in several steps (until the final distribution), the amounts that have already been distributed are listed below and deducted accordingly from the total entitlements. What remains is the current remuneration entitlement that is paid out at the time of the respective distribution.

Until the final distribution of a given year, when your entitlement is ultimately determined, the previous payment history is therefore always documented, including the advances made. This does not mean that these funds will be deducted again from a new amount.

GVL payouts do not pose a risk to corona support by the government

The Minister of State for Culture and Media, in agreement with the Federal Ministry of Economics, confirmed: current remuneration from collective management organisations or music licensing organisations has no influence on the special economic support measures granted by the Federal Government in November and December.

Current payouts by CMOs/MLCs relating to past performance periods are not taken into account when calculating turnover under the support programmes.

Specifically, taxable turnover pursuant to Section 1 of the German VAT Act is used as the basis for calculating turnover. In line with the above, turnover was thus generally achieved in a specific month if the performance or service was provided in that month. As such, the date of the performance or service is thus generally relevant, and not the time when the order was placed or the payment was received, in the GVL context, this would be the performer distribution for the years 2015 to 2019 in November 2020, for example. Payment receipts without provision of services do therefore not lead to an exclusion regarding your application for corona state support

In view of the financial bottlenecks that many performers suffer from, we were asked by a large number of rights holders and associations to offset advance payments only moderately against distributions in 2020.

Advances were determined specifically from forecasts for individual distribution years. During the regular distribution process, they are now assigned to the individual distribution years and offset with the corresponding amount, so that a combination of offsetting and payment can easily occur. This may, under certain circumstances, extend the settlement period, but has the desirable advantage that unexpectedly high remuneration in certain years will also be noticeable by rights holders. You will find information about prepayments and the amounts paid and cleared in each case on your payout notifications.

We are aware that some of our beneficiaries are in a very stressful situation due to the corona-related restrictions, in which the financial framework conditions with a view to support services are constantly changing and the overall financial situation has to be constantly reassessed. However, the vast majority of our beneficiaries are urgently waiting for the distributions.

There can be various reasons for this:

• Has your personal master data changed recently? If there has been returned post or bank returns, we cannot carry out a payout. Please contact us to update your data to its current status.
• Have you received any advance payments recently, such as the corona advance? Then the distribution amount was probably fully offset or is now below the minimum limit of EUR 5.00.
• The payout amount is below the minimum limit of EUR 5.00.
• In some cases, the forecast for the value of contributing to a production must be adjusted downwards. Any overpayments that have taken place up to that point must first be offset against the payout amounts.

Unfortunately, no, the actual transferable amount will only be communicated to you with the payout notification on the day of the bank transfer. A few days later, detailed statements will be available to you on the performer portal where the expected total remuneration until the end of the distribution window is shown per production.

Please contact our distribution finance team for tax-related questions or regarding your transfer: finanzen.berechtigte@gvl.de or call them on +49 (0)30 48483 Mon to Fri, 10.00am to 2.00pm.

In 2018, GVL made a document called "GVL info on 2018 payout volumes" available for download. This letter was intended to assist our beneficiaries with their tax returns and help them avoid large deductions. However, it was not legally binding for the responsible tax authorities.

In it, we explained that due to a fundamental technical system change, GVL exceptionally had to carry out three final distributions at the same time in 2018 (for the years 2010-2012). Accordingly, unusually high amounts of revenues were distributed to our beneficiaries that year.

Since then, GVL distributions have become more predictable: In 2020, there was still a double final distribution for the years 2013 and 2014. In 2021, as previously announced, the final revenues for the years 2015 and 2016 were distributed. In 2022, a double final distribution will take place for the last time and include the years 2017 and 2018.

The argument of "unforeseen" high distributions is therefore no longer tenable. We can therefore no longer provide certificates.

Please contact our distribution finance team for tax-related questions or regarding your transfer: finanzen.berechtigte@gvl.de or call them on +49 (0)30 48483 Mon to Fri, 9.30am to 2.00pm.

