Become a member

The contractual relationship between SWISSPERFORM and you is based on two documents: the «Membership and Rights Administration Agreement» and the «General Terms for the Administration of Rights» (GT):

The «Membership and Rights Administration Agreement» contains individual agreements that can be adapted by you (restrictions on rights and territory).

The «General Terms for the Administration of Rights» (GT) include general provisions that are binding for all members. Future amendments to the General Terms for the administration of rights may be decided by the competent bodies of SWISSPERFORM, whereby the members concerned will be informed in advance of the intended amendments.

SWISSPERFORM recommends that you also sign an agreement with the Swiss Performers’ Cooperative Society (SIG). An additional assignment of your rights and remuneration claims to the performers’ cooperative is in your interest, as it covers areas in which SWISSPERFORM is not active – and vice versa.

SWISSPERFORM and the performers’ cooperative work closely together in many areas, and only by signing both agreements can your rights be comprehensively administered.

As soon as you are registered as subject to VAT with the Swiss Federal Tax Administration, you must inform SWISSPERFORM of your VAT number and the exact name under which you are listed in the VAT register.

You are subject to VAT if:

• your annual turnover exeeeds the threshold for exemption from VAT (currently CHF 100,000), or
• you have waived the exemption from VAT, or
• you have opted to apply VAT, for example, to your cultural services.

In these cases, SWISSPERFORM will calculate the remuneration payable to you plus VAT at the applicable rate.

You are also required to inform SWISSPERFORM immediately of the following:

• any changes to your VAT status (in particular, if you are no longer subject to VAT);
• any changes to the name under which you are registered for VAT purposes;
• the application or cancellation of options to apply VAT to specific revenues.

For further details, please refer to item 10 of the ‘General Terms for the Administration of Rights (GT)’.

As a party entitled to collect – i.e. as the representative of a holder of producer rights – you will find specific provisions in item 10.2 of the GT. Particularly important: any potential addition of VAT depends on the VAT liability status of the represented holder of the producer rights.

For SWISSPERFORM to effectively exercise your rights, it must document information about you and your performances and recordings. SWISSPERFORM maintains a database for this purpose.

The collection of remuneration for your performances and recordings from users is usually not carried out by SWISSPERFORM, but by another collecting society (‘sister society’) (in Switzerland and, where applicable, also abroad). For the sister societies to transfer the share of the remuneration collected that is due to SWISSPERFORM members to SWISSPERFORM for distribution, SWISSPERFORM must provide the relevant data to the sister societies concerned.

Furthermore, in certain areas and for certain right holders, SWISSPERFORM does not pay the remuneration itself, but has delegated this task to a sister organisation or another trustworthy organisation. Consequently, SWISSPERFORM must also pass on your relevant data to these organisations.

Finally, SWISSPERFORM is authorised to make information about your participation in performances and recordings in Switzerland and abroad available on the internet in such a way that certain right holders with a login account have access to it. Of course, this authorisation does not include the publication of the remuneration paid to you.

For more detailed information on data protection, please refer to item 8.3 of the ‘General Terms for the Administration of Rights’ (GT).

In order for SWISSPERFORM to be able to pay remuneration for the use of your performances, it requires all information about your performances and recordings that you have created in the past as a performer and those that you will create in the future (item 8.2 of the General Terms and Conditions of Management (AWB)). Performances generated exclusively by artificial intelligence are not considered to be self-created. You can find out more about deadlines and other registration procedures in our section for artists.

As SWISSPERFORM uses a mixed distribution system for phonogram producers (i.e. usage-based distribution based on playlists and turnover-based distribution), phonogram producers are required to both register their recordings (so-called «claims») and declare their turnover in order to be eligible for remuneration.

Audiovisual producers register their works with Suissimage.

If you fail to provide SWISSPERFORM with a valid delivery address, SWISSPERFORM may suspend your membership (Art. 5a of the Articles of Association). This means that SWISSPERFORM is not obliged to send you statements or other correspondence and is not required to make any efforts to find your valid address (item 8.1 of the General Terms for the Administration of Rights (GT)).

