News from ECSA - November edition

In November 2021, the 2019 Copyright Directive has been implemented in Italy, Spain and Ireland through various decrees and statutory instruments. In general terms, those three EU Member States have chosen to follow closely the language and wording of the Directive. ECSA generally welcomes these national implementations and urges late EU Member States to follow suit.

On 23rd November, ECSA published its first "Songwriters’ Fee & Master Point Guidelines" with best practices & testimonies from three of ECSA’s member organisations: DPA in Denmark, The Ivors Academy in the UK and VERSO in Germany. While the advent of streaming as the dominant way for listeners to consume their music has proven detrimental to the livelihoods of songwriters, fees and master points are currently a practical way for the music industry to maintain a healthy value chain while the legislation and splits of the last century catch up to the market of this century. The guidelines received coverage in various online news outlets (Musically, Media Biz - Musik Woche etc). Access the guidelines here. 

ECSA joined a coalition of cultural and creative organisations raising serious concerns over the EU Council's general approach on the Digital Services Act (DSA). The amendments proposed by the Council would weaken the current liability regime and have a detrimental impact on the existing standards and good practices for addressing illegal content and activities in some areas, including online infringements of copyright and related rights. The European Parliament and EU Member States should instead strive to deliver on the DSA’s original objective of establishing more accountability for online platforms and creating a safer and more trustworthy online environment.

ECSA joins Music Creators North America (MCNA), the Songwriters Guild of America (SGA), the Society of Composers and Lyricists (SCL) and many other music creators’ organisations against frozen mechanical royalty rates in the US. After a first round of comments to the US Copyright Royalty Board in October 2021, music creators’ organisations in the US and around the world sent a further letter to the US Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) to strongly oppose a freeze on mechanical royalty rates as proposed by the main music Majors.

On 22nd November, ECSA’s Secretary General, Marc du Moulin joined the 9th Initiative Urheberrecht Conference to discuss about the Copyright Directive implementation across Europe, and present ECSA’s initiatives on music streaming and buyout contracts. The panel discussion also involved the Federation of European Screen Directors (FERA) and Society of Audiovisual Authors. The event took place in hybrid format at the Academy of Arts, Berlin. Watch the recording of the conference here.

On 26th November 2021, ECSA and a broad group of right holders in Europe’s creative sectors sent a letter to Mr Antti Kurvinen, Minister of Science and Culture, to express serious concerns over the implementation of the 2019 Copyright Directive in Finland. The letter states that current provisions implementing Article 17 would dilute the liability of online content sharing service providers (OCSSPs) and seriously harm Finland’s creative sector. It further urges the Finnish government to support the creative sector by sticking to the provisions and spirit of the text which was agreed and adopted by the EU legislature.

ECSA President: Alfons Karabuda and Secretary General: Marc du Moulin answered to the questions of Emmanuel Legrand, the founder and President of Legrand Network, publisher of the Creative Industries News platform. In this interview, ECSA’s President and Secretary General shared their views on various topics, from the role that technology can play to support fair remuneration to the UK DCSM report on streaming, the 2019 Copyright Directive, or more generally the value of music. The interview is available here upon subscription.

ECSA joined its German members at SoundTrack_Cologne 18 for two great panel discussions on copyright buyouts and music streaming. The discussions were moderated by Anselm Kreuzer and featured Tina Pepper, Matthias Krueger, Helienne Lindvall and ECSA Secretary General Marc du Moulin. At the end of the three days filled with workshops and panel discussions around film and video games music, SoundTrack Cologne's Awards Ceremony honored Academy Award winner Rachel Portman with the Lifetime Achievement Award. This edition also featured SoundTrack_Cologne's second Female Film Composer Class (FFCC) which consisted of seminars on PR, self-marketing and social media, film music publishers, sync international, exploitation chains, music supervision, post-production processes and industry English. 

On September 4th 2021 Sunnleif Rasmusen handed the chairmanship of the NKR over to Þórunn Gréta Sigurðardóttir, the chairperson of the Icelandic Society of Composers. Sigurðardóttir is the first woman to become chair of the Nordic Council of Composers (NKR).

– I’m looking forward to working with common Nordic challenges together with the Board. In the period ahead, we will continue to discuss how we can develop Nordic Music Days. We will also share experiences and collaborate to ensure good working conditions for composers throughout the Nordic region, says the new chairman Þórunn Gréta Sigurðardóttir. 

– In light of this, we perceive the Nordic Council of Ministers plans to cut funding for culture in the Nordic & Baltic region by 20-25% between 2021-2024, as a misguided plan. We will follow up on this matter, and made a statement on our meeting no September 2th.

Sigurðardóttir is the first woman to become chair of the NKR, which reflects work that has taken place over time, both in the national composers' associations, in Nordic and European co-operation.

– Consideration for equality and diversity must become a natural part of our way of acting, both in boardrooms, at educational institutions and in the entire music field. It has been a recurring theme for a long time, but we are constantly reminded that this is not the case. Gender diversity and equal opportunities are crucial for attracting and retaining new composer talents in the music community, whether it is at educational institutions or in the music industry. The Nordic Council of Composers will continue to highlight these issues, and to support the work that is being done in ECSA (European Composer & Songwriter Alliance), says Sigurðardóttir.

/ Photo credit: Bernhard Kristinn 

On 11th November, the Ivors Academy announced the 40 songwriters and composers who have joined a members Senate, which puts creators’ views at the heart of The Ivors Academy. They work across a range of genres including classical, grime, jazz, games, film and TV, theatre and musicals, pop, rock, sound art and electronic music. All targets in the Academy’s Equalities plan were achieved, with: 50% of the Senators are female, 40% identified as Black, Asian or minority ethnic and 13% declared a disability. Read more.

The strategy was developed by the Screen Composers Guild of Ireland's board in consultation with its members and its funders with support from external consultant Louise O Reilly. The document outlines the ambitions of the organisation as it progresses from development stage to the future next steps. SCGI wishes to build on the visibility of the creative craft of composing for screen and promote Irish and Irish-based talent on the international stage, whilst delivering resources and support its members. Access the strategy here. 

On 25th November also known as Orange Day: International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the European Music Council released a new podcast episode on “Gender-based violence in the music sector”. The episode features EMC Secretary General Ruth Jakobi joined by Merlijn Poolmann from the Netherlands, Night Mayor of Groningen and Moritz Eggert from Germany, composer and professor for composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich. In this episode of the EMC podcast, outstanding personalities share their stories and talk about strategies that can hopefully bring about positive change. Check it out!

On 18th November, ECSA along with various music stakeholders participated to the first think tank meeting of the MusicAIRE project. MusicAIRE is a new consortium run by the European Music Council and Inova+, co-funded by the Music Moves Europe Preparatory Action of the European Union. The consortium will develop grants to support the music ecosystem to emerge from the COVID-19 crisis in a green, digital and just and resilient way. MusicAIRE is currently having meetings with music stakeholders to understand at best the needs of the sector and subsequently develop the calls. During the think tank meeting, ECSA voiced the needs of its network and European music creators. The first calls for projects are expected to be published in January 2022, a second round is planned to be published in Autumn 2022. Find out more.