Music authors and publishers set up Buma one year after the 1912 Dutch Copyright Act was passed. Stemra was founded over twenty years later. Both are private organisations, of which Buma holds special authorities in the field of copyrights.
Professional commercial exploitation
The music authors and publishers set up the Vereniging Buma (the Buma Asssociation) in 1913. This was one year after the Auteurswet (the Dutch Copyright Act) was passed, which states that the author must give permission for his work to be used. Because it is virtually impossible for individual music authors to arrange permission and remunerations for all the use of their works, the legislators deemed it important that they could pass on the handling of these rights to a specialist body. Buma was appointed to represent the interests of music authors when their works were made public, which therefore includes music in pubs and shops, as well as live performances and events.
After the gramophone record
The arrival of the gramophone record made replication of music much more important. Buma realised this too. This is why the members of the Buma Association founded Stichting Stemra (the Stemra Foundation) in 1936. Since then, Stemra has focused on the replication of works of music. This is no longer just about LPs, but also e.g. CDs, DVDs, Internet and mobile phones.