Apply for a licence

Apply here for a licence  to use music in your online campaign

To produce a commercial for the television, movie theatre or the internet, you must obtain a licence from SUISA.

How to proceed:

Please fill in the following form and send it to us so that we can assign you a SUISA number. The number serves to identify an audiovisual recording production. For the further use of the audiovisual recording you must, as the principal, communicate the SUISA number to the company concerned (e.g for broadcasting as TV commercials).

Online advertising campaigns

One or more commercials placed on third-party websites qualify as an online advertising campaign. You need to obtain the production right (Tariff VN) for each commercial, as well as a licence for making available.

For more detailed information, please see the below "Licensing terms and conditions for online (advertising) campaigns".

FAQ: Frequently asked questions

  • 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.

  • The Copyright Act protects all musical works of an original nature created by individuals. Apart from music, other acoustic works of an original nature, characterised by the use of sounds and not notes, are protected. All these works are protected regardless of their value or purpose. A symphony and a radio jingle enjoy equal protection under the Copyright Act. SUISA only manages what are known as “small rights”, i.e. the rights to non theatrical music. This includes:

    • non theatrical musical works, with or without lyrics, including oratorios;
    • concert versions of theatrical (dramatic) musical works;
    • dance musical works which can be used without dance;
    • excerpts from theatrical musical works which do not comprise a complete act and are not longer than 25 minutes in the case of a radio broadcast, or 15 minutes in the case of a television broadcast.
    • musical works in films or other audiovisual or multimedia works (except in the case of films of dramatic musical works).

    SUISA is responsible for performance, broadcasting and retransmission rights, public broadcasting rights, the right to make music available (online rights), mechanical rights (i.e. the production of sound and audiovisual recordings, including audiofiles) and blank carrier and rental rights.

The following might also be of interest to you:

  • What is production music?

    Production music (also referred to as library, archive, mood or stock music) is music from catalogues which various publishers offer for the specific purpose of adding sound to film and sound or audiovisual recordings. These music catalogues are offered on special carriers and, increasingly, on specialised websites.