Music and videos on the internet

Yes. Basically, it makes no difference whether or not a musical work is used commercially on the internet. Swiss copyright law does not distinguish between commercial and non-commercial usages but between private and public usages, whereby public usages are generally subject to the payment of royalties.

Audio: Free offers 

First and foremost, the provider. The provider is the natural or legal person who places a protected title on an internet server and thus makes it publicly available. As the provider, he is also responsible for the website’s contents and must obtain all the necessary licences.
The service provider is secondly responsible and may be made liable. In Switzerland, contrary to the EU, there are no specific rules governing the liability of providers, and the general rules apply (participation in copyright infringement).

A web presence encompasses all the websites of a company or an individual on the internet. Different addresses (domains) qualify as different web presences. Each social media profile (Facebook, YouTube etc.) qualifies as a separate web presence. 

No. According to Swiss law, intranet qualifies as a public usage, not as private usage. If protected content is placed on an intranet, it must be licensed at the online tariff rates.

Yes. But in order to do so, depending on the type of licensing, you have to exclude certain rights from the rights administration agreement signed with SUISA. This enables you to licence the excluded rights directly. 

Since you make music in videos publicly available on the internet, the authors have a legal right to remuneration. This is collected by SUISA and passed on to the authors.

Yes. SUISA is responsible for managing the making-available rights for videos intended for the public in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. As a rule, these rights cannot be acquired abroad. If your partner abroad exclusively uses copyright- and royalty-free music (which must be legally ascertained in each individual case), no fee is payable. However, many providers claim to offer music that is purportedly copyright and royalty-free and which, contrary to their own assurances, is not actually copyright or royalty free. For this reason, it is worthwhile verifying that only copyright and royalty-free music is actually offered.

If you only know the total number of videos (regardless of whether or not they contain music), you can tell us this total number. Based on experience, we assume 75% of all videos contain music and we will accordingly reduce the total number of your videos by 25%.

You report to us the average number of videos made available per year on the reference date of your choice. Based on your report, you will then receive an invoice for the current year. If, in the following year, the number of videos changes and moves into a different fee bracket, you should let us know by 28 February. (PDF MoW Licensing Terms and Conditions) Adjustments can be made once a year. Please report the change using the application form or via email.

From the following year onwards, no fee is owed.

If the authors are not members of a collecting society such as SUISA (or Germany’s GEMA, for example), you do not have to pay anything. Otherwise, you will have to pay a fee for making the music available. If the authors are members of a copyright  management organisation, you can only settle the synchronisation rights, and in certain cases the production and reproduction rights, directly.

We take the average value of the production costs of all the videos (the production budget of all the videos divided by the number of videos).

Yes. Videos that are only made available on an intranet are subject to the same licensing obligation as those made available on a website or on social media.

Yes. As the author of the music or lyrics of a musical work, you alone are entitled to decide how your work is used. But if you have transferred part of your copyrights (for example, to SUISA), you should bear the following in mind:

• If you are a member of SUISA, you can only publish your work without paying royalties on your own website. If you use your own music on your website, you should, however, notify SUISA to avoid SUISA invoicing you. Link: Waiver form 
• If your work is published on a third-party website (e.g. Soundcloud, Facebook, YouTube, etc.), the owner of the website or the person responsible for its publishing must obtain a licence from SUISA and pay the corresponding fee. 

There is no general rule authorising the use of music free of charge. Naming the composer does not replace a copyright licence.

No, because we assume that the CD production was already duly licensed. But it is important to indicate the name of the original author in the metadata. SUISA invoices the digital service providers (iTunes, Amazon, Spotify etc.) directly. 

If you are a member of SUISA, you have to declare all your compositions to SUISA so that it can collect remuneration for the downloading and streaming of your works. 

An arrangement - termed a "derived work" in copyright law - is a variation of a work which satisfies the creative standards qualifying it for copyright protection in its own right. Pursuant to Article 3 of the Federal Copyright Act, the production, publication and exploitation of an arrangement requires the consent of the author of the arrangement.

No. Barcodes are only required for the physical sale of sound recordings. For online commerce, you only need the ISRC code.

Information sheet (in German) "Codes, what codes?"

