The allocation of income from clubs and discos has been based entirely on hitbox monitoring for over ten years. In the TV sector, monitoring has so far been used by private broadcasters and serves to close any gaps in the broadcast reports. The uploaded soundfiles are used to optimise monitoring in these areas.
SUISA has been working with the Swiss company Pro Conecta AG and its Streamify service for monitoring in clubs and discos since the beginning of 2024. Thanks to the new soundfile upload, the recordings can be uploaded directly to the SUISA database and linked to the work. This is intended to further improve the already high matching rate of currently 95%.
The recordings are managed centrally by SUISA and transmitted to the monitoring service providers. For SUISA, this means more flexibility in its co-operation with monitoring services, which in turn means less work for its members.
Who can upload recordings and who can listen to them?
Recordings can only be uploaded by persons or publishers who are original contributors and entitled parties to a work. Sub-publishers cannot submit recordings. SUISA can access recordings of international repertoire, if required, through its exchange with sister societies.
In the works database, the submitted recordings are displayed to all those who participated in the work, regardless of who originally uploaded the file. This ensures that the same recording is not submitted twice. Third parties who are not involved in the work do not see these recordings and therefore cannot listen to them.
Which recordings should be uploaded?
Commercially available sound recordings are generally distributed online and therefore usually available for monitoring purposes already. The situation is different for recordings that are not intended for digital distribution per se, such as advertising music, production music, live recordings or special club mixes. In order to be able to close gaps in monitoring, SUISA primarily requires such recordings that are not commercially available. These are used to supplement existing usage data with missing information or to recognise previously unidentified usage.
All finalised recordings can be uploaded to a work. If several recordings differ only in length, it is sufficient to upload the longest version. As the length of the recording is relevant for the creation of the fingerprint in monitoring, the complete recording should always be submitted and not just a shortened version.
As the files are used exclusively for monitoring purposes, only recordings that are actually used publicly should be uploaded. It does not make sense to upload demos or productions still in the development process. In the case of advertising and film music, it is also important to ensure that the recordings are uploaded without voice-over. Entire commercials with voice-over cannot be correctly recognised by monitoring systems.
How can recordings be submitted?
Recordings can only be uploaded via the member portal “My account”. There are three ways to do this:
- For new work registrations: An audio file can be uploaded in the “Add recording” step.
- For already registered works: The corresponding work can be selected in the work database; a recording can be added using the “Upload soundfile” button.
- For the mass upload of already registered works: A batch upload is available in the “Soundfile upload” area. However, this can only be used for works that already exist in the SUISA works database.
The submitted recordings and their registration status can be viewed in the “Soundfile upload” area. After the upload, the system automatically checks whether the recording is already assigned to another work. If this is the case, the status “rejected” is displayed; such files will not be used for monitoring.
Soundfile uploads are voluntary. You can skip this step when registering your work. SUISA will only forward the submitted recordings for monitoring purposes if this has been expressly authorised at the time of uploading.
Soundfile uploads already well underway
The soundfile upload function is already being actively used and is running smoothly. In the first two months after the launch, over 6,000 recordings were submitted, of which around 20 per cent are not commercially available. Many members appreciate the option to submit a specimen copy with their work registration. We are pleased to be able to meet a real requirement of our members with this new service.
Access to “My account” is open to every SUISA member. If you do not yet have a login for “My account”, get one now: www.suisa.ch/my-account
Since the beginning of 2024, SUISA has been using “Streamify”, the music fingerprinting and reporting system from Swiss company Pro Conecta AG, for hitbox monitoring in clubs and discos. The hitboxes are installed in a representative selection of clubs, considering the different music genres and language regions. To ensure representativeness, SUISA works together with statisticians from the University of Zurich. In June 2025, revenue from clubs and discos was allocated based on data collected by Streamify for the very first time. The cloud-based system accesses over 100 million works and can clearly match more than 95 per cent of the recorded usage time to registered works.
