Creators' Talks

“Contracts Under Pressure: How to Protect the Composer”
On 28 May 2025, at Buma Music in Motion’s BMIM Special in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, the panel, “Contracts Under Pressure: How to Protect the Composer” featured composers Nainita Desai and Hans Everling (BCMM), and ECSA Secretary General Marc du Moulin, and was moderated by composer and ECSA Vice-President Jesper Hansen. The four shared a range of insights on how we can better protect audiovisual composers from unfair contracts. Our report on audiovisual composers’ contracts shows that buyouts, pseudo-publishing and lack of transparency too often deprive composers of their rights and remuneration. The panelists highlighted what can be done at international and national level to bring a halt to such practices, and emphasised the importance for composers to be aware of their rights.

“Discoverability and cultural diversity in the digital age: Where do we stand and what are the future trends?” 
On 13 May 2025, Classical:NEXT and ECSA co-organised the panel “Discoverability and cultural diversity in the digital age: Where do we stand and what are the future trends?” at global networking and exchange conference for classical and art music Classical:NEXT in Berlin, Germany. During the panel, Esther Gottschalk (Director, Nieuw Geneco), Zahra Mani (ECSA Vice-President, Austrian Composers) and Dr. Jannick Kirk Sørensen (Associate Professor, Aalborg University) exchanged insights on how we can enhance the prominence and visibility of European works on music streaming services, while promoting European cultural diversity and niche repertoires. They particularly focused on the issue of availability and accessibility of cultural content, and how the multifaceted role of algorithmic recommendations affect cultural diversity. 

“Streaming’s Broken Record: Where Are My Royalties?”
On 17 January 2025, ECSA organised the Creators’ Talks panel “Streaming’s Broken Record: Where Are My Royalties?” at Eurosonic Noorderslag (ESNS) in Groningen, the Netherlands. During the panel - which was moderated by ECSA President Helienne Lindvall - Indre Boaretto (Head Global Publishing - Deezer) Arriën Molema (songwriter, Chair - BAM! Popauteurs, CIAM President), and Nicole Schulze (Secretary General - IMPF) dived into the world of streaming royalties for songwriters: how can we make sure songwriters get a fair share of the pie?

“Composing in the Age of AI: Legal Challenges in Modern Film Scoring”
On 15 October 2024, ECSA and WSA co-organised a Capacity Triangle panel at the World Soundtrack Awards (WSA) in Ghent, Belgium. Moderator Anselm Kreuzer (Composers’ Club, ECSA) was joined by Jesper Hansen (BFM, ECSA), Michel Bisceglia (composer), Barbara Persyn (Strike A Score), and Jozefien Vanherpe (KU Leuven) to discuss the legal and creative challenges of generative AI for film and audiovisual composers. The panellists discussed what composers can do to better protect their rights, the importance of collective action and advocacy, the creative process of using AI in their work, and much more.  A recording of the panel is available via this link.

“The future of composing: AI as a limitless tool?”
On Friday, 19 January 2024, ECSA and Buma Music in Motion co-organised the Capacity Triangle panel “The future of composing: AI as a limitless tool?” at the conference of Eurosonic Noorderslag (ESNS) in Groningen, Netherlands, in the frame of our Capacity Triangle series. During the panel, composers Tomas Louter (Media.Monks), Arriën Molema (BAM! Popauteurs), Assistant Professor of Law and Technology Lorena Flórez Rojas (University of Groningen) and moderator Helienne Lindvall (ECSA President) dived into the opportunities and pitfalls of incorporating AI into the creative process of composing and the legal implications that may occur. 

"Streamers in Europe: the Myths and the Legends"
On Friday, 20 October 2023, ECSA in collaboration with World Soundtrack Awards Ghent organised a Capacity Triangle webinar for music creators: "Streamers in Europe: the Myths and the Legends". 

The panel explored US streaming services' increasing involvement in the European television, film, and music industries and their impact on European composers. Challenges of European film composers such as the threats of buy-outs and other contractual practices were discussed with Anselm Kreuzer (Composers’ Club, ECSA), Quentin Boniface (Netflix), David Hutsebaut (Sabam), Chantelle Woodnutt (Air-Edel) and composers Hannes de Maeyer and Volker Bertelmann.

