www.suisa.ch Latest News

The brothers and sisters Baldenweg honoured in Locarno

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0200

Through this prize, the jury of the SUISA Foundation for Music has rewarded the Baldenweg brothers and sisters for the emotionally strong musical composition as well as for their courage and commitment. The enactment of the compositional vision was a major logistical and organisational challenge and thus set a new standard for film music in Switzerland.

More information on the film and the composers

SUISA welcomes New Executive Management

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 17:00:00 +0200

The Executive Committee will henceforth be composed of Andreas Wegelin, CEO, Vincent Salvadé, Executive Vice President, and Irène Philipp Ziebold. Andreas Wegelin has been a member of the Executive Committee since 1998, and both Irene Philipp-Ziebold and Vincent Salvadé have been members of SUISA’s management team for many years.

New CEO Appeals to Members for Solidarity

In his speech to the General Assembly last Saturday, SUISA’s new CEO Andreas Wegelin underscored the importance for the Society of its members’ contribution: “Digitisation is not merely an economic challenge for authors. In Switzerland, like elsewhere, the trend is towards ubiquitous free entertainment: music, films and the like are available everywhere and the consumer is free to help himself at no charge. I am concerned when I see our members allowing their rights to be challenged. Many companies and their employees depend for their income and livelihood on people wanting to listen to music, watch films and read books. SUISA is committed to ensuring that authors continue to receive a fair share of the turnover realised with their works. And we appeal to our members for their continued commitment and solidarity in this sense.”

SUISA Collects CHF 148mn for Music Authors and Publishers

Sat, 26 Jun 2010 13:16:00 +0200

The Board and Executive Committee of SUISA , the Swiss Cooperative Society for Authors and Publishers of Music, presented the Society’s positive results for 2009 in Bern today. Although revenues from the licensing of authors rights declined from CHF 141.3mn to CHF 136.9mn, a decrease of 3% compared with 2008, a record year, distributable income declined only by 1.7%, to CHF 119.5mn (2008: CHF 121.6mn), thanks to lower costs (minus 8% compared with 2008). Press Release (PDF)

Swiss Music Awards 2010: SUISA Members Set the Tone

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:20:00 +0100

Zurich, 2 March 2010 - SUISA, the Swiss Cooperative Society for Music Authors and Publishers, is proud of its members’ success and warmly congratulates the winners of the national 2010 Swiss Music Awards. Five national prizes were awarded at today’s ceremony in the Schiffbau in Zurich. All five went to SUISA members: in the national Best Song category, to Stress feat. Karolyn (Tous les mêmes); national Best Urban Album, to Stress (Des rois, des pions et des fous); national Best Dance Album, to DJ Antoine (2009); and national Best Newcomer, to Pegasus (Heroes & Champions) The Jury Award was awarded for the first time and went to Big Zis, also a SUISA member.

Swiss Musicians Are First Class Songwriters
“We are proud that all these successful musicians have chosen to entrust SUISA with the administration of their rights”, said Alfred Meyer, CEO of SUISA. “Switzerland has a great depth of excellent songwriters, singers or musicians."

The Swiss Music Awards are the ideal showcase for SUISA’s composer and song-writer members. As Alfred Meyer says: “You don’t have to go overseas or to England to find good songwriters. In our small country, we produce music of great calibre.”

Press release
www.swissmusicawards.ch

SUISA: New Executive Committee from 1 July 2010

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:03:00 +0100

The Board of SUISA, the Swiss Cooperative Society for Music Authors and Publishers, decided yesterday on the new composition of the Society’s Executive Committee. Two managers currently responsible for individual departments will be joining the new Executive Committee. Vincent Salvadé is the newly appointed Executive Vice President and Head of the Licensing and User Services, the department currently headed by Andreas Wegelin. Mr Salvadé will be joining the Executive Committee on 1 January 2010 and will be taking over the negotiations with user associations. Irène Philipp Ziebold will take over as Director of the Members and Distribution Department on 1 July 2010; this department is currently run by Jean Cavalli who will be leaving SUISA to become Director of SSA – Société Suisse des Auteurs.

