Frequently asked questions

label.gvl is the web portal for producers of sound recordings and audiovisual recordings who are GVL rights holders. Since 2017, producer rights holders have been submitting their repertoire on a track basis in order to participate in GVL distributions.

Furthermore, repertoire that has been submitted and processed can be managed in label.gvl, rights ownership can be edited and possible rights ownership conflicts can be resolved.

Under the menu item “Add recordings”, you can add new recordings to your repertoire. For the upload of individual tracks, we recommend that you use the online screen under “Add audio recording”. Uploads of larger volumes of audio repertoire can be easily made by using an Excel template under “Upload audio”.

Under the menu item “Add recordings”, you can also add new audiovisual recordings (music video clips) to your repertoire via upload. Music video clips can be easily made by using an Excel template under “Upload video”.

By selecting the rights profile when using the audio repertoire upload, you declare the countries in which you have rights for the recording you are registering.

Select from the regions:

• Worldwide
• Germany
• GSA

Under the sub-item "Includes the countries" you can view the individual countries that are included in the selected region.

Important: Please note that your selected rights profile matches the mandate you granted to GVL. If you have granted GVL a worldwide mandate, we cannot manage this for you if you only register your repertoire with the rights profile “Germany” or “GSA”.

In order to be able to match your repertoire to the broadcast reports from radio and TV stations, we depend on your registration of your track-based metadata.

As such, the more data you provide to us, the better our matching is likely to be.

The following mandatory fields are defined as minimum requirements:

• Title
• Performer
• Composer (only a mandatory field for classical works)
• Recording ID (producers): a unique identifier for a recording for you; where applicable, you can also additionally indicate an  ISRC here.
• Genre: please only use the genre codes predetermined by GVL here.
• Start of rights ownership: Start of your rights ownership in a recording, usually the release date; please take any early promotional campaigns or sampling campaigns for radio stations into account and set the date, where applicable, to the start date of the sampling or promotional campaign.

With a view to the available broadcast data of the years 2016-2018, we decided against making the ISRC a mandatory information when the Collecting Societies Act came into force in 2016.

As the quality of the broadcast data is improving, however, we recommend to always indicate the ISRC of a recording (if known) in the corresponding field. The ISRC may not be mandatory yet when it comes to submitting your repertoire to GVL but it plays an increasingly important role when it comes to matching broadcast reports and is expected to become a mandatory information in the context of the repertoire registration with GVL.

The ISRC is also necessary with a view to international rights management by GVL.

Under the menu item “Add recordings” -> Upload history” in label.gvl, you can access an overview of all your registrations and their status at any time. You also receive an initial confirmation directly after your upload.

Uploads incurring critical errors (e.g. missing or faulty details in the mandatory fields) are rejected. Errors in fields which are not mandatory will also be shown to you in the upload history. These can be corrected by submitting a new notification.

Under "My repertoire", you will find all recordings that you submitted to GVL which were successfully processed by GVL's systems.

Submitted repertoire is therefore not immediately visible under "My repertoire” once you uploaded it but only once it has been processed by GVL’s systems and after the respective conflict checks have been carried out. This is usually done once a day. You should usually be able to access your recordings in label.gvl within 24 hours after your upload at the latest.

In the repertoire view in label.gvl (My repertoire), you can, at any time, see the total amount of and detailed information on your recordings that have been submitted to GVL and processed. Below that, you can see the number of identified and not yet resolved rights ownership conflicts with other producers of sound recordings and audiovisual recordings at the time of retrieving this list.

To provide a better overview and better editing facilities, the portal offers different filter and search options which you can use to search for individual or a set of recordings.

Wenn Sie den Menüpunkt „Mein Repertoire“ gewählt haben, gelangen Sie auf ihre Repertoire-Übersicht und können dort alle von Ihnen gemeldeten und durch die Systeme der GVL verarbeiteten Aufnahmen mit den relevanten Daten zu Ihrer gemeldeten Rechteinhaberschaft einsehen.

Neben der Übersicht über Ihr gemeldetes und verarbeitetes Repertoire bietet label.gvl die Möglichkeit, Änderungen und Anpassungen von Rechteinhaberschaften und Mandaten, das Claiming von Offenen Nutzungen sowie die selbstständige Auflösung möglicher Rechteinhaberschaftskonflikte durchzuführen.

