German DJs Protest GEMA’s Proposed Tax on Digital Music Collections

Wolfgang Spahr
·1 min read

Hundreds of German DJs demonstrated last week in front of the local offices of the German collection society GEMA in Dortmund and Munich against what they consider new and unfair DJ licensing fees. In Dortmund, the demonstration was spontaneous with some 100 DJs protesting; while in Munich some 500 DJs and members of the German Piracy party, who oppose existing German copyright laws, demonstrated in front of the City Hall on the Munich Marien-Platz.

The protests are in reaction to a license fee the German collection society GEMA announced on April 1 for DJs who play and store songs digitally. The license fee is .13 euros (.17 cents) per title or €125 ($163) for a collection of 1,000 tracks. An additional 500 tracks  can be purchased for €50 ($65). Since most DJs store some 15,000 music-files on their hard drives, a typical DJ in Germany would have to pay GEMA some 1,500 Euros (about $2,000) per year.

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GEMA proposed new fees on German discos which then too sparked protests, including clubs shutting down in early-July.

 

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