News from ECSA: October 2024

On 21 October, ECSA published its Manifesto to place the needs and priorities of music authors at the heart of Europe’s future policies. The Manifesto outlines the various challenges faced by our members, including AI companies using their works without consent or transparency, dismal streaming royalties, unfair contractual practices, and a pervasive lack of transparency and accountability across the music industry. In the past years, EU institutions and several European countries adopted various recommendations and actions to address those challenges. They now need to convert the try and turn these initiatives into reality. Therefore, our Manifesto puts forward 19 concrete recommendations for policy makers to achieve an equitable, sustainable, and thriving future for European music creators. Find our Manifesto below or read more in our press release.

On 15 October, ECSA co-organised its latest ECSA 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. The panel was organised with the support of Creative Europe. We thank all the panellists for the inspiring conversation and WSA Ghent for having us at another great conference. You can now watch back a recording of the panel via the link below.

On 15-16 October, ECSA Secretary General Marc du Moulin joined the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO)’s Plenary meeting in Alicante, Spain. As one of the members of the EUIPO Observatory, ECSA welcomed the increased focus of the EUIPO on copyright and underlined the need to take into account the views of authors while moving forward. Regarding copyright infrastructure, ECSA wishes to improve the identification of music authors through better metadata on music streaming services, in line with the recommendations outlined in the European Parliament’s report on music streaming. The Observatory can play a valuable role in supporting this objective, notably by ensuring that complete and accurate song metadata is attached to all recordings from the point of release, as promoted by the industry-supported Credits Due initiative. It is also crucial to support initiatives that promote awareness among young creators and rightholders of the importance of metadata and the proper registration of their works. We thank the EUIPO for having us in Alicante and look forward to continuing working together.

On 1 November, ECSA President Helienne Lindvall participates in the panel “The Artist as a Catalyst for Social Change” at Nordic Music Days in Glasgow, Scotland. Together with panellists Natalie Hyacinth Maja Ratkje, Tania Rubio, and Miké Thomsen, she will discuss the powerful role that artists, musicians, and composers can play in driving social change, sharing insights and examples of lobbying, disseminating ideas, and broadening public discourse. Nordic Music Days is a conference providing two days of exchange and discussion on current musical practices across the Nordic region and Scotland.

This year’s edition of Soundtrack_Zurich, a conference on film and music media organised on the sideline of the Zurich Film Festival, took place on 4-6 October. ECSA Secretary General Marc du Moulin spoke at the opening reception of the event, together with Christian Jungen (ZFF Festival Director), Michael P. Aust (SoundTrack_Zurich), Corinna Marschall (Director, MEDIA Desk Suisse), Andreas Wegelin (CEO, SUISA), Nicolas Rabaeus (SONART) and Pierre Funck (Forum Filmmusik). The event brought together professionals from the audiovisual sector for panels, networking sessions, case studies and workshops addressing current issues in today's film and media music scene.

On 1-2 October, the Hungarian Presidency of the EU organised the conference “IP in the Age of Artificial Intelligence” in Budapest, where policymakers and IP experts came together to discuss the impact of AI. ECSA European Affairs Officer Giacomo Bonetti attended the conference, which included two roundtables on creators and cultural diversity. The first focussed on creators’ remuneration and AI debating potential solutions for licensing and remuneration of both input and output of AI models, while the second roundtable explored the importance of ensuring cultural diversity in the training of AI models.

The European Parliament (EP) has announced the schedule of the hearings of the Commissioners-designates. Between 4-12 November, each Commissioner-designate will appear in front of their assigned EP committees for a round of questions that will assess their suitability for the job. The EP will then cast a vote on the proposed College of Commissioners as a whole at the plenary session on 25-28 November. In advance of the hearings, Commissioners-designate had to reply to a series of written questions submitted by the committees. Notably, in its questions to Commissioners-designate Henna Virkkunen (DG CNECT), the Legal Affairs (JURI) Committee highlighted key issues related to generative AI and copyright, including on the appropriate remuneration of creators, copyright infringement by AI, and the possible copyright protection of AI output. The Committee also inquired about her plans to coordinate an AI strategy for the cultural and creative industries with Commissioner-designate Micallef (DG EAC). ECSA welcomes these key questions and thanks the JURI Committee for highlighting the challenges posed by AI for authors and creators, as outlined in our joint letter to MEPs published in July 2024.

