Collection and distribution

1 Membership
An author or a publisher becomes a member by concluding a rights’ administration agreement with SUISA. By this agreement, SUISA undertakes to collect royalties for the member when their music is broadcast, performed or reproduced.

2 Declarations of works
Members are required to declare all their works to SUISA. If several authors or publishers participated in the same work, their respective shares must be specified in the declaration.

3 Reporting
Users report to SUISA when and how often they perform, broadcast or reproduce a work, requesting a licence for the relevant use. Licence means the permission to use the work for a fee.

4 Licensing
SUISA grants the user a licence and invoices the relevant use on the author’s or publisher’s behalf.

5 Licence fees
The user pays a royalty for the licence in accordance with the relevant tariff schedule. For regular customers, the licence terms and conditions are set out in an agreement. 

6 Identifying works and participants
Declared works are identified and the respective shares of the participant authors or publishers established.

7 Distribution/settlement
All authors and publishers receive their share of the fees collected for the use of their works. The fees due to authors and publishers who are members of foreign rights management organisations are paid to them through this foreign sister society.* 

*Sister societies: Thanks to agreements concluded with foreign rights management organisations, SUISA licenses the works of foreign authors in Switzerland. Conversely, its foreign sister societies license the works in SUISA’s repertoire for uses in their own territories and pass on the remuneration to SUISA for distribution to its members.