Guides

Music publishing in Germany

How music publishing actually works in Germany: who claims which rights, what the national copyright system does, and what it takes for a publisher to set up and collect.

Who claims which rights

Performance and mechanical: GEMA. Sync: direct.

Copyright registration in Germany

Automatic under Berne; no registry.

Setting up to claim publishing rights

GEMA accepts foreign publishers (admission ~€180 plus ~€100/year) with no nationality restriction; registrations flow through ICE. German administration is famously exacting about publisher documentation — chains of title and writer contracts should be in order before joining. Sub-publishing remains the norm for catalogs without German-speaking administration.

The societies

GEMA · ICE — each linked page covers the society’s history and how registrations reach it.

Rules, fees, and society requirements change, and none of this is legal advice — confirm current requirements with the society or local counsel before committing. Registrations bound for Germany can be checked free on the validator · more: setting up country by country · which societies accept CWR.

Check a CWR file free — errors and warnings tied to the exact line, nothing stored: cwrcheck.com.