In 2010, the EU Commission prompted GVL to change its distribution system to an internationally agreed standard. This means that we migrated our system from an income-based distribution to a usage-based calculation. Since then, it no longer matters how much income an performer received for a production. Today’s payments are based on the actual usage of a production on the radio/on TV.

The calculation basis for such a distribution is the broadcast of a production on the radio and/or TV in line with the relevant broadcast minutes. Radio and TV usually do not broadcast an entire album but individual titles during a programme. It is the number of minutes a work has been broadcast that is relevant for distribution purposes. Such broadcast minutes incur for individual titles that have actually been broadcast. Radio stations and TV broadcasters provide us with the titles they broadcast, together with the relevant broadcast duration in minutes. We match them against your contribution notifications which you submitted via our online portal meine.gvl. If a production which you have evidently contributed to has been broadcast, you will receive a payment from GVL for it.

Duplicates are datasets within the GVL databases which relate to one single product but carry slightly deviating names due to typing or transmission errors and therefore appear in the database more than once. In short: Duplicates are unwanted twins of datasets.

GVL is working flat out to detect these data duplicates and collate them to one single dataset. Our performers benefit from this data cleansing: the clearer and more unambiguous our data pool is, the easier and faster it is for you to register contributions for the productions.

Please note: By removing duplicates, the overall amount of your contribution notifications might be reduced, but we will make sure that all notifications will be transferred to the remaining dataset and the remuneration is consequently not reduced. You also get a better overview of your productions as a result.

The ancillary copyright applies to sound recordings for 70 years and to film and television productions for 50 years. So in the best case, you can receive remuneration for your artistic contribution to a production for that long.

However, the prerequisite for this is always that there are uses relevant under ancillary copyright law during this period, i.e. broadcasts take place that lead to corresponding revenues.

The distribution calculation applied by GVL is subject to the distribution plans which sets fixed distribution rules. In the course of the distribution calculation, there is a degressive multiplier [Degressionsfaktor] i.e. remuneration is reduced according to these factors, especially for particularly intensive usage.

It is possible that, in the context of the reduction of duplicates (see above), there is a higher amount of usage units allocated to a product after the data cleansing process. In such cases, the total of usage units could exceed the degression threshold values: From a specific threshold value of added-up usage units for a production, all usage units above this value will no longer be weighted at 100%.

The first degressive tier applies to

• Sound recordings spoken word & music from more than 30,000 usage units
• Radio productions music from 15,000 usage units
• AV productions/radio broadcasts spoken word from the fifth  broadcast

We are positive that the final distribution of the remuneration reserves whose levels will not be known before December excludes clawbacks. If repayments were to result from a first-time degression, they would be offset against future payouts. No rights holder has to repay money.

If you have registered various contributions for a product (e.g. different instruments), these contributions are, of course, taken into consideration individually and remain as different, non-identical contributions.

Since GVL cannot provide usage information delivered by the broadcasting stations, contributions must be reported via a separate form. Within specific time frames, which we will disclose via e-mail, you will find the menu item "Radio/TV-extra formats" in the my.gvl portal, which will take you to the submission form. After the reporting deadline, the form will be deactivated again. As usual, we will inform you about the oportunity to report contributions of "Radio/TV-extra formats“ for the coming distribution years in a timely manner by e-mail.

Since we cannot provide an English version of the form, we've created a glossary including a translation of key words from the form, which can found here.

The term "Radio/TV-extra formats" includes small GVL sub-budgets. These include, according to the GVL distribution plans:

• Radio jingles
• Radio advertising
• Music in radio plays
• Television docusoaps
• Individual television contributions (such as live music performance, live comedy performance, fictional scenes, cartoon scenes in non-fictional formats e.g. "Aktenzeichen XY", children's programmes, shows)
• TV jingles (station promos)
• Television advertising
• Documentary cinema films on television (cinema productions that have also been broadcast on television)
• Television documentary productions (produced for television)
• Title and background music (for all the above, except for documentary productions)

In 2021, the GVL distributed funds for the first time for productions that fell into the pool of budgets that had not yet been remunerated and were still "open" until then.

