News from ECSA - May edition

On May 12th, ECSA President Helienne Lindvall and ECSA Secretary General met with the European Commission Directorate General on Competition in Brussels to exchange on the negative effects of the three music majors' conflicts of interest and domination of the market on the remuneration of composers and songwriters. On the same day, they also met with Mrs. Sabine Verheyen, Chair of the European Parliament’s Culture and Education Committee, to discuss ECSA main priorities, including buyout contracts, streaming and the implementation of the 2019 Copyright Directive. Finally, Helienne joined the ECSA team as well as many EU policymakers and music stakeholders for the 8th edition of Europe's Day organised by Live Europe at Ancienne Belgique in Brussels. 

ECSA welcomes the proposed immediate 32% increase to 12¢ per track for physical sales and downloads and its adjustment to inflation, as put forward by the three music majors and the NMPA. At the end of March, the US Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) officially decided not to extend the longstanding mechanical royalty rate of 9.1 cents for physical formats and downloads. Following this decision, the three music majors and the NMPA proposed an immediate 32% increase to 12¢ per track for physical sales and downloads and its adjustment to inflation. ECSA President Helienne Lindvall welcomed the settlement in a statement, echoed in several press articles. She said: “this proposed deal is an important step forward to better recognise the value of songs and improve the remuneration of composers and songwriters in the US and beyond”. Check out ECSA’s President Helienne Lindvall’s statement on our website.

Since 2015 artists and label groups have negotiated to reach an agreement for the fair remuneration of performers from streaming in France. Following the implementation of the 2019 Copyright Directive into French law, they have reached an agreement that guarantees that all performers will obtain a minimum remuneration for the exploitation of their recordings on streaming platforms. More specifically the agreement encompasses the following : a minimum rate of royalties due to featured performers for the broadcast of their work via streaming; a guaranteed minimum advance of €1,000; a fixed remuneration for the benefit of all musicians; a profit-sharing mechanism for the benefit of musicians when musical works reach a certain level of success; increasing minimum fees for session musicians and an additional remuneration for artists which will be paid for by their record label, for every 7.5 million plays their song receives. 

We are pleased to announce that ECSA will organise a conference on the implementation of the 2019 EU Copyright Directive in collaboration with the European Writers' Council (EWC), Federation of European Film and TV Directors (FERA) and Federation of Screenwriters in Europe (FSE). The event will take place on Thursday, 23rd June 2022 from 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM (CEST), at la Maison européenne des Auteurs et des Autrices (MEDAA), in Brussels! The event will also be live-streamed on our YouTube channel. The conference will be divided into two sessions. The first session will focus on factual perspectives (state of play on the implementation of the EU Copyright Directive and the presentation of the Assessment Report on the implementation of Articles 18 to 23 of the Copyright Directive) and will feature Ula Furgal (Post-doctoral researcher at CREATe, University of Glasgow), Marco Giorello (EC, Head of the Copyright Unit) and Pauline Durand-Viaille (FERA, Chief Executive). The second session will focus on identifying and sharing best practices on the provisions on contracts for authors. It will feature Aurélie Champagne (Permanent Representation of France to the EU), Janine Lorente (Expert in Copyright and Authors’ Rights Legislation), Anselm Kreuzer (ECSA Board member), and will be moderated by David Kavanagh (FSE, Executive Officer). 

On 16th June, ECSA will organise the International Creators Dialogue, in New York, USA. The dialogue will be the opportunity for our president Helienne Lindvall to exchange with representatives from North-American music authors organisations regarding issues affecting composers and songwriters (authors’ rights, fair practice, music streaming and the situation of artists after the pandemic), share reciprocal updates on the latest political developments in the EU and US and engage on common challenges. The meeting will be recorded and shared with ECSA members.

On 5th of May, ECSA President Helienne Lindvall participated to the European Grouping of Societies of Authors and Composers' (GESAC) General Assembly to exchange on the various challenges faced by music authors, and the role that collective management can play to support a fair and proportionate remuneration to composers and songwriters.

