Administrative costs

Administrative costs are the deductions that the societies are entitled to charge their members on the receipts from the rights they manage. These costs are born solely by the rightholders, not the users. For example, out of 100 Swiss francs of license fees paid in, the member receives 85 Swiss francs assuming a 15% cost deduction.

The actual administrative costs of the societies may be higher than the cost deduction born by the members. This is however covered to some extent by additional income from financial investments for example, so that the members do not have to be charged the entire expenditure.

The cost-coverage deduction shows the share of tariff revenues withheld from beneficiaries in order to cover administration costs: this is the distribution perspective.

Conversely, the gross cost rate is the ratio between total gross costs and total gross revenues in a purely economic perspective and without any set-offs.

The level of administrative costs depends on factors such as the number of tariffs, customers and members administered by a society and how many employees it requires to accomplish the task. The Swiss societies are obliged to incur a relatively high expenditure in order to administer a small, multilingual territory. Nevertheless, their administrative costs have been falling for many years. At the present time, they amount to: 

Administrative costs 2022/2021

Society Receipts (CHF million) 2022/2021 No. of members 2022/2021 Cost-coverage deduction 2022/2021 Gross cost rate 2022/2021 Full-time staff 2022/2021
ProLitteris 36.5 / 35.9 15,500 / 15,784 17.0% / 13.7% 16.5% / 16.9% 19.6 / 20.1
SSA 28.9 / 20.8 3,808 / 3,608 10.41% / 11.96% 12.22% / 14.76% 18.15 / 17.1
SUISA (Group) 190.1 / 159.0 41,263 / 41,286 10.97% / 10.92% 24.6% / 19.3% 185.5 / 186.1
SUISSIMAGE 85.5 / 84.5 4,309 / 4,172 3.81% / 3.09% 3.76% / 3.85% 25.0 / 25.1
SWISSPERFORM 61.2 / 62.3 23,304 / 21,676 9.29% / 8.43% 13.00% / 12.19% 26.9 / 25.6

Yann Lambiel

"The contact with my copyright society for all legal matters in connection with my shows is always easy and efficient. I am confident that my royalties are properly asserted, verified and distributed."