In the interest of a timely release of provisions in favor of the beneficiaries, the committees of the GVL decided, in coordination with the DPMA, to fully distribute the remunerations of the still "open" budgets in a simplified procedure.

They belong to the small sub-budgets, which account for less than 3 percent of the total GVL distribution volume for artists per year of use. These are radio and TV extra formats for which we cannot provide usage reports from the TV and radio stations. Your contribution must be submitted to us by a deadline via an online form.  The distribution amounts are primarily derived from private copying fees and are paid together with the respective final distribution of the year. Since the budget is thus no longer open, corresponding productions are now considered as Radio/TV extra formats.

The sub-budgets, which belong to the Radio/TV-extra formats, account for less than 3% of the total GVL distribution sum for performing artists per year. The distribution amounts result mainly from private copying levies and are therefore relatively low. For this reason, we want to keep your and our costs as low as possible.

production, please send us a notification as a bundle for each year, not for each individual episode. This concerns the sub-budgets individual television contributions, docusoaps and opening title and background music.

Examples:

• If you had several or regular appearances in a specific show (e.g. musical appearances or as a comedy act)
• If you made several or regular contributions to a docusoap
• If you recorded the title or background music of a particular magazine programme
• If you participated in the music of television documentaries that aired in multiple episodes with identical titles or subtitles.

Please do not report individual episodes in the case of such linked productions; instead, indicate the total number of transmissions within the relevant year under “frequency of transmissions”.

If you had worked on the fictional documentary format "Wild Animals", for example, you would have to summarize the following titles that were broadcast in one year: 

Series "Cats of Prey," Episode 1: The Lion (1 hr.) 

Series "Cats of Prey", Episode 2: The Tiger (1 hr.) 

Series "Cats of Prey", Episode 3: The Panther (1 hr.) 

Series "Cats of Prey", Episode 4: The Jaguar (1.hr.) 

Series "Marine Animals", Episode 1: The Blue Whale (1 hr.) 

Series "Marine Animals", Episode 2: The Great White Shark (1 hr.) 

Series "Marine Animals", Episode 3: The Giant Octopus (1 hr.) 

Please combine these productions as "Wild Animals (Cats of Prey/Marine Animals)" in one message and increase the corresponding number of airings. The production duration in this example would be 01:00:00. 

In the case of several performances within a show, e.g. music performances, please submit them as a bundle as well. Just adapt the production duration in line with the total duration of your contributions.

For example, if you appear in an average of five 30-second musical interludes in a late night show with the show band, please report a single contribution with a production duration of 00:02:30. For the broadcast frequency, enter the total number of broadcasts in which you participated in the respective distribution year.

You will see in the form which roles are available for your selected format. Overall, the following roles are relevant for the Radio/TV-extra formats:

• Singer
• Instrumental Musician
• Conductor
• Actor
• Dancer
• Studio conductor
• Artistic producer
• Stage director
• Dubbing director
• Literary director
• Stunt performer / stunt double
• Dubbing actor
• Dubbing artist
• Artistic narrator/raconteur

Please note that there has to be a change of roles which has been reported accordingly in the respective production script. A change of roles occurs if you, during your artistic work performance enter into the figure of another person or another being.

Rule of thumb: The contributions of a narrator are only relevant from a neighbouring rights perspective if they reflect an artistic interpretation of a work which can be protected by copyright. The mere rendition of a work protected by copyright is not enough. An interpretation is a shaping personal rendition with a proper artistic value which can incite mood or feelings. A significant indicator is the narrator’s change of role or identity. The mere linguistic communication of factual information such as those transmitted by a news reader does not give rise to neighbouring rights of a performer.

This information is not required for the calculation of remuneration of the Radio/TV-extra formats. Please only enter your role and function in the respective production. 

You can submit a maximum of two reports per production. Since 2022, this is possible in one reporting step in the revised reporting form. If you submit two contributions, one entry must be instructional (e.g. as "artistic producer") and the other one must be a performing role (e.g. as "instrumental musician"). Exceptions to this are the sub-budgets Individual television contributions and Music in radio plays, where only a single contribution is possible. The same applies to participation reports by choir-/orchestra representatives, who can report only one contribution in a performing role.