During its annual general meeting from 17th to 19th May, GEMA, the main German collective management organisation,presented its 11 points plan for more fairness, transparency and sustainability in the music streaming market. 
1) Put streaming on the political agenda
2)Take all streaming providers into account, content providers included
3) Ensure a fair balance within the music business
4) Discuss distribution models openly
5) Make streaming more transparent
6) Improve usage reports
7) Promote cultural niches and European works systematically
8) Make the creators behind the music visible
9) Prevent total buyout contracts
10) Strengthen collective rights management
11) Make streaming more sustainable.
ECSA welcomes this plan which echoes the #FixStreaming and #PaySongwriters campaigns launched by music creators in the UK and around the world. The GEMA plan for music streaming is available here.

ECSA and Oticons - Film Music Composers Agency are happy to announce the winners of the open call for the "FILM MUSIC BUSINESS Mentoring for European Film Composers''. George Christopoulos, Founder and CEO of Oticons, determined the winners: Ioana Șelaru (Romania) and Thomas Foguenne (Belgium). A total of 27 participants from 15 European countries participated in the open call. Find out more about Camille Awards here. 

The next ECCO concert will take place on 17th November 2022 in Brussels at Espace Senghor and will feature the STYX ensemble. ECSA is delighted to introduce this year's artistic committee that consists of: Vanessa Lann (USA/NL), Tze Yeung Ho (NO), Irina Hasnas (RO), Dušan Bavdek (SI), Alexander Strauch (DE) and Anne Davids (BE). ECSA kindly reminds all members that the Call for Works for this ECCO concert edition is still open, the deadline for submission is: 30th June 2022 at 12:00 PM (CEST). You may find the details for the Call for Works here. Please see more information on this ECCO concert and all previous editions here. 

ECSA UK Member the Ivors Academy celebrates music, songwriters and composers during their annual Ivors Week. During the week of 16th to 20th of May many events, discussions and panels were organised: for example, a significant discussion about Music and Mental Health about how music develops our immune system and our intelligence; but also a webinar regarding the identification of the songwriters in collaboration with Credits Due. On the 19th of May, the Ivors Academy celebrated the winners of this year’s Ivor Novello Awards. In the 67th year of The Ivors, 21 songwriters and composers collected Ivor Novello Awards across 14 categories, in recognition of outstanding achievements in songwriting and composing for screen. Find out more here.

The survey on equality in the music industry was commissioned by ECSA Members: Finnish Music Creators and the Society of Finnish Composers together with the Finnish Musicians’ Union, Music Finland, the Collective Management Organisation for Recorded Music in Finland, Finnish Composers’ Copyright Society Teosto and various other organisations. The online survey examined the implementation of equality in the Finnish music industry and reported that inappropriate behaviour takes many forms, including inappropriate comments and belittling, and discrimination or harassment based on gender, sexual orientation, or ethnic background. The survey showed how experiences of and encounters with inappropriate behaviour are common in the Finnish music industry: 76% of respondents had personally experienced inappropriate behaviour in the music industry.  Find out more here. 

Classical:NEXT is a global exchange hub and network gathering devoted to classical and art music, for all professionals – artists, managers, presenters, orchestras, labels, educators, press, media, publishers and more.  The 2022 edition was held in Hannover, Germany, from 17-20th May. On 17th of May, a panel regarding Fair Practice in today’s Music was held, chaired by Anne La Berge (USA/The Netherlands), artist & educator, Nieuw Geneco with Sine Tofte Hannibal (Denmark), general manager, Danish Composers Society; Jørgen Karlstrøm (Norway), executive chairman, Norwegian Society of Composers. During the session the experts discussed the key elements of Fair Practice including commission fees and royalties and the effect they have on gender balance in radio, streaming and repertoire diversity; freelance musicians' conditions that have been further affected by the pandemic and streaming.

ECSA Honorary President Alfons Karabuda, participated in a panel discussion in the frame the annual general meeting from the International Authors Forum, regarding “Modern Remuneration Solutions for Creators”. The panel featured also: Miss Paulina Holmgren and Jacob Felländer. During his speech Mr. Karabuda proposed solutions regarding the remuneration of artists by using blockchain and NFT. Digital technology in 2022 plays a crucial role in the fair remuneration and the exploitation of the rights for the artists. Mr Karabuda claimed that by cooperating with digital platforms and internet companies, artists can make sure that they can get their money distributed correctly by using technological tools based on blockchain. Royalties of the songs can be distributed as fast as the music streaming. According to Alfons Karabuda, it is important to check how to register copyrights digitally and automatically share revenues without selling. In that way we safeguard the rights and upgrade the situation of the authors. The transfer of royalties is going to be more ecologically, more transparent and fairer. The artists will be remunerated the moment that their song is playing.