On 30 October, ECSA co-signed a statement coming from a broad coalition of creators and rightholders organisations, calling for a meaningful implementation of the EU AI Act in order to enable creators and rightholders to exercise and enforce their rights when it comes to ingesting and copying copyright-protected works for training by AI models. While reiterating support for the aims of the AI Act, the statement expresses concerns about generative AI companies taking creators’ content without authorisation in order to develop their models. It also urges policy makers to ensure the AI Act addresses such malpractices and respects the core principles of fair market competition and fair remuneration for creators and right holders. To do so, the statement calls for a meaningful implementation of various obligations for general purpose AI model providers, such as to make publicly available a sufficiently detailed summary of the content used for training of their models, as well as the obligation to demonstrate that they have put in place policies to respect EU copyright law. Find the full statement via GESAC's website below.

On 23 and 24 October, the International Council of Music Creators (CIAM) hosted its General Assembly in Montreal, Canada. The General Assembly is CIAM’s key annual gathering of music creators, thought leaders, and industry professionals. The programme included keynotes, industry panels, awards, and a women’s songwriting camp. ECSA Board Member Ole Henrik Antonsen represented ECSA at the GA, and reported on ECSA’s recent and future activities and advocacy priorities. The GA also saw the announcement of election results for the new CIAM Presidency and Executive Committee for 2024-2026. ECSA warmly congratulates Arriën Molema as newly elected CIAM President, as well as newly elected Executive Committee members Amanda Brown, Crispin Hunt, Carlos Lara, Eleanor McEnvoy, Stan Meissner, Thando Nyameni, Facundo Saravia and Ralf Weigand.

On 14 November, ECSA Vice-President Zahra Mani will hold a keynote about music streaming at the second edition of the Initiative Urheberrecht Österreich conference in Vienna, Austria. Building on the recent European Parliament report on the conditions of authors in music streaming, the keynote will discuss how to fix the unsustainably low levels of remuneration of music creators, the lack of transparency of recommendation systems, and cultural diversity. In addition to streaming, this year’s edition of the conference will also focus on AI and remuneration rules for rightsholders. Register below to attend in person or follow via livestream.

Earlier this month, ECSA co-signed a statement denouncing the unlicensed use of creative works for the training of generative AI as a  “major, unjust threat to the livelihoods of the people behind those works” which must not be permitted. The statement has been signed by over 32,000 creators and 100 authors’, performers’ and rightholders organisations. The initiative was launched by Ed Newton-Rex, founder of Fairly Trained, a non-profit organisation that aims to get a fairer deal for composers in relation to generative AI.

On 24 October, CISAC published its yearly Global Collections Report. The report indicates that royalty collections in Europe increased by 8.1% in 2023, reaching €7.2 billion and representing 55% of global collections. Royalties from digital grew by 11.5% thanks to an increase in the price of streaming subscriptions, while subscriber numbers growth slowed down. At 28.9%, digital represented for the first time the largest share of royalties in Europe, although with significant differences among countries (46.3% in the UK, 14.3% in Italy). Worryingly, TV and radio collections, previously the largest sector, fell 4.5%, with large decreases in Spain (-29%) and France (-7%), but also in Germany, Italy and the UK.

On 9 October, the Working Group on Cultural Diversity (ARGE Kulturelle Vielfalt) of UNESCO’s Austrian Commission, of which ECSA Vice-President Zahra Mani is a member,  launched an appeal against the FPÖ’s participation in the next government following the recent election results. Denouncing the party’s nationalistic politics and the threat they pose to democracy, the appeal warns of dire consequences for cultural diversity, including the destruction of Austria's cultural landscape, a decimation of its funding and infrastructure, diminished diversity and equality, and a loss of media diversity and opinions. Read the statement in full at the link below.