Please log in to the portal on my.gvl as a choir-/orchestra representative as usual (contract number starting with "090XXX"). Do not use the account you have as a performing artist, but your account as a choir-/orchestra representative, which we have sent you by e-mail (if necessary, please call the Team Classical Music & Ensembles at 030/48483-762). 

Please choose only the functions orchestra member (KKV), choir member (KKV) or ensemble member (KKV) to register as a representative of the orchestra. 

In principle, the solidary payment type is chosen. It is not possible to select or deselect individual members of your orchestra.

To register contributions for the Radio/TV-extra formats, you need the corresponding artist’s access to the my.gvl portal. A pure paper report is not possible. For these specific formats, it is unfortunately not possible to submit a participation report without portal access. 

“Individual television contributions” are artistic contributions to productions which are not relevant from a neighbouring rights perspective over the full duration, as there are also non-artistic elements. TV shows, for example, also include presentations, games and interviews. These do not qualify for GVL remuneration payments. You can, however, notify us of a musical performance, a stand-up performance or a performance as an actor in a film clip. Please always mention the name and the duration of the individual contribution in addition to the name of the overarching broadcast (series). Only one participation report is possible per production in this sub-budget.

Example:

If you had a musical performance with the ficticious band "The Opticians" on the ficticious game show "I See Something You Don't See" in 2017, which went to air in 2018, you would enter the following on the form:

Sub-budget: individual television contributions

Distribution year: 2018

Production name: I See Something You Don't See

Production year: 2017

Production duration (hh:mm:ss): 00:03:30 (if your performance lasted 3 minutes and 30 seconds. The duration of the entire show is irrelevant)

Name of individual contribution in production/broadcast: musical performance with band Opticians.

Please note that individual television contributions are only compensated for a maximum duration of 30 minutes and are capped accordingly, even if your artistic contributions go beyond this. Please also note the instructions on how to properly bundle notifications. For example, if you performed several times or regularly on a particular show (e.g., in the show band of an entertainment show), combine all episodes and seasons of that distribution year into one entry and then increase the frequency of airings.

Example:

You participated in the fictitious music show "I Hear You" as a musician in the show band. In 2017, there were 3 seasons of 5 episodes each, but no repeats. In the form, you would enter the following: 

Sub-budget: TV individual contributions 

Year of distribution: 2017

Production name: I hear you (seasons 1-3)

Production year: 2017 

Production duration (hh:mm:ss): 00:30:00 (Only a maximum duration of 30 minutes is allowed here, even if your musical contribution went beyond that).  

Name of individual contribution in production/broadcast: "I hear you" band accompanying various artists

Frequency of broadcasts: 11-50 (3 seasons with 5 episodes each result in 15 broadcasts, from which the corresponding broadcast frequency is derived).

If you have contributed to the music of a radio play (e.g. as a studio musician or artistic producer) that was broadcast on one of the radio stations evaluated, you can report your contribution in this sub-budget. You can only submit one report here.

The format captures title and background music for non-fictional TV and radio productions (e.g. entertainment shows and magazine broadcasts).

For example, you can report the title and closing credits music of programs such as news ("Tagesschau"), magazines broadcasts ("Aspekte", "Monitor") or entertainment shows ("Fernsehgarten", "Wetten, dass...?") as title music within the Radio/TV extra formats.

Title music must, in contrast to jingles, be a fixed part of the production.

You can report your participations in background music of magazine programs and entertainment shows, e.g. in film clips.

Please note: 

This does not include title and background music in fictional productions such as feature films and series. Please continue to report your corresponding contributions as usual via the artist portal, not via the form for Radio/TV-extra formats.

Clearly defined musical performances, such as the performance of a song, are not background music. Please report these in the format"individual television contributions".

You can register your contribution in productions where the events are staged and the persons fictionalised in an entertaining and dramatic way, e.g. scripted reality series.

