This paper examines the evolving role of German Performing Rights Organizations (PROs) in the context of technological advancements and societal shifts, focusing on the tensions and transformations. Employing an interdisciplinary approach encompassing history, sociology, and computer science, the study analyzes three case studies spanning from the early 20th century to the present day. These cases explore tensions arising from monitoring practices in the 1930s, conflicts between the German PRO GEMA and actors of the underground electronic dance music scene, and the challenges posed by artificial intelligence (AI) to collective copyright management. The analysis highlights how PROs must adapt their core tasks – licensing, revenue collection, royalty distribution, and usage monitoring – to address technological disruptions and maintain cultural diversity. The paper concludes by advocating for increased transparency, technological openness, and interdisciplinary research to guide the future development of PRO business models in a rapidly changing media landscape.

This study analyzes the financial transactions of performance rights organizations (PROs) in the European Union to trace market structures and identify consolidation opportunities. Using network analysis, it reveals distinct PRO clusters shaped by economic, geographical, and cultural factors, influencing licensing strategies and operational integration. While economies of scale can be achieved through joint platforms, consolidation efforts must balance efficiency with cultural representation. The paper explores strategic options for smaller PROs, weighing intraregional consolidation against outsourcing to interregional rights management hubs. It advocates a holistic view and a regulatory framework that incentivizes both market efficiency and fair cultural representation in the evolving digital music economy.

The majority of approaches to affective computing that deal with Valence, Arousal and Dominance (VAD) ratings neglect their interdependencies. Although initially postulated as independent dimensions, several behavioral studies have shown that they share mutual information. In this paper, we show that considering the shared variance between the three dimensions is non-negligible for several applications. Therefore, we use inter-dimensional regression models to extract residual VAD ratings and show how they can help illuminate and align to nomothetic differences between demographic groups and with mapping VAD ratings to basic emotions.

Zusammenfassung Verlage und Verwertungsgesellschaften stellen einen wichtigen, oftmals in ihrer Rolle und Relevanz in der Gesellschaft wahrgenommenen Teil der Musikindustrie dar. Lange Zeit agierten Verlage und Verwertungsgesellschaften in einem vergleichsweise statischen Gefüge. Digitalisierung und die daraus beschleunigte Internationalisierung, rechtliche Entwicklungen sowie neue Marktakteur*innen haben nun Spielräume, Wettbewerb und damit die Marktdynamik deutlich erhöht.

Verwertungsgesellschaften wie GEMA, VG Wort oder VG Bild-Kunst nehmen die Urheberrechte ihrer Mitglieder treuhänderisch wahr. Dank eines historisch gewachsenen Monopols sind sie heute zentrale Akteurinnen in den Kreativindustrien, die sich zudem als politische Interessensvertreterinnen verstehen. Trotz ihrer Relevanz hat sich vor allem die juristische Forschung mit Verwertungsgesellschaften beschäftigt. Mit dem Sammelband kommen erstmalig vielfältige und interdisziplinäre Stimmen zu Wort, die neue Perspektiven auf Verwertungsgesellschaften im nationalen und internationalen Kontext bieten. In der Zusammenschau liefert der Band damit einen gesamtheitlichen Blick auf die Organisationsform ›Verwertungsgesellschaft‹. Die Beiträge bündeln nicht nur interdisziplinäre Analysen von Verwertungsgesellschaften als Organisationen in Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft, sondern bieten auch Einblicke in die Praxis, den Alltag und die verschiedenen Herausforderungen, denen sich Verwertungsgesellschaften im Übergang ins digitale Zeitalter stellen müssen.

Dieses Open-Access-Buch adressiert die durch Globalisierung und Digitalisierung zunehmende Internationalisierung der Verwertung von Urheberrechten.

ZusammenfassungNach Erhalt der Tantiemenzahlungen und den zugehörigen Abrechnungen, in welchem Datenformat auch immer, gilt es aufseiten des Verlages darauf basierende Geschäftsprozesse durchzuführen. Dazu gehört die Zuordnung der Tantiemen zu Rechteinhaber*innen, Erstellung entsprechender Abrechnungen sowie Durchführung der Zahlungen.

Zusammenfassung Die Problemfelder an der Schnittstelle zwischen IT und Musikindustrie sind bei der Wahrnehmung von Urheberrechten, ebenso wie mögliche Lösungsansätze, vielschichtig. Die Komplexität langfristig gewachsener Systeme in Kombination mit der Heterogenität der Akteure erschweren Innovationsschritte und die Entwicklung einfacher und kompromissfreier Lösungsansätze. Gleichzeitig sind in vielen Bereichen Verbesserungen möglich oder gar dringend notwendig, wie die Ausführungen der vorangegangenen Kapitel an verschiedenen Stellen angedeutet haben.

