The rights you pay on a concert in Spain

Of every line on a concert budget, this is the one most often paid blind. Everyone knows you "have to pay SGAE"; far fewer know how much or why, and almost nobody claims the discounts that are published.

Everything below comes from SGAE's 2026 General Tariff Book, which is public.

The number: 8.5 % of box office

"For author's rights, 8.5 % of box office income for each concert, recital or show held, with VAT deducted beforehand."

Three details that change the maths:

On box office, not on the fee. It is not calculated on what the artist is paid, but on what comes through the door.

Net of VAT. On the base, not on what the audience pays. On a €25 ticket the base is €22.73 once the 10 % performance VAT comes out, and the 8.5 % applies there.

The organiser pays, not the artist. That said: where there is a box office split, it usually sits among the approved expenses deducted before the artist's percentage is worked out. So indirectly, they do feel it.

Under 1,000 capacity you get to choose

Where the venue's legally authorised capacity is 1,000 or fewer, the organiser can pick between the 8.5 % and a flat rate based on capacity and average price. Some 2026 examples:

When each one wins. A 500-capacity room at €20 pays €636.70 flat. The 8.5 % on a sell-out — 500 × €20, about €9,091 net of VAT — comes to €773. The flat rate wins… if you sell out. At half capacity, the percentage is cheaper (€386).

🚨 And the choice has to be made when requesting the licence, not afterwards. That is, before knowing how much you will sell. If the room is effectively sold out, take the flat rate; if you do not know, take the percentage.

The two discounts almost nobody claims

They are in the published tariffs, and they stack:

• 5 % for filing the declaration of works used
• 10 % more where capacity is up to 1,000

The first is a particularly silly one to lose: it means stating which songs were played, which is also what makes that money reach the writers who actually got played that night, instead of being distributed by general estimate.

What happens if you do not declare

This is the part worth reading twice. Where the organiser does not supply the takings, the tariff is applied to the whole capacity at the average price of tickets put on sale.

Translated: it settles as if you had sold out. Two hundred tickets sold in a thousand-capacity room, and you pay on a thousand. It is not a penalty — it is the default calculation rule, and it is written down.

SGAE is not the only one, but it is the concert one

Almost everyone confuses this. There are two separate families of rights:

Author's rights — of whoever wrote the song, and their publisher. Managed by SGAE, and they are the concert ones: the 8.5 % above.

Neighbouring rights — of whoever recorded and performed the phonogram. Managed by AGEDI and AIE, who collect jointly, and they arise from public communication of phonograms: recorded music. At a concert that is not the performance, it is everything else: the set before the band comes on, the music between acts, the bar.

So a venue that programmes concerts and also plays recorded music has two separate relationships, with two separate bodies, for two separate uses. Confusing them is why people sometimes believe they are paying twice for the same thing. They are not.

Five things done wrong

Requesting the licence late. The tariffs require it in advance — a minimum of 30 days for public bodies — or, failing that, before tickets go on sale.

Not choosing a model under 1,000. The percentage applies by default, without anyone having checked whether the flat rate was cheaper.

Not claiming the discounts.

Not filing the declaration of works. It costs 5 % and, more importantly, means the money does not reach whoever was played.

Forgetting the recorded-music gap. Small next to the concert, but real, and with its own counterpart.

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Do you work with different tariffs, or is your case different? Write to hello@onroad.live — this article gets updated with each tariff revision.