Zusätzlich stellt die GVL nach erfolgten Verteilungen hier sämtliche Detailreports, Senderauswertungen und Auszahlungsmitteilungen bereit

In order to remove repertoire that you added by mistake, please select the relevant recording(s) under “My repertoire” and revoke your rights ownership using the button “Revoke”. The recording is then removed from your repertoire and will no longer displayed or paid out to you.

Via the menu item "My repertoire", you can export your complete repertoire that you submitted to GVL and that is shown as processed into an Excel file and download it.

For an export of your entire repertoire you do not need to make a selection or carry out a search once you have accessed the page. Instead, you can directly initiate the export using the button “Repertoire”.

By using label.gvl, you can change submitted rights ownerships at any time, regardless of whether a recording is affected by a rights ownership conflict or not.

You have the option to completely revoke a rights ownership or carry out changes in the relevant sections “Period”, “Share” and/or “Countries” (Region).

These functions are available to you via the corresponding buttons under the menu item “My repertoire”.

Conflicts arise when two producers submit identical or similar rights ownerships for a recording and the two overlap. Titles that are involved in a conflict are marked by a specific icon in label.gvl.

During conflict identification, recordings with an identical ISRC or with the same combination of artist, title, title supplement and duration are identified as conflicts, provided that the features of these reported rights ownerships in these recordings overlap.

The following overlaps of rights ownerships are possible:

• Period: Start and/or end date of the rights ownership of a recording
• Share: submitted shares in a rights ownership for a recording add up to more than 100% (e.g. 60% plus 50% or two times 100%)
• Region: submitted regions or countries of two rights ownerships of a recording overlap (e.g. Germany and GSA or Germany and worldwide)
   

Own conflicts arise if you submit a recording for the second time, but with deviating information on rights ownership. If it is only information relating to the recording that is different and if the information on rights ownership such as period, share and region remains the same, your second submission only updates your original submission and no own conflict is created.

If you set the filter “Show conflicts only” under the menu item “My repertoire”, and enter the name of your company in the search field “Conflict partner”, you can get a display of all potential own conflicts. Now, if you sort this view by title, you will see all duplicate submissions below each other. Revoke the rights ownership in the recording whose submission was incorrect in order to resolve the own conflict.

You have the option of resolving a conflict by revoking your rights ownership completely or editing it so that the overlap that led to the conflict is resolved.

Once you have edited the rights ownership of a recording marked as a conflict accordingly, the conflict is resolved and disappears from your list of conflicts.

If your submitted rights ownership is correct and the conflict has arisen due to the submission of one or more conflict partners, please contact them and point out that they need to resolve the conflict. GVL provides you with all relevant contact details in the product details (detailed view).

In order to ensure that no party is favoured until clarification, the product concerned is blocked for distribution for the period of the overlap until clarification. Periods not affected by a time overlap are paid out unhindered in the event of a distribution.

GVL, in its fiduciary capacity, is not authorised to interfere in rights ownership conflicts between two producer rights holders. We are happy to support you when it comes to making contact and will also introduce an escalation process for conflicts which affect a usage year shortly before the relevant final distribution in order to speed up the resolution of conflicts.

Apart from that, the parties in dispute are responsible for clarifying and resolving the conflict.

To get an overview of all the details of the conflicts identified for you or of a set of them which have been limited by filters and search options, you can create a conflict export.

To do this, label.gvl provides you with an option called “Conflicts” in the repertoire view “My repertoire” within the download options. It creates an Excel export of the rights ownership conflicts selected by you with all the relevant details.

Unallocated usage relates to broadcast reports regarding the use of productions with sound recordings and audiovisual recordings whose rights holders have not been clearly identified and where GVL could thus not allocate them to a repertoire registration. Said usage is listed in label.gvl in the menu item “Unallocated  usage” for all distribution years that have not had their final distributions yet. Pursuant to the German Collecting Societies’ Act (VGG), GVL is obliged to publish all unallocated usage. Label.gvl also provides you with the option to claim such unallocated usage.