Requirements for a recognition of contributions as an actor, artistic narrator or dubbing actor are that the work is relevant according to copyright law and features an artistic performance. These two requirements are usually fulfilled if there is a script with (fictional) roles and text and if the contributors act under directions in a dramatic setup.

An artistic performance within the meaning of copyright law is always given if a role change takes place and a fictitious person is played. However, a change of roles would also be assumed if a real lawyer or doctor participates in a fictional, dramaturgically staged situation without actually practicing his or her profession as a lawyer or doctor. 

There is no change of roles if a natural person is playing her/himself even if she/he acts differently in front of the camera than in real life.

Appearances in productions which focus on information (“Infotainment”) cannot be remunerated.

Jingles are independent productions which can be deemed as promos for the relevant channel and its programme, e.g. “This Summer on RTL” or “VOX Highlights in October”. These also include pre-roll trailers for individual transmissions in the programme of the broadcaster.

No, the presentation / hosting of a show does not count among the activities which are relevant from a neighbouring rights perspective and are not remunerated by GVL.

Please select the format „Individual television contributions” for your musical contributions in TV church services.

If you have already registered all your titles qualifying for distribution purposes via the product search in my.gvl, GVL has received reports by the rights users with the relevant usage duration in minutes. Thus you will already receive remuneration in the corresponding distributions as a matter of course. In such case, please do not submit any additional notifications via the form for the Radio/TV-extra formats.

If you are unsure whether your tracks have also been used as title or background music or in other Radio/TV-extra formats, please check with your music publisher whether they have issued additional licences relevant for the sub-budgets.

For advertising and jingles on TV and on the radio, the advertiser must acquire the rights from the author and the music publisher. In any case of such usage, there must be a corresponding evidence. It is unlikely that e.g. library music has been used for advertising without your knowledge.

Unfortunately, GVL does not hold this information either. This is because this info is, depending on the format, either not available at all or could only be obtained from commercial data providers at unjustifiably high costs. All details must therefore be submitted by the rights holders.

Please provide the necessary details on channels and frequency of transmission to the best of your knowledge and be as specific as possible if you no longer have any documentation in this regard. We know that in many cases the production dates back a long time and exact details cannot always be provided.

You select the number of broadcasts in a usage year (calendar year) per broadcaster collectively. For the sake of simplicity, we provide corridors for selection. This information must be entered separately for each usage year.

Due to the high costs, the GVL cannot buy and provide data and precise broadcasting information on commercials from external providers, so all information must be provided by the rightholders. However, you should also refrain from buying such information.

For many major German TV commercials, title details and, in some cases, information on the transmitting channels can be found via the usual search engines or portals like YouTube or Google. If you do not find any title information, please describe the advertisement as concretely as possible (e.g. "Edeka - Christmas commercial with Christmas Cookies").

Please provide the necessary information on stations and broadcast frequency to the best of your ability and as accurately as possible if you no longer have any documents. We know that in many cases the production dates back a long time and exact details are not always possible.

The broadcasters evaluated vary depending on the distribution year. It may be that you find a broadcaster in one year that was no longer evaluated in the following year, or vice versa. You can find out which broadcasters are evaluated in the respective distribution plans. You can find them on our website.

For some participation roles you need to indicate the number of shooting days or dubbing takes in the formats “TV documentary productions” and “Documentary cinema films on TV”. If you cannot provide any details here, we assume that there was one shooting day or take so that you still receive a minimum remuneration.

Please provide the necessary information on takes or shooting days to the best of your ability if you no longer have any documents. We know that in many cases the production took place a long time ago and exact details are not always possible.

GVL can no longer process existing portal notifications for the "Radio/TV-extra formats" for the coming distribution years, as no more usage information is available for these. If you have contributed to productions of the Radio/TV extra formats in the distribution years 2017 and 2018, please report them using the form provided.

GVL has a rather wide range regarding the various rights holder groups and the remuneration of different media types. A multitude of artistic contributions which are remunerated by GVL will not even be taken into account by other collective management organisations worldwide. This also includes the contributions for commercials, jingles, non-fictional formats etc. covered here.