Andreas Wegelin is appointed Chief Executive Officer
Moreover, the Board confirmed the appointment of Andreas Wegelin as Chief Executive Officer of SUISA effective on 1 July 2010. SUISA’s current CEO, Alfred Meyer, will be going into retirement at the end of June 2010. Picture links
Irène Philipp Ziebold
Vincent Salvadé
Andreas Wegelin

Switzerland @ Womex 2009

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:34:00 +0100

From 28 October to 1 November 2009, the international world and folk music scene will be meeting at Womex 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Switzerland will be there too. Come visit our stand (B3/132-133-122-123) and discover Swiss world and folk music.

Reception
On Friday, 30 October at 4.30 p.m., we cordially invite you to a cocktail reception at our stand B3/132-133-122-123.

Swiss Showcase: Da Cruz
Electro-acoustic Brazilian music from the Swiss Alps: Da Cruz will be playing at CCC Studio 2 (offWOMEX) on Friday 30 October at 00:15 a.m.

To know more about Switzerland at Womex: www.suisa.ch/switzerlandatwomex

Swiss Music Track for 2009 goes to Culturetronic

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 21:07:00 +0200

Martin Wüthrich (SUISA), Urs Schnell (director of the SUISA Foundation), Christoph Saur, Ronny Wyssmüller, Joel Meier (president of the StreetParade)

Zurich, 21.7.2009 – Over 70 composers of electronic music came to the studio for the first Swiss Music Track award. A jury of six music professionals rated the titles and selected the winner from over 100 submissions. The track «Love can Do» by Culturetronic (Ronny Wyssmüller and Christoph Saur) came in first, a nose ahead of a high-quality field. In addition to the CHF 10 000 prize awarded by the SUISA Foundation, the duo will be able to use the upcoming Street Parade as an advertising platform for its music. Culturetronic combines electronic music and live instruments. The two musicians from Neuheim and Urdorf met last year at the SAE in Zurich-Altstetten where they were both attending the EMP electronic music producer course.

Promoting Swiss Electronic Music
With this new prize, the SUISA Foundation for music is seeking to encourage creative work in the field of electronic music. “Electronic music represents a sizable share of Switzerland’s overall music production. This prize underscores the fact that, in this very field, Switzerland has a multitude of talented composers who also play an international role” says Urs Schnell, Director of the SUISA Foundation for Music.
Easton Music (Franceso Mussioli, Fabio Marchionni and Elmin Ferrati from Lugano) for their track «Adriatica» and DJ JAYBEE (Roger Zeindler) from Berikon for «I know» came second and third respectively. The awards ceremony was held before a star-studded public on Tuesday, 21 July 2009 at the Zurich Club Le Bal.

The songs can be played on www.streetparade.com.

Culturetronic
Easton
Jaybee

all winners: Francesco Muzzioli, Elmin Ferrati, Christoph Saur, Ronny Wyssmüller, DJ JAYBEE

SUISA Demanding Royalties on Music Phones

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:21:00 +0200

Together with ProLitteris, SSA, Suissimage and SWISSPERFORM, SUISA is demanding a new tariff for private copying of protected works on blank carriers in music phones and multimedia devices with built-in phone functions.

SUISA negotiated the new tariff with

SWICO, the Swiss association for ICT companies (Schweizerische Wirtschaftsverband der Informations-, Kommunikations- und Organisationstechnik)
Swissstream, the Swiss federation of streaming providers
DUN, the umbrella association for rights’ users
economiesuisse
the consumer organisations SKS, KF, FRC and acsi