If SWISSPERFORM does not have a valid address for a period of five years, your membership and thus also your contractual relationship will be automatically terminated at the end of the following year. SWISSPERFORM will retain any remuneration accrued up to that point that you would still be entitled to for a further five years. If no valid address is provided within that period either, the retained funds will be forfeited in favour of SWISSPERFORM’s other right holders (item 13.2 of the GT for producers and item 15.2 of the GT for performers).

Your selection in item 6 of the agreement (applies only to the agreement for performers) regarding the territory is not final. You may change this declaration later, even after signing the agreement. Any such change must be submitted to SWISSPERFORM in writing by the end of June, and will take effect at the beginning of the following year.

There is one exception to this deadline and effective date: If you wish to change your territorial selection because you intend to assign specific rights or remuneration claims for certain countries to a producer or broadcaster, you may notify us of this change in writing at any time, and it will take effect immediately.

In item 6 of the agreement for performers and item 5 of the agreement for producers, you can choose between two options: Either SWISSPERFORM acts on your behalf worldwide, or you limit the territorial scope.

Important: You must select one of the two options. If you choose the territorial restriction, you must also select one of the following three options:

• ‘Worldwide minus’ option: You can list specific countries. The transfer of rights applies worldwide except for the countries listed.
• ‘Regional plus’ option: You can list specific countries. The transfer of rights applies to Switzerland, the Principality of Liechtenstein, plus the countries listed.
• ‘Regional’ option: The transfer of rights is limited to Switzerland and the Principality of Liechtenstein.

As a result, you will not receive remuneration from those countries via SWISSPERFORM and must handle the collection of such remuneration yourself.

SWISSPERFORM recommends that you do not restrict the territory of the assignment of rights.

If your information on the territory is unclear or contradictory (e.g. if you select none or multiple options), SWISSPERFORM will assume that you do not wish to restrict the territory of the assignment of rights.

In item 5 of the agreement (applicable only to the agreement for performers), you can choose between two options: Either you assign all the rights and remuneration claims listed in item 4 of the agreement to SWISSPERFORM, or you limit this list.

By choosing the second option, you assign only those rights and remuneration claims to SWISSPERFORM that must be managed by a collecting society. Put differently: if you choose to limit the assignment, you exclude those rights from the list that do not require mandatory collective management and that you may enforce independently. As previously explained, this particularly concerns the rights related to the following uses:

• Making performances available on demand (online or on-demand rights, except for audiovisual works, which are subject to mandatory collective management);
• Recording the performance on audio, audiovisual or data carriers and reproducing such recordings

Important: You must select one of the two options in item 5. If you choose to restrict the transfer of rights, SWISSPERFORM will not be able to pay you any remuneration for the excluded uses. In other words, you will need to ensure that users pay you directly for those uses.

SWISSPERFORM recommends not limiting the scope of the rights assignment.

If your selection in item 5 is unclear or contradictory (e.g., if you select neither or both options), SWISSPERFORM will assume that you do not wish to limit the rights assignment.

Your selected option – whether or not you made a restriction under item 5 of the agreement (applies only to the agreement for performers) regarding the scope of the rights assignment – is not final. You may change this declaration subsequently, i.e., even after signing the agreement. This change must be communicated to SWISSPERFORM by the end of June, and will then take effect at the beginning of the following year.

If you did not choose a restriction of the rights assignment and later wish to assign rights – which do not necessarily have to be administered by a collective management organization – to a producer or a broadcasting company. In this case, you may notify us of the restriction declaration in writing with immediate effect at any time.

You assign your rights and remuneration claims to SWISSPERFORM for ‘worldwide administration’. This is stated in item 4 of the agreement. To ensure that you receive remuneration for the use of your performances and recordings abroad, SWISSPERFORM cooperates with foreign collecting societies (‘sister societies’).

It should be noted that this international cooperation network is less extensive than that of copyright societies such as SUISA or Suissimage. The reason is that neighbouring rights – unlike copyright – are structured very differently across countries, which makes it difficult to conclude reciprocal agreements that broadly cover various neighbouring rights.

There are exceptions to worldwide administration:

Audiovisual producers may notify SWISSPERFORM in writing at any time of a territorial limitation of the scope of the agreement. Such a limitation must also be notified to Suissimage so that it can adjust their agreement with the audiovisual producer accordingly.