You can claim unallocated usage directly in label.gvl by either entering the corresponding GVL recording ID or the ISRC of the matching recording from your submitted repertoire which is shown as processed. You can access the GVL recording ID in the detailed view of a recording under “My repertoire“ and in the repertoire export.

As an alternative of making claims for unallocated usage via the user interface in label.gvl, you can also add your claims to an Excel export of the unallocated usage. You can enter your claims in the export file, and subsequently upload your usage claims to label.gvl. This procedure is recommended if you have a larger volume of unallocated usage for which you want to submit claims. After the upload, there will also be an error file made available under “Unallocated usage“ > "Upload history“ if errors occur.

GVL also manages rights related to copyright (neighbouring rights) at international level and offers rights holders the option to grant GVL a mandate for additional countries when they conclude a GVL representation agreement. The countries available for selection are those with which GVL has concluded bilateral representation agreements for producers of sound recordings.

Under the label.gvl menu item “Mandates”, you can see for which countries you have already granted GVL a mandate for the management of your neighbouring rights and you can, where applicable, also change your mandate there.

Since each mandate change constitutes an amendment of the agreement, it is strictly mandatory to comply with the written form by means of an appropriate application form for the change of the mandate.

In order to generate the form required, please select the countries in the label.gvl menu item “Mandates” where you want GVL to manage your neighbouring rights in addition to the territory of Germany. Once you have clicked the button “Change mandate”, the respective application form will be sent to you via e-mail. Please print out this application, sign it and return it to GVL.

Please observe that your mandate change is only verified and thus legally binding once your application has been received and after it has been successfully checked by GVL. Until your mandate change has been checked and verified, the status of your mandate will remain "Submitted/Received”. In the context of a distribution, no distribution result can be calculated for you while this status is active. Please therefore be aware of any potential upcoming distribution dates when making a change to your mandate.

You can, at any time, change your mandate by adding countries or removing them again. Please observe that your mandate for Germany cannot be removed.

After each distribution run, various documents will be provided to you in relation to your individual distribution results: Detailed reports, station usage reports (broadcaster reports) and distribution statements (payout information) if you had payouts made to you.

When the German Collecting Societies Act (VGG) which entered into force from 1 June 2016 was implemented, changes to the documents made available for the individual distribution results had to be made. Detailed reports, distribution statements and station usage reports for the distribution years from 2016 can be accessed in the submenu “Documents from 2016” on tabs which are subdivided accordingly.

Balance statements are provided for download on the respective tab a couple of days after a distribution run has been completed.

In the submenu “Reports until 2015 ”, you can download the distribution results for the distribution years up to 2015. Distribution statements from these years are not available there.

Distribution statements are only generated if there was actually a payout during the distribution run, i.e. if an additional remuneration was allocated during a subsequent distribution. In the case of identical or reduced results of a previous distribution for a distribution year, no distribution statement or payout notification will be generated.

In the case of special distributions (e.g. payouts of instalments) and ZPÜ supplementary distributions, no detailed reports will be provided. In this case, the broadcast minutes allocated in the relevant distribution years will be used as a basis, as such the detailed report/statement of the distribution year affected by a back payment therefore applies.

You are not losing any remuneration for notifications or conflict resolutions that have not been submitted yet! Any further notifications and usage reports that have retroactively been released after the conflict has been resolved will be taken into account for subsequent follow-up distributions. For conflicts remaining at the time of a final distribution, GVL reserves respective remunerations that are paid out after conflict resolution in a subsequent distribution.

Please note: GVL can only consider recordings for distribution purposes once the conflict has been resolved. Information on how rights ownersip conflicts are resolved can be found here in our FAQs and on the help page of our producers' portal label.gvl.

There are two types of conflicts: Third-party and in only rare circumstances conflicts with yourself (internal double claims). You can only have a third-party rights ownership conflict with other rights owners. Internal double claims arise, by contrast, with yourself.  They occur on the basis of different rights ownership details that you provided for a track (original recording), for example by registering several different sets of details on a track or ISRC within one upload or repertoire delivery. Please note that GVL requires precise track details i.e. data on specific original recordings and that details on releases are not used as a basis: As such, there are usually several releases of an identical original track.