On Wednesday 21 June 2023 Soundtrack_Cologne and ECSA organised a Capacity Triangle webinar for music creators: "AI and authors rights: what awaits us?". This was a hybrid event, open to anyone who is present at Soundtrack_Cologne, as well as accessible online via a livestream.

As generative AI technologies are becoming more and more powerful and advanced in an increasingly rapid pace, key questions among the creative communities arise about its use and its legal nature. Copyrighted works can be used to “feed” AI technologies to generate music. This “training”, based on large amounts of data, is known as “text and data mining” and can be allowed under certain conditions, as long as rightholders can opt out. What are those conditions and how to exercise this opt-out? What implications do the recent developments of AI have on these exceptions? Can creators and musicians be remunerated for the use of their works by AI?

Those questions are becoming even more relevant as the European institutions are currently discussing what should become the EU’s first regulation on AI, known as the “AI Act”. The legislation aims to follow a risk-based approach, with providers and users having specific obligations depending on the level of risk involved in using the AI.

What would these rules imply for music creators? How do music and AI interact with each other? Are the works of authors protected from misappropriation in a sufficient way? How should we define ethical use of AI in music? Should AI-generated music be copyrighted? How should legislation approach these developments? Our panelists discussed the ins and outs of the proposed AI Act, its link with text and data mining and the general interactions between AI, music and copyright.

Speakers included lawyer Stefan Ellenberg, Marc du Moulin (ECSA), Janne Spijkervet (TikTok), and Katharina Uppenbrink (Initiative Urheberrecht). The panel was moderated by Anselm Kreuzer (Composers' Club, ECSA).

On Tuesday 28 February 2023, from 14:00 - 15:30 CET, ECSA organised a Capacity Triangle webinar for music creators: "The Importance of Managing your Metadata: How to Get Paid and Credited Correctly". 

Often without knowing, music creators do not receive proper credits and the royalties they are due for their work because of mismanaged metadata. As a creator, it is crucial to provide the correct information right from the start in order to help remedy this problem and make sure you get paid correctly.



In short, metadata includes all information that is tied to any released song or album. Examples can be song titles, the songwriters' names and their identifiers, how they are splitting the copyright between them, producer names, publishers and their identifiers, the identifier for the recording (ISRC), the name of the record label, and other data.



In this webinar, several experts gave creators the tools that will help them to ensure that they correctly transmit your metadata, and eventually get credited and paid correctly for the music they create. The experts also discussed what other stakeholders can do to make this easier for creators. 

Speakers included Fiona Bevan (Ivors Academy), Richard James Burgess (American Association of Independent Music - A2IM), Garrett Levin (The Digital Media Association - DiMA),  and Sylvain Piat (International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers - CISAC).  Helienne Lindvall (ECSA President) served as moderator.

On December 13th 2022, ECSA organised a Capacity Triangle webinar on “The needs of the Ukrainian cultural sector. How can Ukrainian artists be supported?” in which speakers discussed the current state of the Ukrainian cultural sector, its current needs, and several existing European support programmes.

Russia’s war in Ukraine has had an immense and destructive influence on the Ukrainian cultural sector. Existing cultural infrastructures in the country have been destroyed, local funding opportunities available for culture have been drastically reduced, and a brain drain in the cultural sector is taking place. The Ukrainian cultural sector, therefore, is in need of sustainable solutions and support coming from Europe. The European Commission and various organisations have taken on the responsibility and came up with various support programmes for the Ukrainian cultural sector. The organisations behind these funding programmes went into dialogue with representatives from the Ukrainian cultural sector, who also presented the current circumstances Ukrainian creators find themselves in. This finally may generate a better understanding of the exact needs of the Ukrainian cultural sector. 

The webinar was moderated by ECSA Vice-President Zahra Mani.

The speakers for this edition were:

• Liudmyla Tsymbal, Director of Licensing and International, Ukrainian Author’s service NGO UACRR (Ukraine) 
• Mykola Lysenko, director of Ukraine Symphonic Orchestra, Kyiv Orchestra and Ukraine Pop Orchestra, Mykola Lysenko Foundation, conductor  "I am your border" project (Ukraine)
  
• Lutz Leukhardt, musician, initiator of the song project and funding programme "I am your border" (Germany)
  
• Juliane Ott, Creative Europe unit, DG EAC, European Commission
  
• Alejandro Ramilo, EACEA, European Commission
  
• Anna Klimczak, ZAiKS (Poland)