BERLIN (CelebrityAccess) — The German collection society Gesellschaft für musikalische Aufführungs- und mechanische Vervielfältigungsrechte, mercifully known as GEMA, revealed that it generated more than €1bn in revenue for 2018.
According to GEMA, of the € 1,019.2 million it earned in 2018, 859.5 million is in line to be distributed to its members and rightsholders worldwide.
While impressive, the results for GEMA in 2018 were about 55 million euros lower than 2017’s results, partially due to the loss of other revenue streams.
Although the 2018 result was about 55 million euros lower than in the previous year, among other things, high special income from the year 2017 has been eliminated. Adjusted for this one-time effect, this represents an increase of 10.3 percent. The revenues are total expenses of €159, EUR 7 million, which is down slightly from 2017 when GEMA reported costs of €160.7 million. D
According to GEMA, 2018’s results were driven by increases in revenues from Internet and streaming services which improved from €35.5 million in 2017 to €105.5 million in 2018.
Physical was down by 15% in 2018, sliding from €96.1 million in 2017 to €81 million in 2018.
All other collection areas saw little change year-over-year, GEMA said. The field service contributed €388.5 million versus €380.5 million in 2017 to premium income, and radio and television €301.8 million compared with €294.2 million in 2017.
“The very gratifying revenue performance in the digital music confirms that the internet uses more music than ever before. However, this development must not hide the fact that there is still a big gap between the fee for the music authors and the revenues of large online platforms that make profits from the use of copyrighted works,” emphasizes noted Dr. Heker.
