AISGE is the collective management body for the rights of performing artists in the audiovisual field in Spain. If you have appeared in a film, series, advert or any audiovisual production that has been broadcast or distributed, you probably have royalties waiting to be collected, even if no one has ever told you.
What AISGE is exactly
AISGE (Artistas Intérpretes, Sociedad de Gestión) is a non-profit body that collects and distributes the fair remuneration rights that Spanish law grants actors for the public communication and reproduction of their performances.
These rights exist because, when you sign a contract to take part in an audiovisual production, you assign the exploitation rights to the producer, but the law reserves you non-waivable remuneration rights for the subsequent exploitation of that work: television broadcasts, streaming platforms, cinema distribution, video rental stores, and so on.
Put simply: the producer can sell your performance to whomever they wish, but every time that performance is communicated to the public, you are entitled to a share of what they pay.
Which rights AISGE manages
AISGE manages three main types of rights:
- Fair remuneration for rental: When an audiovisual work is rented out (video rental stores, platforms with a rental model), the actor is entitled to compensation that the producer cannot remove from the contract.
- Compensatory remuneration for private copying: Compensation for the copies users legally make of audiovisual works for private use. It is collected on a collective basis.
- Fair remuneration for public communication: When your performance is broadcast on television, streamed or screened in public, you are entitled to remuneration.
Important: These rights are non-waivable by law (art. 90 of the Consolidated Text of the Intellectual Property Law). No contract can remove them. If a producer has asked you to waive them, that clause is null and void.
How to join AISGE
Joining AISGE is free and voluntary, but necessary in order to collect the individual rights owed to you. Without registering your works, AISGE collects the funds but cannot distribute them to you.
The membership process:
- Go to the membership portal at aisge.es.
- Fill in the form with your personal and professional details.
- Provide documentation proving your activity as an actor: contracts, receipts, production credits.
- Register the works you have taken part in with the production name, year and your role.
- AISGE will review your application and notify you of its acceptance.
The process can take several weeks. Once you are a member, you can register new works from your personal area.
How it is calculated and when you are paid
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Create my free profile →AISGE distributes the funds it collects among its members according to scales that depend on several factors: the type of right, the type of production, the role performed (lead, supporting, extra), the retention years and the registered works.
Distributions are made periodically throughout the year. The amounts vary enormously depending on your career and the volume of registered work: from smaller amounts for actors with few works in the catalogue to significant sums for actors with extensive filmographies in widely broadcast productions.
What determines how much you earn:
- Number of registered works: Every audiovisual production you appear in counts.
- Type of production and distribution channel: Free-to-air television broadcasts generate more revenue than other windows.
- Your role in the work: The lead earns more than the supporting actor, who earns more than the extra.
- How many times the work has been broadcast or exploited.
Why many actors do not collect what they are owed
There are three main reasons why actors with works to their name do not receive the funds owed to them:
- They are not members: If you do not have an AISGE account, the funds go into a general pool.
- They have not registered their works: AISGE needs to know which productions you have taken part in to assign you the rights.
- Their contact details are out of date: AISGE cannot send you the payment if it does not know where to reach you.
The first step is always to join and register every work you have taken part in, even the oldest ones. Private copying and fair remuneration rights remain valid for years after the original production.
AISGE and actor contracts
When you sign an employment contract for an audiovisual production, the standard contract includes an assignment of exploitation rights to the producer. This is legal and customary. What the contract cannot include —even if it says so— is a waiver of the fair remuneration rights managed by AISGE. Those rights are yours regardless of what you sign.
If you have doubts about a specific contract, AISGE's legal department offers advice to its members.
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