GVL, Germany’s neighbouring-rights society, pays record labels for radio and TV plays by the broadcast minute, but only for tracks the label has registered one by one in its label.gvl portal. Plays nobody claims within about three years are shared out among the rights holders who did register.
Neighbouring rights means the rights in a recording and its performance, separate from the songwriting copyright GEMA collects. GVL represents more than 15,000 producers.
What GVL pays, and what it does not
GVL collected €257.9 million in 2025, with an administrative cost ratio of 9.2 percent. The parts that matter most to a label:
- Broadcasting (radio, TV, retransmission): €117.0 million, up 18.0 percent.
- Public performance (bars, shops, venues): €51.4 million.
- Private copying, adjusted for one-off payments: €63.1 million.
- Money from foreign societies: €9.8 million.
Spotify is missing from that list. GVL’s producer FAQ says it manages only statutory remuneration rights. Interactive streaming is an exclusive right, so that money reaches you through your distributor, not through GVL.
How a play becomes a payment
GVL checks more than 34 million broadcast minutes a year and pays per track, per minute. To be matched, a track needs these fields:
- Title, performer, ISRC and playing time
- GVL genre code, recording country and recording year
- First release date and the date your ownership starts
- Composer, for classical works only
ISRC means International Standard Recording Code, the ID for one recording. GVL does not issue them; your distributor or, in Germany, the industry body BVMI does.
The label code (LC) is a free six-digit number that GVL has issued since 1977. German stations usually ask for it when a record is sent to them as a promo. You get one only by signing a producer agreement, which is also free; a performer contract with GVL does not count.
The three-year clock
The first payment for a usage year arrives within nine months of that year ending. On 8 September 2026, GVL paid the 2025 initial distribution, matching 91.30 percent of the money. In the same run, top-ups for 2022 to 2024 reallocated more than €77 million.
Labels have three years from the end of the financial year of the initial distribution to register tracks and settle disputes. After that, money GVL could not match goes into supplementary payouts to other rights holders.
GVL must publish what it cannot match. Its unallocated-usage list for 2024 alone runs to a 301.8 MB PDF. You can claim entries in label.gvl by ISRC.
Where labels lose money
Ownership conflicts
Two claims on the same ISRC trigger a conflict. So does the same artist, title and duration when the claims overlap on dates, territory, or shares adding up to more than 100 percent. GVL freezes the overlapping period and will not arbitrate. Conflicts still open at the final distribution lose their money to the pro-rata pool.
The start date
GVL tells labels to backdate the start of ownership to when stations began receiving promos, because stations often play a record before release day. A start date set to release day can leave those early plays unpaid.
The rights profile
Each upload declares Worldwide, Germany or DACH (Germany, Austria and Switzerland). GVL has more than 70 representation agreements abroad and charges nothing extra for them. It can only collect abroad if your profile matches your mandate and your tracks are uploaded by 31 December of the year in question.
Checklist for a label with German airplay
- Sign the free GVL producer agreement and take the label code.
- Register every ISRC that could reach German radio, TV or venues.
- Backdate ownership to the first promo date, not release day.
- Check the unallocated-usage lists once a year.
- Settle conflicts before a year’s final distribution.
Because GVL matches on ISRC, a distributor that gives each track one stable ISRC and one owner of record, as InterSpace Distribution does through DDEX (Digital Data Exchange, the industry metadata standard), turns registration into one upload. For context on Germany’s wider market, see our breakdown of 2.3 percent growth in German recorded music. For other ways radio royalties get split, compare the Philippine performer split and Brazil’s ISRC approval rules.
