Corona Emergency Relief: GVL supports producers of sound recordings with advance payments
With the advance payments to its producers of sound recordings, which are starting right now, GVL is making a further contribution to the financial support of its rightsholders. By doing so, it intends to counteract the acute economic effects of the corona pandemic, especially on independent labels.
In consultation with its committee representatives, GVL has decided to support all eligible producers of sound recordings with an advance payment on the initial distribution for the 2019 usage year, which is not scheduled until September 2020. The advance payments amount to a total of up to 46 million Euros.
Guido Evers, Managing Director of GVL comments: "The effects of the corona pandemic are hitting the entire music industry hard. Many of our manufacturers have uncertain months ahead of them. It is therefore all the more important to me to provide help here as soon as possible. Rapid assistance is the order of the day, before the announced state support measures take effect. I am very pleased that we are able to provide tangible and swift help with these prepayments that are currently arriving at our manufacturers' accounts."
Dr Florian Drücke, Chairman of the Board of the German Music Industry Association (BVMI), and shareholder of GVL, says: "With its decision to launch advance payments, GVL is now providing help to find a swift and straightforward solution, which we support very much. These immediately benefit the producers with the relevant entitlements and create an additional financial buffer in the short term. The money is already being paid out these days; a valuable aid measure in the difficult and extremely challenging situation in which companies are currently finding themselves.”
In addition to these advance payments, producers of sound recordings who are exclusively working as freelancers, can benefit from the "corona emergency relief", just like performers can. GVL will release up to 4 million Euros under its social grants umbrella for this immediate aid (www.gvl.de/coronahilfe). This emergency measure, which is mainly aimed at performers who have fallen on hard times, is also financed equally by the producers. For the record labels in GVL this is a very conscious act of solidarity in times when the sector has to stand together.
Current assistance for performers of GVL:
In addition to the "corona emergency relief" (www.gvl.de/coronahilfe), which has already received several thousand applications that are being processed with the highest priority, we are also working with our highest dedication to pay out advances to performers.
In order to be able to really help the performers with substantial advances, GVL must carry out solid estimates for future distribution years. This requires more preparation time than the advance calculation for a manufacturer distribution. More specific details on this will follow shortly.Independent of this, more than 20 million Euros will be paid by way of supplementary distributions to the performers by mid-April.
About GVL:
Those who render artistic performances or create the respective financial basis for the latter must receive money for the exploitation of their performances. GVL, the society for the administration of neighbouring rights, captures and manages such exploitations.
GVL pays the fees it collects on a fiduciary basis from radio and TV stations, for example, and for the public performance (e.g. in restaurants or cafés) to its members in the form of a remuneration. Approximately 160,000 performers, producers of sound recordings and audiovisual recordings, music and music video clip producers as well as event organisers have placed their trust in GVL on a global level - and thus make GVL one of the biggest collective management organisations for neighbouring rights in the world. At the same time, the GVL represents the largest classical repertoire worldwide.
Associates of GVL are the German Orchestra Association (DOV), the Federal Association of the Music Industry (BVMI) as well as the Federal Acting Association (BFFS).