Productions must always be registered before the audiovisual recording is produced.

WebTV is a service offering continuous programmes that are not time-delayed. The user cannot influence the programme playback.

With Video on Demand (VoD), the viewer can choose when to watch a programme: the viewer can start, pause and stop the playback of a programme at any time. Video on Demand also includes videos embedded in websites.

Video on Demand 

Videos and websites presenting the same content in several languages on the same domain qualify as a single video or web presence.

In practice, the uploading person will be sent a warning with a request to delete the video or have it deleted. In certain cases, labels may demand damages for the unauthorised online use. In the case of well-known songs, it may not even be possible to obtain permission to upload. With certain providers, the videos are simply deleted. It depends on the individual case, and on the individual provider and rightholder. 

SUISA can licence all the rights (mechanical rights, worldwide rights for making available , synchronisation rights, neighbouring rights) in what is known as mood music.  SUISA maintains corresponding agreements with various publishers of mood music. For further information, please click here.

SUISA licenses the mechanical rights (production) and the right to make audiovisual productions available. But the production process involves other rights. These are synchronisation rights, generally held by the publisher, on the one hand, and recording rights, held by the label, on the other. To obtain these rights, one normally has to pay the corresponding remuneration.

These are two distinct forms of use. The mechanical rights are federally regulated and are subject to a tariff. Making available is not federally regulated and is subject to its own set of rules. Both uses are public uses within the meaning of the Copyright Act. 

Package deals are possible if the customer only uses a single offer, e.g. if the customer only ever uses music from the same mood music catalogue, or the same music title for all videos. This must be considered on a case-by-case basis. 

No, if a podcast is only made available via conventional platforms like Spotify and not on your own website, only the reproduction (production) needs to be licensed. SUISA licenses the making-available of the music directly with the platforms concerned.

The minimum fee of CHF 34.20 applies to all the music in all the podcasts produced during a six-month reporting period provided such podcasts contain less than 24 minutes of protected music altogether. If the 24-minute duration is exceeded, a fee of CHF 1.40 per minute of protected music applies.

It makes no difference whether or not the podcast is profit-oriented. The music in a podcast must be licensed in any event.

No. Indicating the names of the rightholders does not entitle you to use protected music without the requisite licence.

No. SUISA only licenses the music in podcasts. Podcasts without music do not have to be registered with SUISA.

The fee for the reproduction of a podcast is only due once. Its making-available online has to be licensed as long as the podcast is available online (six-monthly billing).

A series of podcast episodes can be registered in advance.

The following rights need to be taken into account:

• Synchronisation rights

The synchronisation right is the right to combine a piece of music with another media product, e.g. to add music to a podcast. As a rule, this right is managed by the publisher or the author of the work and SUISA cannot issue a licence. Therefore, the synchronisation rights for the title concerned must be obtained directly from the relevant publisher or author.

• Neighbouring rights

Neighbouring rights in this context means the right to re-record a piece of music from the original recording (e.g. a CD or an MP3 file). Neighbouring rights are generally managed by the producer of the sound recording (sound recording producer, record company or label). You therefore need to apply directly to the producer of the sound recording for the right to re-record the chosen title. Depending on the circumstances, Audion GmbH (https://www.audion-music.ch/) can help. Audion GmbH is an independent agency for music rights; it intermediates and licenses selected uses of music recordings.

For radio and television broadcasters who offer podcasts of programmes previously broadcast by them containing music licensed under Common Tariff S or Tariff A, the production and making available online on their website is already covered. However, podcasts which focus on a musical theme and in which music takes the foreground (e.g. podcasts specifically about bands or artists, festivals or concerts, music specials and the like) are an exception. Podcasts with a musical theme must be additionally licensed by the broadcaster in accordance with the podcast licensing model.

The rule that music in podcasts from radio and television broadcasters is only covered by the CT S and Tariff A if the podcast is dedicated to a non-musical topic stems from Article 22c CopA:

Art. 22c Making available broadcast musical works

1 The right to make non-theatrical works of music contained in a broadcast available through a radio or television programme may only be asserted by the authorised collective rights management organisations if:

a. the broadcast was primarily produced by the broadcasting organisation or at its request;

b. the broadcast was dedicated to a non-musical topic which took precedence over the music and was announced prior to the broadcast in the usual manner; and

c. making it available does not impair the sale of music on phonograms or through online offers by third parties.