The negotiations have been ongoing since summer 2008 but have failed to produce mutually acceptable results. Therefore, on behalf of all the Swiss copyright societies, SUISA has filed a tariff proposal with the Federal Arbitration Commission. The Commission has until September 2009 to examine the proposal. Too Much for Industry, Too Little for Authors Several studies show that music phones are used to store music in the very same way as MP3 and multimedia players. Private copying of protected works is allowed in Switzerland. In exchange, the authors of those works are entitled to fair remuneration. That remuneration has to be charged to the manufacturers and importers of the relevant devices. There are currently about 40 different cell phone models specifically designed and advertised for use as music and multimedia players. Some negotiating partners took the view that the proposed rate of CHF 0.80 per GB was too high. But that rate takes account of the fact that each gigabyte of memory can store about 200 good quality music files (5MB). At the proposed rate, the authors and lyricists would be receiving 0.4 cents per song. The opponents of the levy argue that it would increase the price of the devices. Under the proposed tariff, the levy for an iPhone with 16 GB memory would equal CHF 12.80, i.e. less than 1% of the listed price (CHF 999.-). This tends to show that opponents are more concerned about maximising the profit margin for the hardware industry than they are about reducing retail prices for the end consumer. The copyright societies regret that cell phone manufacturers and importers continue to reject fair remuneration for authors and creators. Annual Report 2008 (pdf-file)

SUISA Announces Record Results for Music Authors and Publishers

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 16:33:00 +0200

Zurich/Bern, 20.6.2009 – In Bern today, SUISA’s President Hans Ulrich Lehmann reported exceptionally good results for the 2008 financial year. Licensing revenues increased 7% to CHF 141.2 million (2007: CHF 132.2 million). Thanks to the good results, administrative costs for performance and broadcasting rights were 10% lower. The record distributable income of CHF 121.6 million was essentially due to three factors: last year, income from performance rights increased by 5% to CHF 37.6 million thanks to the significant contribution of a few successful mammoth events. The new tariff for blank media carriers on electronic devices such as iPods and set-top boxes generated CHF 8.7 million in additional revenue. Finally, foreign income was unusually high, on the one hand because of the highly successful foreign tours of a few SUISA members, and on the other because our Spanish sister society SGAE was finally allowed to transfer long-blocked payments. “Last year’s results were extraordinary for several reasons. Such results are unlikely to recur and we have already budgeted lower revenues for the current year”, says CEO Alfred Meyer commenting the financial statements.

Sound Carriers in Crisis – Online Business shows a slight increase
Sound carrier sales continue to fall following the trend of recent years. This was also reflected in falling sound carrier licensing revenues of CHF 2.6 million, a decline of 14% over the prior year. Income from online business is increasing but still modest. The additional revenues from online sales (CHF 125’440 more than the prior year) only partly compensate the loss in sound carrier revenues.

Visibly a Cooperative
SUISA’s General Assembly also approved a change in name. The General Assembly followed the proposal submitted by the Board composed of the representative of many categories of music, professional groups and geographic regions. Instead of “SUISA, the Swiss Society for the Rights of Authors of Musical Works”, the English name is henceforth “SUISA, Cooperative Society of Music Authors and Publishers”.
“A change in name was necessary on legal grounds, because of SUISA’s cooperative status. So we took the opportunity to simplify and clarify the name”, explained Hans Ulrich Lehmann, composer and President of SUISA.

Further Information:
Martin Wüthrich
Head of Communication, SUISA
Tél. +41 44 485 65 03

Popkomm 2009 cancelled

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:10:00 +0200

Berlin, 19 June 2009 – Amid continuing difficulties within the industry and in agreement with the Association of Independent Sound Media Companies (VUT) and the Association of the German Music Industry (BVMI), Popkomm GmbH has decided to postpone the music industry platform Popkomm for one year. Popkomm will be taking place again in Berlin in summer 2010, with a different general concept. Managing Director of Popkomm GmbH Dr. Ralf Kleinhenz: “A situation that was becoming clear early this year at Midem in Cannes also seems to be affecting Popkomm in Berlin. Despite positive reactions to the new event location and a satisfactory number of bookings by exhibitors, because of the economic situation we anticipate a considerable decline in trade visitor attendance. Out of responsibility towards the exhibitors we have therefore decided to postpone Popkomm for one year”.

Popkomm