Since we do not receive any money for such usages from abroad, we cannot remunerate them either.

The GVL formats mentioned here count among the smaller sub-budgets which make up less than 3 percent of the total distribution sum for performers per usage year. In the interest of a timely release of reserves in favour of the rights holders, the boards of GVL, in agreement with the DPMA, have decided to distribute the full remuneration for the "Radio/TV extra formats" (formerly "Open Budgets") in a simplified procedure.

For this reason, "corridors" were established, which both limit the time frame and define the frequency of broadcasts in different ranges "from - to". This means that your participation is not remunerated with an exact amount of broadcasts, as in the regular distributions, but is assigned to a corridor that fits the sub-budget and is considered on a flat-rate basis.

With each additional information you are helping us with the verification effort - also conclusive screenshots (e.g. from fernsehserien.de or similar portals), old contracts or similar can help us with the verification. Please combine your evidence in one single file. Multiple separate uploads are not possible.

Your proof should meet the following conditions:

• The proof refers to the production on which you have reported your participation and should name e.g. title, production period, broadcast/broadcast, original title, main performer.
• The proof confirms the type/ capacity in which you have participated. It proves your name as well as your activity, if necessary including details such as shooting days or dubbing takes.
• The proof comes from the producer of the production or from a comparable credible source (e.g. contract, royalty statement, CD booklet, producer/director certificate).
• At best, you also have confirmation of the stations on which it was broadcast and how often it was broadcast in that distribution year.

Self-generated invoices are only valid together with a bank statement or proof of payment.

Once you have submitted the form, this message will appear: “Thank you! The message has been sent.” At the same time, you will receive a confirmation e-mail to the address you provided in the form. Please note that you can no longer check your evidence submissions here.

Should this not happen and if the page with the form reappears, you have forgotten to provide an important detail. The corresponding field is marked with a red note for you.

Reports that you have submitted for the radio/TV extra formats are not saved on your reported list in the my.gvl portal, as it would be usually the case. Therefore, please hold on to the reporting confirmation that you received by e-mail after a successful report transmission.

In the second half of the year, you will find the succesfully verified reports in the detailed reports for the final distribution of the respective distribution year.

Your reports will be checked by us and if we have any queries about your reports, we will contact you directly by e-mail. In the second half of the year, you will find the succesfully verified reports in the detailed reports for the final distribution of the respective distribution year.

Please understand, that we cannot inform you of the processing status in the meantime.

All AV products are always listed in full minutes - only audio productions also include seconds. However, since there are productions in the Radio/TV extra formats (formerly Open Budgets), such as commercials on TV, that last less than a minute and are exclusively in the seconds range, "0 minutes" remains in the display. Based on the usage value and your distribution amount, you can see that the production was nevertheless remunerated for the actual duration.

As the reporting procedure and remuneration should be simple and transparent, you can only report for the year of the final distribution and not for the years of the initial and subsequent distribution. The remuneration is always paid out with the regular final distribution of the respective year of use. All previous years of use have already been completely remunerated.

In 2013, the German Copyright Act extended the protection for sound recordings from 50 to 70 years by inserting a new Section 79a UrhG. Without this extension, older music titles would have become public domain and could be used without remuneration. Artists with buy-out contracts are to receive an economic share of the proceeds from sales or digital uses such as streaming or downloading by the producers of sound carriers during the extended protection period. This is done via GVL.  

The law applies to sound recordings whose term of protection for performers and producers had not expired on November 1, 2013 or was created after that date, i.e. to repertoire from 1963 onwards.

In the new Product Search, a separate filter is available to display products with §79a uses. For identification purposes, the titles in question bear a paragraph symbol ("§"). If you have not yet submitted a participation report, simply submit it as usual. If you have already reported your participations, a new report is not necessary. 

In the new Product Search, a separate filter is available to display products with §79a uses. For identification purposes, the titles in question bear a paragraph symbol ("§"). If you have not yet submitted a participation report, simply submit it as usual. If you have already reported your participations, a new report is not necessary. 

The deadline of your participation reports was on 31.01.2024.