You can submit repertoire on label.gvl and resolve rights ownership conflicts for three years in order to receive remuneration in one of the follow-up distributions. We will inform you separately about the exact registration deadlines at the beginning of each year. Detailed information on our distribution schedule and accompanying deadlines are available on the help page of our producers' portal label.gvl. In addition, we will inform our members about distributions and deadlines via e-mail and through news in label.gvl.

The detailed report is available for download in label.gvl under “Reports” > "Documents as of 2016". There are two reports. One is an overview in PDF format which includes the recordings with their total broadcast minutes that have been paid out, and the split of your distribution result into the various rights categories. The other is a station usage report as an Excel file which contains additional detailed information and the split of the broadcast minutes per recording across the broadcasters that have been analysed.

With the new distribution system, payments after 2 January 2017 made to you for the exploitation of your recordings will be made on a track-by-track basis. Distributions before 1 January 2017 are still subject to an allocation per label code with the relevant payments being collated per label.

You will get your remuneration for the first time within 9 months after the usage year. The notification period, i.e. the time which you have for your notifications and to clear the rights, ends three years after the end of the respective financial year of the initial distribution.

GVL issues label codes upon request by producers of sound recordings. The label code (LC) is a unique five-digit identifier (example: LC 12345) and allocated to one label. It is an additional identifier that German broadcasters might request during the promotion process.

If you haven't signed a rights administration agreement and have not received a label code yet, you can  conclude a rights administration agreement online here.

You have already signed a GVL rights administration agreement and received a label code from us, but would like to register an additional label code? Please click here for the application form for additional label codes.

GVL’s label search provides you with an option to check on the status of issued label codes, updated once a week, and the registered  labels. 

To deregister a label you have previously registered at GVL, please use the form here. Deregistered labels will no longer be listed in our label search.

The name of a label previously registered at GVL cannot be changed retrospectively.

Collections for rental and lending and private copying are carried out by third-party organisations and paid through to GVL. This creates administration costs.  Please click here for more information on this topic.

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

The amount consists of the final amount of both payout notifications. In the case of a simultaneous distribution across several usage years, the transferred amount can include the final amounts of all payout notifications made available.

Payout notifications without collections all remain the same.

There is no tax deduction on collection costs.

I get a tax deduction on the collection costs.

I get a tax deduction on the collection costs.

Distribution only takes place if the title has been published digitally or physically and has been reported in label.gvl.

Your title may have been played on the radio, but must not have received more than 200 minutes of broadcast use in the corresponding year of use.

No. The procedure requires a significant use in public space, for example in the context of a mass event. The distribution amounts from uses in smaller public settings such as shop premises, gastronomy etc. fall below the de minimis limit specified in the distribution plans.

You can only claim contributions from us after the first regular distirbution for the corresponding year of use.

Claims for remuneration can always be registered until 31 December of the following year after the public broadcast has taken place. For the distribution years 2019-2021, the registration deadline is 31 December 2023. The distribution will take place after the release and calculation of the distribution amount.

We require the following documents for processing:

• GVL notification form for public performance ("Notification form for direct distribution of public performance sound recordings (TT)")
• Proof of public performance of the sound recording ("Certificate of Public Performance")
• Proof of rights ownership, if applicable

Yes, this is possible. The organiser can send a scan of the certificate to label@gvl.de or choose the postal route (GVL, "Direktverteilung Öffentliche Wiedergabe", Podbielskiallee 64, 14195 Berlin). Please make sure that you - as the label - add the necessary information about your company to the certificate.

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

Please call us on +49 (30) 4843650. We will then ask you a few questions to verify your identity.

We can then tell you whether you are already a GVL rights holder.

No, in order to obtain a label code, you need to enter into a rights administration agreement as a producer of sound recordings first.

Please make sure that you enter the IBAN without spaces. 

In case you do not know your tax number, please enter “NONE” in the field “tax ID”. Please submit the tax ID as soon as you have obtained it. 
Please click here for more information on this topic.

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

Please send us an e-mail with your amendments to label@gvl.de and indicate your case number as a reference.  We will then make the changes or will directly get in touch if we have any further questions.

Once the six-week period has lapsed, please contact us by phone or e-mail before sending any documents. Please also indicate your case number as a reference.

