“The bottom line is that this is a good solution for everyone involved”

Twelve years ago, shortly after Christmas, news made the headlines: kindergartens were suddenly supposed to pay fees to the Gema. The payments were always due when they performed pieces of music or when they wanted to copy sheet music or lyrics and distribute them to children, parents and educators.

Tens of thousands of day-care centers throughout Germany received the letter in December 2010. As expected, the outrage was great. Many carriers then negotiated contracts with Gema and the collecting society Musikedition. That brought the music in German day-care centers from the gray zone to a green zone. But what remained was a bureaucratic effort for the day care centers and little income for the artists who write children's songs.

Hamburg is now the third federal state to have negotiated a flat-rate contract with Gema and VG Musikedition. On Thursday, Social Senator Melanie Schlotzhauer (SPD) signed the contract together with the managing director of the collecting society, Christian Krauss, in Hamburg. For Schlotzhauer it was the first appointment as a senator. She only took office on Thursday last week and was previously a state health officer.

She is very happy that her first official appointment is such a nice one, she said in a free speech. Music is extremely important for children: music is fun, it connects and it even helps to learn foreign languages. According to Schlotzhauer, the fact that making music in Hamburg's day-care centers is now easier and free of bureaucracy is a benefit.

Schlotzhauer and Krauß had chosen the music day-care center of the Finkenau Kindergarten Foundation as the place for the signing. There was a small concert by the “Finken” at the signing on Lagerstraße in the Schanzenviertel – accompanied by one of the most well-known children’s song composers: Rolf Zuckowski.

The impulse for the blanket contract came from Zuckowski. On the fringes of an event in late summer, he met Dirk Bange, the head of the family and child day care department of the social security authority, and told him about the idea and got him enthusiastic about it. The then Senator for Social Affairs, Melanie Leonhard (SPD), finally pushed through the negotiations in the Senate. After just a few months, Hamburg has now signed the contract. Only in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg is there something comparable for the day-care centers. For schools, on the other hand, such a flat-rate contract has existed since 1990.

"I didn't push it to make me feel even better," Zuckowski explained. There are many great artists in the industry who are lacking in income due to the Corona period, when hardly any performances were possible. For them, the distributions from the collecting society are important in order to be able to live off their music.

The rights to a piece of music remain with the author for up to 70 years after his death. He has the right to receive a compensation payment for every use, for example through the copy of the sheet music and song texts or a public appearance. This is how copyright works. VG Musikedition collects the money for its members and distributes the income to the individual artists.

With the flat-rate contract, from January 1st, the social authorities will cover the costs for all sheet music copied in the day-care centers and for all public performances. That will cost around 80,000 euros a year. A relatively small amount for the day-care center budget of the authority, which will be around 1.2 billion euros in the coming year. For the artists, however, the amount is important.

"The bottom line is that this is a good solution for everyone involved," said Krauss. "There is no bureaucracy, no costs for the individual" and yet the copyright of the children's songwriters is satisfied.

"A really nice present before Christmas," said Zuckowski, who has been involved in the collecting society for years and uses his popularity to fight for the rights of musicians. The 75-year-old said he was happy that his songs were being sung in daycare centers all over the country. On Thursday he played the "Clock of the Year", "It's Snowing" and the "Christmas Bakery" with the "Finken". Zuckowski: "But there are a lot of great songs by others that are also worth singing."