Zusammenfassung Neben den kreativen Teilen der Wertschöpfungskette in der Musikindustrie geht die Digitalisierung auch an den verwaltungstechnischen Prozessschritten nicht spurlos vorüber. Spannungspunkte entstehen dabei zumeist dort, wo Ambitionen, Innovationen und neue Marktakteure auf etablierte, vorgeprägte und wenig dynamische Strukturen der Musikindustrie treffen. Beispielhaft sei hier das Ende der Aktivitäten zur Global Repertoire Database 2014 genannt – ein aus technischer Sicht wertvoller Baustein zur Erreichung von Transparenz, Rechtssicherheit und Effizienz in der Musikwirtschaft, bei dem die Kosten für die Implementierung jedoch zu hoch waren.

Zusammenfassung Die Verwertung von Urheberrechten an Musikwerken ist ein komplexes Gefüge mit unterschiedlichen Akteursgruppen, vielschichtigen rechtlichen Perspektiven durch die zahlreichen Verwertungsmöglichkeiten von Musik sowie einer Vervielfachung vorgenannter Dimensionen durch die fortschreitende Internationalisierung der Verwertung. Die folgenden Kapitel unterstützen den Einstieg in die Thematik und legen die Grundlagen für die weiterführenden Themen.

Abstract As international competition and cooperation in collective rights management evolves, the ecosystem of rights management entities grows. Consequently, the scope of inter-RME organisation across copyright management channels is becoming more complex and thus difficult to manage. Based on the insights of interviews with nine German music publishers and the best practices specified in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library standard for supplier management, this paper re-conceptualises a unified model for RME Relationship Management for music publishers.

In the competitive, increasingly international music business, publishers are developing new ways to increase effectiveness and efficiency of the monetization of the copyrights they own or manage. Driven by various needs, publishers become entrepreneurs in new markets by choosing the path of direct memberships in foreign copyright collecting societies, rather than entrusting sub-publishers or taking the detour through their domestic copyright collecting society. Since with great power comes great responsibility, publishers as entrepreneurs are pursuing various economic opportunities, but at the same time are also facing great challenges. This paper aims at studying the motivation, obstacles and potentials and deriving possible solutions for this step and thus improving the understanding of as well as supporting publishers in this entrepreneurial activity.

Knowledge management (KM) and Knowledge Management Systems (KMS) are not new. With the rise of the Internet, distributed and increasingly social technology, the management principles as well as the tools supporting KM also start to address small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). Todays SMEs are increasingly required to manage knowledge assets in order to sustain their position on the competitive forefront in agile markets. This paper investigates the current state of the art on computer-based KMS (or KM tools as we call them) and commercial KM tools in order to harmonize the picture, derive a joint feature and application system scope and finally inspire future design-oriented research by unveiling gaps. It shows that recent SME-related KM tools do not address KM in a holistic managerial way, fail to link operative data sources such as ERP and CRM, lack effective reward and enabling processes to more quickly establish a knowledge sharing culture amongst SME employees. The main objective of the paper is to inform future design-oriented research.

Knowledge is one of the most important resources today and, thus, companies in general and SMEs in particular need effective and efficient knowledge management solutions. In this paper, activities in the project MACKMA, which aims at implementing a knowledge management system tailored to the needs of SMEs, are introduced. Central findings include methods for establishing the product-service-portfolio of a company, a metamodel for knowledge artifacts and an accompanying incentive system for increasing knowledge management system usage.

Companies in the Culture and Creative Industry are characterized by highly networked value chains. However, this value network lacks a profound support in terms of information technology and structure resulting in time-consuming and error-prone manual labor. To overcome these challenges, we conceptualize an application framework for creative industries. In particular a software architecture design and a data design will be proposed with the help of a design science research approach. The goal of the resulting application framework is to support the digital transformation of companies in the creative industry towards collaborative networks.

Knowledge management (KM) and Knowledge Management Systems (KMS) are not new. With the rise of the Internet, distributed and increasingly social technology, the management principles as well as the tools supporting KM also start to address small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). Todays SMEs are increasingly required to manage knowledge assets in order to sustain their position on the competitive forefront in agile markets. This paper investigates the current state of the art on computer-based KMS (or KM tools as we call them) and commercial KM tools in order to harmonize the picture, derive a joint feature and application system scope and finally inspire future design-oriented research by unveiling gaps. It shows that recent SME-related KM tools do not address KM in a holistic managerial way, fail to link operative data sources such as ERP and CRM, lack effective reward and enabling processes to more quickly establish a knowledge sharing culture amongst SME employees. The main objective of the paper is to inform future design-oriented research.

To overcome the challenges resulting from the proliferation of service engineering methods, we present a method engineering approach for service development and provision. Based on method fragments, i.e. coherent pieces of a method, a method can be assembled according to characteristics of a service project. Using a design science approach, we develop a metamodel for service engineering method fragments with the focus on service customisation. In addition, a service customisation information system is conceptualised.