Every year again, at Christmas, the “stade Zeit” begins, as they say in Bavaria. Around the festival, people reflect on things like charity and inner contemplation, but sometimes in the evening they go to a Christmas market for two or three mulled wines, while “Last Christmas” or “Jingle Bells” plays in the background. Although with music that is no longer a given. Some cities proclaimed the “Day of Silence” at their Christmas markets this Monday after they were billed by the Society for Musical Performance and Mechanical Reproduction Rights, or Gema for short, for what they considered to be too high of a bill. They skip the music for several hours in protest. No choirs or musical groups perform on their stages.
The markets in Dresden, Erfurt, Magdeburg, Leipzig, Hanover and Rostock are taking part in the protest. According to the organizers, Gema fees there had increased six to seven times over the past year. In Regensburg, Upper Palatinate, this situation even led to a premiere. At the start of the more than 200-year-old Christmas market, the famous Domspatzen only sang songs that don’t cost a fee, i.e. by performers who have been dead for at least 70 years. Then the copyright expires. One of the songs was written by George Frideric Handel.
Regensburg would have to pay 15,000 euros
This time in Regensburg they are completely foregoing paid music. City councilor Walter Boeckh also explains the reason on the phone. Until recently, the city only specified a “sound area” of 180 square meters to Gema, which was always accepted. The annual Gema costs were around 2200 euros. But now Gema is using the “event area” of 4,000 square meters as a basis, meaning the costs had increased more than sevenfold to 15,000 euros last year. Even if the flute ensemble from the children’s home plays on stage, it costs 600 euros a day. The amateur musicians who play at the market, on the other hand, would have to be content with purely symbolic fees. In Regensburg the costs are perceived as “disproportionate”.
But Gema rejects the allegations. Since a ruling by the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) in 2011, the fees have always been calculated based on the event space. Gema negotiated the tariff, which also applies to city festivals and other events, with the “Federal Association of Music Organizers” (BVMV) in 2018 and has not changed since then. The German Association of Cities was also at the negotiating table; Gema criticizes that it did not adequately inform the cities about the application of the tariff. The fact that costs are rising significantly in some places is because many markets have grown significantly. Some operators have knowingly or unintentionally provided false information: “Some large, high-turnover markets have reported to us areas that are significantly too small,” said Georg Oeller from the Gema board of directors to NDR. Unlike before, this is now increasingly checked through random samples.
The classics remain free of charge
Of course, the proportionality of all this can be debated. In any case, Gema does not consider the costs to be particularly expensive. Gema calculates that they amount to the equivalent of 2.5 cents per visitor, with each person spending an average of 18 euros in sales at a Christmas market. Christmas markets are economically relevant events, the music increases the mood and also sales. It is appropriate to also honor the achievements of the composers and lyricists. In addition, Gema has reached an amicable agreement with most of the more than 3,300 stores nationwide. But not with Regensburg. People there would rather save money on music than on other important projects. “As is well known, public coffers are becoming tighter,” says City Councilor Boeckh.
By the way, Christmas markets like those in Regensburg are not completely music-free. The individual stand operators have their own agreements with Gema. “They play canned music and pay 45 euros a day for it,” says city councilor Boeckh. So far he has not noticed a major influence on the mood on the market. “People are just as happy as before.” And if something is missing: There are no GEMA fees for centuries-old Christmas hits such as “O Tannenbaum” (1615) or “You little children, come” (1808) – at least if a choir or a singer sings them live using the original sheet music.