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Increasing copyright fees have resulted in a lack of carols at Christmas markets in Germany.<\/p>\n
GEMA, Germany’s copyright organisation, has significantly raised the fees for playing Christmas carols over loudspeakers – as a result, some Christmas markets have chosen to do away with music entirely.<\/p>\n
A Berlin Christmas market organiser Jens Schmidt said: “This year there will be no music at the Christmas market because GEMA increased the prices by more than 1,000 per cent.<\/p>\n
“We can’t afford it, our market sellers can’t afford it and the guests won’t want to pay for it.”<\/p>\n
Organisers are not the only people upset at the lack of festive tunes this year.<\/p>\n
Read More <\/strong> Europe\u2019s best Christmas market is iconic<\/strong><\/p>\n French student L\u00e8uih Morgiah told Euronews: “A Christmas without songs is not Christmas, it’s not as festive as you would expect.”<\/p>\n According to Gema, the tariffs and fees have remained unchanged in recent years.<\/p>\n The group say their fee calculations take into account the entire event area.<\/p>\n Previously, music licensing relied on customer-reported usage areas, but discrepancies emerged during re-measurements following the Coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n Don’t miss… <\/strong> Numerous cities across Germany expressed concern about increased bills from the music-collecting society Gema. <\/p>\n According to the organisation, approximately 35 cities saw significant increases in their bills the previous year.<\/p>\n Berlin market seller Andreas Schulze noted: “When the music was playing, people were dancing, we’ve seen it all; and without music, there’s no more dancing.”<\/p>\n
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