The agreements for performers and producers provide specific options to restrict the contractual territory.

SWISSPERFORM recognises five types of right holders’ groups. Each member belongs to at least one of SWISSPERFORM’s five right holders’ groups. Membership is determined by the member’s activities.

If you perform multiple roles (e.g., as a film producer and actor), you belong to different right holders’ groups within SWISSPERFORM. If a member is also an elected delegate of SWISSPERFORM, they may exercise their voting and election rights at the Delegates’ Assembly only within one right holders’ group. Accordingly, if a member belongs to several right holders’ groups, the agreement will specify in which group the member exercises their voting and election rights. This specification can be changed if needed.

According to the Swiss Copyright Law, neighbouring rights are structured in two distinct ways:

• Exclusive rights allow the right holder to permit or prohibit specific uses of their performances or recordings (e.g., the right to produce sound and audiovisual recordings). The Swiss Copyright Law stipulates that certain exclusive rights cannot be exercised directly by the right holder , but only through a collecting society (e.g., public reception or retransmission of broadcast performances and recordings). However, the right holder may also assign additonal exclusive rights to a collecting society by agreement. . This is foreseen in the agreement between SWISSPERFORM and the performers.
• Simple remuneration claims mean that the right holder cannot prohibit the use of their performances and recordings, but they are entitled to receive remuneration (e.g., rental rights, private copying). Simple remuneration claims mean that the right holder cannot prohibit the use of their performances and recordings, but they are entitled to receive remuneration (e.g., rental rights, private copying). This means that it is SWISSPERFORM’s task, together with other involved collecting societies, to collect remuneration from users and distribute it to the right holders.

With regard to the exclusive rights assigned to SWISSPERFORM, SWISSPERFORM has the option of prohibiting the corresponding uses on behalf of the right holder. However, this only occurs in very rare cases, and SWISSPERFORM will of course coordinate such action with the affected right holders. As a general rule, even with respect to the exclusive rights assigned to it, SWISSPERFORM merely collects remuneration from users and distributes it to the right holders.

Item 4 of the agreement lists the rights and remuneration claims that you assign to SWISSPERFORM for administration. SWISSPERFORM administers your rights by collecting remuneration for certain uses of your performances and recordings and distributing this to you. The collection of remuneration from users is based on so-called tariffs.

When describing the individual rights and remuneration claims in item 4 of the agreement, the wording of the Swiss Copyright Law was adopted as closely as possible, with references to the relevant legal provisions.

The agreement covers the assignment of rights and remuneration claims for the following uses of the member’s performances and recordings:

• Broadcasting
• Retransmission
• Public reception of broadcasts
• Performance (making perceptible)
• Rental
• Use for teaching purposes (usages in schools)
• Use for internal company information and documentation (usages in organisations)
• Production or import of blank media (for private usage)
• Usage of archive recordings of broadcasting companies (Art. 22a Swiss Copyright Law)
• Making broadcast recordings available (Art. 22c Swiss Copyright Law)
• Reproductions for broadcasting purposes (Art. 24b Swiss Copyright Law)
• Reproductions in a form accessible to persons with disabilities (Art. 24c Swiss Copyright Law)
• Making performances in audiovisual works available (video on demand, Art. 35a para. 4 Swiss Copyright Law)

Specific provision in the agreement for performers:

Since the 2020 revision of the Swiss Copyright Law, the right to make performances in audiovisual works available (Video on Demand entitlement for audiovisual and audio performers) is also subject to mandatory collective rights administration (Art. 35a Swiss Copyright Law).

In the agreement for performers, the list is further extended to include additional exclusive rights. These concern, in particular, the rights for the following uses:

• Making available on demand (online or on-demand right, excluding audiovisual works),
• Recording the performance on audio, audiovisual or data carriers and reproducing such recordings.

These two exclusive rights mentioned last are not subject to mandatory collecting society. If you are a performer and wish to do so, you may therefore exclude these rights from the assignments list and choose not assign them to SWISSPERFORM.

Please note that the administration of these two exclusive rights by SWISSPERFORM is being introduced gradually. SWISSPERFORM will begin to assert these rights step by step against users of your performances and recordings (e.g., on-demand music platforms online or companies that fully copy your performances and recordings).