Contractual practices
ECSA advocates for
fairer contracts between music authors and their contractual counterparts. In
this regard, ECSA stands firmly against so called buy-out contracts as they are often a take-it-or-leave-it deal, where the music author sells
all his or her rights of the musical work and correspondingly future royalties
in connection to that work.
In January 2025, ECSA published its Report on Audiovisual Composers' Contracts. Drawing on consultations with our members from across Europe, the report outlines and denounces various harmful and persistent contractual challenges faced by European audiovisual composers, such as buyout contracts and work made for hire provisions, pseudo-publishing, and the waiving of moral rights. The report also provides seven key recommendations to tackle these harmful practices.