TheWRD is a further education course offering young people the chance of building a career in music industry and the first intake will start in September 2022. Students learn online and in person at their own pace on this accredited, UCAS-recognised course, which takes up to two years to complete. The course will be state-funded for those who qualify, or it can be funded privately. For those students who aren’t eligible for state funding but who are unable to fund themselves, TheWRD is forming a network of partners to offer bursaries to meet the cost of the course. Every student on TheWRD will join The Ivors Academy to access its community and opportunities giving them an unprecedented head start in this highly-competitive industry. For application and more information, click here. 

We are excited to introduce to you the three new office members who joined the ECSA Staff in May 2022. Tatiana Papastoitsi (Greece) joined as the new Executive and Finance Officer. Also, Anastasiia Zaitseva (Ukraine) and Athanasios Pagkoutsos (Greece) joined as Project and Communication Interns and are now supporting the implementation of ECSA’s events and activities. Find out more about the ECSA Staff here. 

This year the MediaSoundHamburg - an international summer school for FilmMusic, GameMusic and SoundDesign, will take place between June 14th – June 19th in Hamburg.  The program for this year is available on the official website of the school link. The program includes various workshops, master classes and forums where participants work on specific projects and get new ideas for their artistic work. The program will also include such conferences and workshops as Your Music in film, TV & other media, Women in Audio Day and Masterclasses from Nicolas Becker, Sanna Salmenkallio and Ernst Reijseger. The highlight of the program is an exclusive Steinway – manufactory tour and concert on June 15th at 15:00. 

As an institutional partner of the Cannes Film Festival, Sacem honoured film composers and offered the chance to meet them, listen to their works and explore how they work with film directors. Among the events, Spot the Composeroffered a program designed to connect film composers, their agents, and music supervisors with feature film directors and producers that are in search of original music for their projects. This event was held on the 21- 22 of May as a part of the Cannes Festival's Film Market. 10 international film music composers were chosen to participate in exclusive one-on-one meetings with selected film directors and producers. Find out all about the key events related to film music this year in Cannes here. 

SoundTrack_Cologne 19 - a European leading congress for music and sound in film has announced this year’s programme! This year the Composing for Film day will take place on Friday, June 10, 2022.  Among the panellists: Sanna Salmenkallio, John Ottman, Jon Ekstrand and Ádám Balázs. The TV Series Day will take place on June 11th and will feature: Hesham Nazih, Hannah von Hübbenet, Christoph Schauer und Max Files and Giorgio Giampà. On Thursday 9th June, ECSA Secretary General Marc du Moulin will also join ECSA Board Members: Anselm Kreuzer and Jesper Hansen and other experts for an Update on Media Music Politics which will focus on on AI-generated music, buyouts and coercive publishing. For more information about the programme, click  here.

The 30th anniversary ceremony of the Polar Music Prizes took place in Stockholm on Tuesday (May 24). The Polar Music Prize is one of the most prestigious and unique music prizes in the world, crossing over musical boundaries and awarded to individuals, groups and institutions in recognition of exceptional achievements. Iggy Pop, born James Newell Osterberg and the Ensemble intercontemporain were presented with the 2022 Polar Music Prize. The honour was presented to the three Laureates by King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden. Each recipient will receive prize money of one million Swedish Krona (EURO 95k / US $100k). Find more about the Prize and the Winners here.

On 26th May 2022, CISAC, the international network of collective management organisations published its 2022 Annual Report, outlining its work for creators and other rights-holders. Key workstreams outlined in the report include notably the extension of the ISWC music identifier and improvements in music data reporting, developing digital income streams including live-streaming and video games, the impact of AI on authors rights, and the expanding educational campaign on buyouts Your Music Your Future International. The Report is available to download in English, French and Spanish.