Load more

Register between 1 and 3 videos

Apply for a licence

Are you planning to produce between one and three videos with music per year and make them available online?

Online form

When you produce videos with music and make them available online, the authors have a legal claim to remuneration. This applies to videos on company websites and social media, for example.

In this regard, we distinguish between three tariff categories: production, making available and screening of a video.

Production (in the sense of manufacturing) of videos

When making videos with music available to the public on a website, you must ensure that you hold the necessary rights. You can obtain a licence from SUISA to record and reproduce music on data carriers.

Making-available of videos (streaming)

If you embed and make available one or more videos with music on your own website, you are required to register them with SUISA. You can acquire a licence by paying a single fee per video, or an annual flat fee covering all your videos. The flat fee is worthwhile for more than three videos per year. ((Link to website for 4 videos or more))

Screening videos with music

If you intend to screen a video in public, you need to have the corresponding licence. This also applies to screenings where no admission is charged, or to screenings in venues other than cinemas or the like in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. For example, screenings at fairs, exhibitions and corporate events.

Other rights and noteworthy points

To produce a video you also need the synchronisation rights from the authors and publishers. These rights allow you to use music in a video. They can be obtained from the publisher or the authors.
If you wish to use a given piece of music, you must also acquire the neighbouring rights from the label that published the recording.
For more information, see “Other rights”. 

If you have already obtained the rights (e.g. commissioned music) or if the video was produced by a business partner abroad, you do not have to go through SUISA. However, if the videos were produced in Switzerland and you have not yet acquired the production rights, you must register the videos with SUISA.

The rights for the use of music in videos have to be ascertained and acquired for each video individually.

Production music: a single-source solution

A simpler solution is to use production music for your video. The advantage of production music is that, in addition to the authors’ rights, SUISA can transfer the neighbouring rights and the synchronisation rights to you in a single licence. For more information, see the “Production music” page.

If you do not use production music, you should be aware that the rightholders may at any time prohibit you from using their works. Therefore, you need to obtain the aforesaid rights.

How to proceed:

If you are planning to make available more than three videos, please follow the information there.

Fill in the online form. You can save the form and finish filling it in later.

We will check your application and then issue you an invoice. The licence is valid as soon as payment is received.

Once it receives your payment, SUISA distributes the corresponding royalties to the entitled composers, lyricists and publishers.

FAQ: Frequently asked questions

  • Productions must always be registered before the audiovisual recording is produced.

  • Videos and websites presenting the same content in several languages on the same domain qualify as a single video or web presence.

  • In practice, the uploading person will be sent a warning with a request to delete the video or have it deleted. In certain cases, labels may demand damages for the unauthorised online use. In the case of well-known songs, it may not even be possible to obtain permission to upload. With certain providers, the videos are simply deleted. It depends on the individual case, and on the individual provider and rightholder. 

  • SUISA can licence all the rights (mechanical rights, worldwide rights for making available , synchronisation rights, neighbouring rights) in what is known as mood music.  SUISA maintains corresponding agreements with various publishers of mood music. For further information, please click here.

  • SUISA licenses the mechanical rights (production) and the right to make audiovisual productions available. But the production process involves other rights. These are synchronisation rights, generally held by the publisher, on the one hand, and recording rights, held by the label, on the other. To obtain these rights, one normally has to pay the corresponding remuneration.

  • These are two distinct forms of use. The mechanical rights are federally regulated and are subject to a tariff. Making available is not federally regulated and is subject to its own set of rules. Both uses are public uses within the meaning of the Copyright Act. 

  • Package deals are possible if the customer only uses a single offer, e.g. if the customer only ever uses music from the same mood music catalogue, or the same music title for all videos. This must be considered on a case-by-case basis.