Home > International Directory of Company Histories > GEMA (Gesellschaft Für Musikalische Aufführungs- Und Mechanische Vervielfältigungsrechte) - Introduction

GEMA (Gesellschaft Für Musikalische Aufführungs- Und Mechanische Vervielfältigungsrechte) - Introduction

Introduction

Bayreuther Strasse 37
D-10787 Berlin
Germany
Telephone: (49) (30) 21245-00
Fax: (49) (30) 21245-950
Web site: http://www.gema.de

Not-For-Profit Company
Incorporated: 1903 as Anstalt für musikalisches Aufführungsrecht (AFMA)
Employees: 1,110
Sales: EUR 813.6 million ($1.2 billion) (2003)
NAIC: 813920 Professional Organizations

GEMA (Gesellschaft für musikalische Aufführungs- und mechanische Vervielfältigungsrechte) is Germany's equivalent of BMI or ASCAP in the United States, an organization that protects and promotes the creative work of composers, song-writers, and lyricists. The nonprofit association educates music users about copyrights, lobbies for a high level of copyright protection in Germany, and collects fees for the public performance of copyright-protected musical works in live settings, through the media, in movie theaters, shopping malls, bars, dance clubs, and even doctor's offices. GEMA also issues licenses for the mechanical reproduction of such works in exchange for a license fee and receives a percentage of the sale price for music copying devices and storage media such as CD-burners, blank CDRs, and cassette tapes. Traveling employees and independent contractors constantly monitor musical activities in Germany and make sure that every public performance of one of the roughly six million GEMA-protected works is properly registered and paid for. The collected fees are distributed to GEMA's 60,000 members in Germany and many thousands of copyright owners abroad with the help of a sophisticated computer system and according to a complex distribution scheme. GEMA cooperates with 117 similar organizations around the world and is overseen by Germany's patent office and antitrust agency.