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The German Music Archive (in German: Deutsches Musikarchiv, DMA) is the central collection of printed and recorded music and the music-bibliographic information centre for Germany. It is a Federal agency founded in 1970, tasked with collecting all music published in the country. Publishers of printed and recorded music in Germany are required by law (since 1973) to deliver two copies of every edition as legal deposits to the archive.
The DMA constitutes a department of the German National Library (Deutsche Nationalbibliothek). Since 2010 it is located in Leipzig at the national library.
History
The archive was founded in West Berlin on January 1, 1970, during the division of Germany as a department of Frankfurt am Main based Deutsche Bibliothek—the national library for West Germany. It incorporated its precursor, the Deutsche Musik-Phonothek (1961–1969), and was located (until 2010) at the Siemens-Villa in Berlin-Lankwitz.
In the process of German reunification the West German Deutsche Bibliothek and the East German Deutsche Bücherei formed one national library with two seats in Frankfurt and Leipzig. The DMA moved to Leipzig in 2010, to be housed in an extension of the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. Construction work began in 2006 and was completed in 2009.
In July 2000, the DMA also assumed the role as repository for GEMA, Gesellschaft für musikalische Aufführungs- und mechanische Vervielfältigungsrechte, a German music copyright organization. Since then, music publishers only have to submit copies to DMA, which covers both national archiving and copyright registration. The 210,000 works of printed music previously held by GEMA were transferred to DMA.