Berlin’s Most Wanted: Music convention runs this week, but the practical live-music question lasts longer than any conference: who files the songs played onstage? In Germany, a concert licence alone does not identify the writers to pay. GEMA says the event, invoice, setlist and registered works must all line up before its live distribution can include a performance.
For an independent writer or label, the working rule is simple: collect the setlist at the show, confirm that it reached GEMA within six weeks, and reconcile the payment after the following year’s main distribution. A distributor’s streaming statement is a separate record; it will not repair a missing concert setlist.
The six-week clock belongs to the organiser
GEMA requires a setlist no later than six weeks after a concert, festival or other live-music event. Its My setlists guidance puts the filing duty on the organiser, who can delegate the job to the performing band through a portal link. Delegation is useful, but an artist should still obtain proof of submission.
That distinction matters on a mixed bill. The promoter may have paid for the venue’s licence while nobody supplied the actual repertoire. GEMA says it uses the setlist to identify the composers, lyricists and publishers who should receive the live-performance money. A ticket receipt or a recording of the show may help reconstruct what happened, but neither is the setlist GEMA asks the organiser to file.
Register the work before trying to match the show
The setlist needs to point to the right composition, not merely to a recording title. GEMA’s claim checklist asks for the event date and time, organiser and venue addresses, performer, works played, work numbers or versions where known, and composer names. Keep a copy of these details in the tour settlement folder while the people who know them are reachable.
For GEMA’s annual live distribution, works used during a calendar year normally need registration or corrections by 31 January of the next year. GEMA lists 31 March for submission of the prior year’s live usage reports and a main live distribution by 1 June. Those annual cutoffs are accounting gates; they do not replace the organiser’s six-week setlist duty after each show.
A useful internal check is to compare the composition’s writer and publisher shares with the performing repertoire before the tour starts. If a title has multiple versions, identify the performed one. That small administrative step gives the collecting society a cleaner match and gives your label a record to audit later. InterSpace Distribution’s recording-side reporting can sit beside that record, but the composition claim still belongs in the relevant rights workflow.
Missed payment: use the claim window
If the live statement omits a show, first ask whether the setlist and work registration were received. GEMA tells members to submit a missing setlist through My setlists, then use its claim process with the event identifiers and repertoire. Its stated deadline for a missing live-performance royalty claim is nine months after the main distribution date.
The dates make the audit concrete. GEMA’s 1 June 2026 main distribution for 2025 use carries a 1 March 2027 claim deadline. Do not treat that as a universal deadline for every future statement; put the actual distribution date and the applicable claim date into your calendar when the statement arrives.
For shows outside Germany, GEMA members can submit setlists through the same portal for forwarding to sister societies, while the local society handles its own collection and rules. The broader principle travels: Australia’s live-performance reports and Brazil’s concert setlists show why a tour needs a rights ledger as well as a ticket ledger. Build the filing step into every show settlement, then check what actually paid.