We will inform you in advance about the further procedure, e.g. new reporting options in the portal, in due time.  

Performing interpreter of a role (also puppeteer) in fictional, audiovisual productions or production parts.

Not however: performances that are not accessible to artistic interpretation, e.g. extras.

Producer of music productions who guides other musicians during the recording musicians and influences the interpretation of the work.
Self-direction is not possible. Activities in the context of pre- or post-productions and live productions are not covered by the performance protection right. Co-producers and executive producers are not taken into account.

Singers who are not part of the band, but who nevertheless appear in music productions or live performances. In case of doubt, the activity as a background/studio singer can be proven by the payment of a buy-out.

A singer and/or instrumental musician who releases music productions under a fictitious band/ensemble name or appears as a band/ensemble under his/her own name in TV appearances and/or radio productions. In case of doubt, membership in a band can be proven by an internal band contract or by obtaining royalties.

Musicians of bands with 16 or more participating instrumentalists must register as orchestral musicians.

Leader of a music ensemble such as a choir or an orchestra who holds the artistic overall competence and sets musical parameters such as tempi, dynamics and interpretation of the musical work.

Performer who performs body movements to music as directed by the director in fictional audiovisual productions or parts of productions.

A voice actor who uses his/her voice to translate foreign language films or films without actors (e.g. animated productions) into the local language. Where appropriate, voice actors may also be used to replace the voice of an actor/actress or to actively speak background voices in productions that are broadcast in the original language.

Not, however: performances that are not amenable to artistic interpretation, e.g. voice-overs, non-fiction texts, reports.

A group of voice actors who are used in an audiovisual production to create background vocals and sounds for crowd scenes ("crowd/mass"). They also do the voicing of one or more small roles that are not explicitly mentioned in the cast list, but may well be involved in the production with several takes.

The person responsible for the artistic linguistic interpretation of an audiovisual production (TV). He/she determines the work, which is usually based on a written script, by shaping linguistic criteria such as tempo, dynamics, pitch and lip synchronicity.

Artistic director of spoken word performers who responsibly determines the artistic interpretation of e.g. a radio play or audio book by shaping linguistic criteria such as tempo, dynamics and pitch.

Artistic director of stage productions (theatre, opera, cabaret etc.) who gives artistic instructions to contributing performers.

This does, however, not include: Performers who are also acting contributors to the work. A conducting artistic activity can only take part during a recording.

Singer and/or instrumental musician who releases or is mentioned in music productions as a main artist under their name/pseudonym (featured artists) or appears under their own name in TV appearances and/or radio productions.

Leader of a group of instrumentalists or vocalists whose activities relate only to a part or section of the recording or concern only one instrumental group or part of the musicians.

In contrast to the conductor, who provides guidance over an entire work, the studio conductor is involved in a work on a selective basis.

Instrumental musician who is not part of the band, but who nevertheless appears in music productions or live performances. In case of doubt, the activity as a studio musician/line-up musician can be proven by the payment of a buy-out.

Performing artist whose artistic involvement in fictional, audiovisual productions or parts of productions results from a change of role and identity in which he/she temporarily takes the place of the intended actor/actress and, like the latter, assumes the role of a character to be portrayed through make-up and costume.

Not however: performances that are not accessible to artistic interpretation, e.g. stunt coordinator, body or light double.

Artistic director of music video clip productions who responsibly determines the artistic interpretation of a clip during recording, through the cinematic realisation of musical pieces.

Other* video clip creators include the activities as cameraman/woman, costume designer, set designer/film architect, editor/editor in a music video clip production. In exceptions: Make-up artist/choreographer.

In general, remunerations can only be made for the contribution of an artistic interpretation of the work or an own creative performance. The performance in question must not already have been predefined by a guiding role and must be integrated into the work as a whole.

Roles that cannot report participations to the GVL because of this are, for example:

• noise artists/Foley artists
• sound designers
• sound engineers
• technicians
• lighting technicians

It increases the transparency of the calculation and shows the remuneration categorised into subject to VAT and not subject to VAT.

