GEMA for your dance school: Separate classes and events

For GEMA in dance classes, it helps to provide a description that shows the role music plays in your offering. In a class, for example, it accompanies basic steps, figures or rhythm exercises. The instructor pauses the music to explain and correct. At a practice evening, by contrast, social dancing may take center stage, while an instructor offers occasional support. These observations describe how the event is run, but they do not determine its legal or tariff classification.

For a dance event, your description should also state who can attend: only a regular course group, registered guests or a wider audience. Calling it a “practice party” answers this question no more than the fact that the evening takes place in your own studio.

Separate offerings according to how they actually run, not just how they appear in your calendar. For each format, record the location, frequency, duration, participant group, access and how the music is played. Your dance school timetable provides the dates and recurring sessions. Describe mixed formats by their class and social dancing phases, rather than assigning them wholesale to one category.

Music rights for your dance school are not limited to the moment when a speaker is playing. If you copy recordings to a computer used for classes or make them available to teachers, that adds another type of use. Whether and how such reproductions are covered depends, among other things, on the source, the use and the rights agreed upon. Owning a file does not answer these questions.

For digital offerings, distinguish between a live stream, a recorded class and an edited promotional video. When music is combined with images, rights related to that combination may be relevant in addition to rights for the transmission or making the content available. The musical work and the specific sound recording are two separate layers of rights. Depending on the material, other rights holders may therefore be involved.

Here is an example from day-to-day operations: You play a recording during an in-person class and later publish a clip featuring the same music. The clip is an additional use, not simply an extended class. A personal streaming subscription initially describes access to the service; you cannot infer blanket permission for your business from it. An agreement covering music played in your studio is not proof that all copies and online offerings are covered.

For a well-founded inquiry, set out your offerings side by side in a concise overview. For each format, include how it works and how people access it, as well as details about rooms, dates, duration and music playback. Give lessons, practice evenings and events their own entries. Add copies and digital offerings as additional uses, each with its source, storage location or publication channel, and intended access.

Include any existing agreements too: who entered into them, and for which location and use? For jointly organised evenings, also describe who acts as the organiser. A clearly described event concept sets out the participant group and the nature of the offering, without already determining music rights.

Contact GEMA once with this overview to clarify how your specific uses are classified and the scope of any possible agreements. Your inquiry should also indicate which copies or digital uses are planned and which additional rights questions remain open.

Keep the response together with the related description of your offering. This makes it clear which facts the response refers to. If access, format or publication channel changes, do not automatically assume the previous classification still applies. This guidance applies to Germany and does not replace a legal assessment of your individual case.