That’s why the German Christmas markets don’t play Mariah Carey, but we women are significantly worse off when it comes to company pension benefits

Anyone who runs a Christmas market in Germany will think twice this year about singing famous Christmas hits from Mariah Carey, Frank Sinatra and Co. wants to play. The reason for this is higher GEMA rates, as the German press has announced. But it’s not that simple.

GEMA is the association for musical performance and mechanical reproduction rights, which in Germany ensures that artists receive money when their music is played in public. Songs are only exempt from the license if their artist has been deceased for more than 70 years. Whether the tracks are more or less known does not matter for the amount of the compensation.

The organizers cheated

The amount of the GEMA reimbursements depends on the area of ​​the event where music is played. Before the corona pandemic, information from the organizers was relied on. Since then, the company has checked the size of the area itself, for example with the help of Google Maps. As GEMA announced upon request, “significant differences were identified”, which in some cases led to higher licensing costs. The result: some German Christmas markets will not play licensed music this year.

However, contrary to reports in the German media, this has nothing to do with new rates. GEMA adds that the assessment basis for the rate has not changed since 2011: “For the use of music at city festivals, and therefore also at Christmas markets, GEMA must use the entire event area – so from wall to wall – and not the space in there. front of the sound stage area.”

GEMA sent a total of 3,350 invoices to Christmas market organizers for 2022. In 75 percent of cases there was no increase in fees; the rest saw single-digit percentage increases. According to GEMA, there were “significant deviations” in only 35 cases.

This is what it looks like in Switzerland

In Switzerland, the Christmas markets also have to pay if they want to play well-known Christmas carols. In this country, SUISA, as a cooperative, represents the copyrights of musicians. Just like in Germany, it doesn’t matter how familiar the songs playing in the background are. “Accordingly, the authors and publishers of ‘Last Christmas’ receive the same amount per second the song is played as the authors and publishers of the Gotthard song ‘Merry X-Mas,'” the request reads.

And here too, when calculating the price, it depends on how large the area of ​​the Christmas market in question is: “With an area of ​​up to 1000 square meters, the organizers of a Christmas market pay a basic fee of 19.20 francs per calendar month. If the area is between 1,000 and 3,000 square meters, it costs 75.86 francs.”

The biggest difference is that GEMA’s rates also apply to live performances, while in Switzerland there is separate billing for this. Because of this and of course because the German Christmas markets are larger, the costs for Christmas market sound systems in Switzerland are lower.

Unlike GEMA, SUISA has no control over the information provided by the organizers: “We rely on the information provided by the organizers here. However, if a market makes an unrealistic size statement, we would check this.” (anb)