GEMA (Gesellschaft für musikalische Aufführungs) is the music artists representative group in Germany and the iron fist with which it rules the music industry is the only thing I don’t miss about Berlin.
Anyone who has spent any time in Germany will have experienced the frustration of trying to watch a video on YouTube only to find out ‘GEMA has not granted the respective music publishing rights’.
Even videos uploaded by the artists themselves are often blocked.
A hatred of GEMA is universal and protests about increases in performance fees have been frequent in 2012.
I hadn’t realized how firmly GEMA had its grip on music rights in the country … and yes, I’ve also encountered the YouTube frustration.
Let’s not forget that in this case the problem (or the hold-up) is coming from YouTube. While GEMA is in charge of protecting the rights of the creators and owners of the musical content, YouTube is unwilling to pay for the right to play and to monetize on the music. I’m writing this while I too am incredibly frustrated about this situation – and don’t understand why YouTube, GEMA and the labels can’t sit down and find a solution. Of course, because it’s all about money.
In the meantime I go to Vimeo, MyVideo, DailyMotion, Spotify and other sites where I can listen to, watch and share songs… and my sympathy for YouTube and their practices just keeps waning…
They even blocked a video from my daughter funeral service. It is the only country in the world that does that. Fascism is still rampant in some organisations.
So, our relatives in Germany can’t see the service. WE asked one of the artist and he is frustrated as we are.