2 Subject to the requirements of paragraph 1, the right of reproduction for the purpose of making available may only be asserted by the authorised collective rights management organisations.

Since the decisive point is the topic of the broadcast or podcast, the duration of the music in the podcast is irrelevant.

Two examples by way of illustration:

Example 1:

Radio 24 is broadcasting a Rolling Stones special. There is a lot of talking with a few short extracts of their songs.

Radio 24 will make the broadcast available as a podcast on its website.

The music in the podcast is not covered by the CT S licence and has to be licensed under our podcast licensing model.

Example 2:

Radio 24 is broadcasting a special report about the war in Ukraine. The programme contains short music sequences.

Radio 24 will make the broadcast available as a podcast on its website.

The music in the podcast is covered by the CT S licence.

Broadcasters are generally aware of these circumstances which rarely give rise to discussion.

Yes. The video production must first be licensed under tariff VN. As part of this process, you are issued a SUISA number. Then when the video is made available on the internet, the terms and conditions for online advertising campaigns are applicable. When registering to make the video available, you will be asked for the SUISA number. For further information.

Image films are designed to cast a positive light on a company while commercials are designed to promote sales.

Live streaming is (as a rule) the direct transmission of music or events disseminated live via the internet.

In principle, the remuneration is charged as a percentage of revenues. If there are no revenues, remuneration will be based on the total costs, or a minimum fee will be applied. 

For more information and the licensing terms and conditions for livestreams: Livestreams of events

As a private individual, you do not need a licence from SUISA to place non-commercial livestreams on YouTube and/or Facebook/Instagram because SUISA has direct agreements with both platforms (YouTube and Facebook/Instagram). In this context, non-commercial means that no money is charged for the livestream and that it is not produced by or for a company. Charity actions whose proceeds go entirely to the needy, as well as religious services and association events qualify as non-commercial provided no money is charged.

On social media: whenever money is charged for the livestream, or if it is streamed by or for a company.

On your own website: as a rule, whenever you use music protected by copyright.
Exception: a performing artist (e.g. a band) which only ever plays its own compositions (“own use”).

In the case of objections, you are often told who the objecting rightholders are. In that case, it is advisable to contact them: that is the best way of finding out why the notice appeared.

YouTube treats archived livestreams in the same way as any other uploaded videos: rightholders can claim the content of the videos, thus enabling advertising. YouTube then shares the advertising revenues with the rightholders. This is perfectly admissible: you can only avoid it by using material that you wrote or produced yourself.

That depends: if you do not play music from a recording (and only stream concerts, for example), you can assume that the stream will not be blocked. However, SUISA is only responsible for copyrights and not for recording rights which are represented by the labels. Therefore, if you play music from recordings, you need to contact the labels to avoid blocking.

If you are planning to stream commercially available recordings, you must expect the livestream to be blocked. For the authors rights, a licence has to be obtained in accordance with the livestream licensing terms and conditions: PDF Licensing terms and conditions Livestreams 

1. From your organ/live/concert
   a) on social media: the rights are generally regulated by contracts with the platforms. You do not need a licence from SUISA.
   b) on your own website: you must obtain a licence from SUISA in accordance with the livestream licensing terms and conditions 
    
2. From recordings
   a) on social media: you should expect the stream to be blocked (see FAQ 6)
   b) on your own website: in addition to the authors’ rights, you need licences from the labels.

Yes, you must obtain a licence in accordance with the livestream licensing terms and conditions: PDF Licensing terms and conditions Livestreams 

Moreover, DJ sets also contain recordings; the record companies or “labels” hold the recording rights.

As a rule, the labels do not allow DJ sets on social media and will block them.

To livestream on your own website, you will need to license the recording rights directly from the labels beforehand. Without a licence, you will be infringing those rights and may expose yourself to prosecution.

For the time being, to the best of SUISA’s knowledge, Mixcloud is the only platform that has concluded a contract covering DJ livestreaming with most major labels. Therefore, it is advisable to livestream your DJ sets only there.