The amounts shown consist of two different portions: The first is GVL's administrative costs, which are a percentage of this remuneration share. The second component is costs that are charged to us. On the basis of Section 44 of the German Collecting Societies Act (VGG), GVL has entered into agreements with various partners regarding the collection of revenues, e.g. the proceeds from private copying and rental & lending. This is taken care of by organizations such as the Central Office for Private Transfer Rights (ZPÜ), the Central Office for Library Royalties (ZBT) or the Central Office for Video Rental (ZVV).

Collection costs must be reported separately and are subject to VAT since a change in the way revenue from private copying is viewed under tax law. This new regulation now makes their offsetting against revenues transparent.

The remuneration itself does not change as a result. Of course, the costs will only be charged proportionately if you actually receive money for the distribution. 

The amount usually consists of the final amount of both payout notifications. It is possible that you receive separate transfers within a few days.

The payout notifications without debt collection all remain the same.

There is no tax deduction on collection costs.

You will be subject to a tax deduction on collection costs.

You will be subject to a tax deduction on collection costs.

On the basis of Section 44 VGG, GVL has entered into representation agreements with other collective management organisations.

The following representation agreements exist:

1. Agreement on collection activities between GVL and GEMA on the remuneration rights arising from public performance
2. Agreement on collection activities between ZPÜ and GEMA, VG Wort, GÜFA, GWFF, VG Bild-Kunst, VFF, TWF and VGF for remuneration rights arising from Section 53 (1)-(3) UrhG in Sections 54, 54a, 54b, 54e and 54 f UrhG.
3. Agreement on collection activities between ZBT and GEMA, VG Wort, GWFF, VG Bild-Kunst, VFF, VG Musikedition and VGF for remuneration rights arising from Section 27 (2) and (3) UrhG.
4. Agreement on collection activities between ZVV and GEMA, VG Wort, GÜFA, GWFF, VG Bild-Kunst, VFF and VGF for remuneration rights arising from Section 27 (1) UrhG.

Further information on ZPÜ, ZBT and ZVV can be found in the GEMA Yearbook on the GEMA website. In addition to the above, GVL also concluded a number of representation agreements with CMOs and MLCs abroad. Please click here for an overview of the agreements relating to producers.

A distribution will only be made to rights holders which contributed to commercially published sound recordings.

Your title might have been broadcast on the radio, but it may not have had more than 200 minutes of broadcast usage in the corresponding usage year.

No. The process requires a significant usage in public space e.g. as part of a mass event. Distributable amounts from usage in smaller public places such as retail stores, catering businesses etc. fall below the minimum threshold level as set out in the distribution plans.

You can only submit claims for contributions in a title after the first regular distribution for the relevant usage year.

Claims to remuneration from the distribution budget “Sound recordings that have been publicly performed without any relevant broadcast usage” can always be submitted up until the 31st of December of the following year, after the public broadcast has taken place.

For the distribution year 2021, the registration period ends on December 31, 2022.
A distribution is planned for the first half of 2023 (half year after the end of the registration period). However, a later distribution is also possible for technical or operational reasons.

We require the following evidence in order to process your notification:

• Evidence for your contribution (professional contract, invoice, third-party confirmation)
• Evidence for the existence of the sound recording (booklet scan/copy)
• Evidence on the public performance of the sound recording (“certificate on public performance”)

You can submit two contributions for one title. When you enter the information for the second contribution, please beware that there are inadmissible combinations. Inadmissible combinations of contributions within a title would be:

Conductor AND studio conductor

• two contributions as a singer with identical function and deviating or identical pitch
• Ensemble/band member AND studio musician
• Ensemble-/band member AND soloist
• Conductor AND artistic producer

Please provide suitable evidence with the form regarding your contributions (e.g. agreement covering professional fees, invoice, third party confirmation etc.)

Yes, this is possible. The event organiser can send a scan of the certificate to oewtt@gvl.de or choose a dispatch by post to (GVL, “Direktverteilung Öffentliche Wiedergabe“, Podbielskiallee 64, 14195 Berlin). Please take care that you - as a performing artist - add the necessary information on your person to the certification.