Artificial Intelligence

AI’s rapid developments and its impact on authors’ rights have become increasingly urgent issues. The topic has therefore been put at centre stage of ECSA's advocacy efforts, with a particular focus on the EU AI Act, which was formally adopted by the European Parliament on 13 March 2024, after a lengthy negotiation period.

In the context of the final stages of the adoption of the AI Act, 13 authors’, performers’ and other creative workers’ organisations, including ECSA, published a statement on 25 April 2024, welcoming the AI Act while calling for an effective implementation in order to preserve fundamental rights, safeguard transparency, and enable authors and performers to exercise their rights.

This statement followed after an earlier letter with the same coalition of organisations on 26 September 2023, calling for a human centric approach to generative AI, built upon informed consent, transparency, fair remuneration and contractual practices.

On 20 July 2023, ECSA co-signed an open letter to policy makers on AI with various organisations, together representing over 6 million artists, creators, performers and publishers globally. In the letter, we call upon governments and decision makers to commit to developing and adopting legislation that is consistent with seven key principles. These principles include: 1) the protection of creators’ and performers’ rights when exploited by AI systems; 2) enabling and supporting licensing; 3) avoiding exceptions for text and data mining which do not provide for effective opt-out by rightsholders; 4) crediting in a just manner; 5) establishing transparency obligations; 6) legal responsibility for AI operators; and 7) the distinction between AI and human-created works. 

In March 2023,  ECSA joined the Human Artistry Campaign, launched to advocate for AI use that supports artists, performers and all creatives. Learn more about the core principles for AI applications in support of human creativity, and join us in supporting the campaign.

In this new digital and technological era of the music industry, it is important to stay up to date with emerging technologies and to realize which of these could become innovations within the music industry.  This is why ECSA, in 2022, has created a Technology and Artificial Intelligence (Tech and AI) Working Group. The Working Group aims at identifying new and relevant technologies and online services which have or will have an impact on musical diversity and the remuneration of music authors.