On 25 November, Initiative Urheberrecht (Authors’ Rights Initiative) organises a conference on authors’ rights at the Academy of Arts, Pariser Platz, in Berlin, Germany. The event will focus on the many questions that remain unanswered following the adoption of the EU AI Act, while specifically focusing on licensing/legal action and regulation. Places are limited and the conference will be livestreamed for those unable to attend in person.

Earlier this month, the District Court of Hamburg delivered the first judgement in Europe on the applicability of the text and data mining (TDM) exceptions (Art. 3 and 4) of the 2019 Copyright Directive to the training of generative AI. The lawsuit was brought by a German photographer against German non-profit LAION, on the basis of having used one of his copyrighted pictures to generate a dataset for the training of AI models. The court found that activities carried out by LAION were covered by the TDM exception for scientific research purposes (Art. 3), as the company had made the dataset available for free (the dataset has however been used by AI providers such as StableDiffusion). It is likely that the case will be appealed to a higher court.

In an interview with Variety published on 9 October, French President Emmanuel Macron called for fair remuneration of authors and artists in music streaming, voicing concerns over how these services distribute revenues. Asked about the EU AI Act, Macron recognised flaws with the copyright system, stressing that music streaming undervalues too many music  creators. ECSA has long been advocating for making streaming sustainable for music authors, who receive less than 10% of all revenues made from music streaming.

On 22 October, the European Audiovisual Observatory published a new report titled "AI in the Audiovisual Sector: Navigating the Current Legal Landscape". The report provides an overview of the current use of AI in the AV sector, as well as of the issues related to copyright and data protection. It also identifies and illustrates the five major challenges posed by AI to the AV industry, ranging from questions of authorship and transparency, to personality rights, AI’s impact on the labour market and cultural diversity. Finally, the report examines the future of AI regulation in the sector and the societal and ethical challenges we will be confronted with.

In a communiqué released on 4 October, competition authorities and policymakers from the G7 countries and the EU warned about the risks posed by generative AI to human creativity, innovation and competition. Citing the fact that generative AI relies heavily on human creations for training, authorities warned that it could leave creators undercompensated for their work and stifle human creativity. These risks could be further heightened by the absence of competition, with a few AI providers exercising monopsony power over the use of creators’ work. The communiqué came as the result of a G7 meeting on competition hosted in Rome by the Italian Competition Authority.

It is still possible to register to attend the Camille Awards (European Film Composer Awards) ceremony, which will take place on 13 November 2024 at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) in Paris, France. The Camille Awards ceremony is organised by ECSA and its members U2C, UNAC, and SNAC. During the ceremony, winners in the categories Best Film Score, Best Score for a Feature Documentary, Best Original Music for a Drama Series, and Outstanding Contribution will be revealed. The ceremony will include performances of the Orchestre Pasdeloup to honour European film music.

On 23 October, the latest concert of the European Contemporary Composers Orchestra (ECCO) took place in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The concert was organised by ECSA Member Society of Slovene Composers (Društvo slovenskih skladateljev) with the support of Creative Europe, the Slovenian Ministry of Culture, and the Municipality of Ljubljana. The program included seven pieces performed by the Dissonance Ensemble (Ansambel Dissonance). ECCO is a project dedicated to performing and promoting contemporary art music as well as reaching new audiences.

This month, the Festival international Music & Cinema Marseille opened the call for its yearly  European Market for Film Music Composition Third Character project. The project brings together film production companies, film composers and directors and focuses on highlighting musical composition for image. As such, it gives composers the chance to establish contacts with those who are looking for someone to write original scores. The Market will take place on 27 and 28 March 2025. Producers and directors can submit their project from 15 October to 15 December 2024. Composers can apply from 16 December 2024 to 13 January 2025.

The Fair Music Project, which aims to address the issue of fair remuneration and recognition in the digital environment, has launched a survey to gather feedback from creators on the development of the beta version of their equitable streaming platform. The survey takes less than 5 minutes to complete and we strongly encourage you to fill it in and share your views. Find the survey at the link below.