No, we do not issue the registrant (first owner) code for the ISRC. It is the Bundesverband Musikindustrie e.V. / Federal Association of the Music Industry (BVMI) that issues such codes. Further details on this topic are on the BVMI-Website.

Please call us on +49 (30) 4843650. We will then ask you a few questions to verify your identity. We will then provide you with your contract number.

You can change your master data, such as address and bank details directly in our producer portal label.gvl. In case your tax ID, your name or the type of your legal entity has changed, please send us an e-mail to label@gvl.de and provide us with your contract number and/or GVL ID.  We will then send the relevant forms through to you.

Yes, this is possible. Information on representation agreements that GVL has for performers and producers of sound is located at our website and in the  frequently asked questions on this topic.  You can also change your mandate at any time in the producer portal label.gvl.

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.

Update: 21 June 2021:

In May, the Bundestag confirmed the amendment of German copyright law. The copyright reform provides for new remuneration rights for exploitations on platforms which can be exercised by GVL.

With the “Act to Adapt Copyright Law to the Requirements of the Digital Single Market,” Germany is transposing the EU Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market, which was adopted in 2019, into German law shortly before the deadline in June 2021. The new legal regulations also affect the rights owners represented by GVL: The new Act on the Copyright Liability of Online Content Sharing Service Providers (UrhDaG) provides a direct remuneration right for performers for the exploitations and uses of their rights on platforms such as Youtube or Facebook . 

The Act also grants new remuneration claims for performers and producer of sound recordings for uses of rights for the purposes of parody and pastiche, among others, as well as for presumably permitted minor uses. Additionally, the amendments provide for an expansion of the re-transmission rights and the option to manage rights for so-called outsiders without rights administration agreements. 
Dr. Tilo Gerlach and Guido Evers, Managing Directors of GVL, highlight: “We consider ourselves to be providers of a service to creatives and their partners. As such we accept the mandate that we have received as GVL following the copyright reform.  We will implement the associated new tasks in a professional manner and in the interests of our rights holders. Whether the regulations will be upheld in detail, is something that presumably the courts will have to clarify.”

GVL works with two different identifiers.  Your contract number resp. your customer number is issued when you enter into a rights administration agreement with GVL.

The GVL-ID was introduced as part of our system migration.  It enables us, for example, to establish in more detail whether we represent you in various functions e.g. as a performer and a legal successor, or producer, all at the same time.

The GVL ID and contract number are featured on your payout notifications and your detailed reports. Whenever you reach out to us in person, we can equally identify you with the two numbers. Please either have your contract number or your GVL ID to hand when you communicate with us.  
 

You can access all your payout notifications and detailed reports in our producer portal label.gvl. Please go to “reports” in the menu and select “documents from 2016”.

Yes, please check our help page for label.gvl, where you can also find useful quick start guides and tutorials. 

If you would like to send several (image) files/scans to the GVL, insert them into a document using a text editor of your choice (e.g. Word) and save it as a PDF file. You then upload this file via our upload function.

In 2013, the EU Directive 2011/77/EU was implemented into the German Copyright Act. The protection of sound recordings was consequently extended from 50 to 70 years by inserting a new Section 79a UrhG. The provisions therein create a liabilities for producers of sound recordings to pay 20% of the income from exploitation such as distribution, reproduction and making available in Germany for the contributing artists to GVL. This remuneration right is essential for performing artists and was assigned to GVL and its sister organisations for administration purposes.

Negative replies enable us to create a plausibility check that the repertoire registered with us is actually complete. 

No, because the rights of the producer of sound recordings for earlier recordings can be acquired via contractual transaction by anyone in Germany, at any time. If you hold such rights, you must notify GVL and, where applicable, pay such shares.

Accounting for claims arising from the term of protection extension requires additional and different data than the ones you had already submitted for your repertoire, e.g. your relevant gross income (from the sales of physical sound recordings, digital downloads, exploitations on streaming platforms or synch rights (ads) - but not the GVL income).

For the notification process, GVL provides a template for the relevant year. If you have only joined GVL since the last notification from us or if you receive this request for the first time for different reasons, we would like to kindly ask you to let us know your income from the years 2014 to the current year. Please contact us in such cases as we are happy to provide you with the respective tables in that case.