Legendary Berlin Clubs Face Closure

Found on The Quietus on Monday, 23 July 2012
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GEMA, the organisation responsible for collecting mechanical copyright fees on behalf of some 65,000 artists in Germany, have announced a price hike which could spell the end for some of Berlin's most revered clubs. If the changes go unchallenged, the legendary Berghain - facing a fee hike of 1,400% - will shut after its NYE party this year; the similarly monolithic Watergate is likely to go the same way, claiming its mechanical copyright fees will be increased from €10,000 per year to €200,000.

Der Spiegel calculates that, "for an average Berlin club with 410 square meters of space, charging €8 entrance and running two events per week from 10 p.m. until 5. a.m, the price paid to GEMA will rise from the current €14,500 to some €95,000 - an increase of 560%”.

High profile artists including Alec Empire, Blawan, The Black Dog, Mike Paradinas and Steffi have spoken out against GEMA's plans.

In 2009 they revised their fees for hosting music on YouTube, asking for a rate 50 times that of the PRS; as a result, the music of many major artists still can't be accessed on the site by those inside Germany.

Actually, that's pretty good. People will get aware of the GEMA problem and when the clubs close, they will get angry. All that only increases the problems which the GEMA will have to face, along with it's attitude towards Youtube. The GEMA is just too greedy; and when even the artists complain, it should realize that the approach is wrong.