News from ECSA: January 2025

On 15 February at 12:00 CET, Nordic Film Music Days (NFMD) and ECSA co-organise the panel “Breaking Down the Contract in the Era of Streaming” at the European Film Market in Berlin, organised in the frame of Berlinale. Co-funded by Creative Europe, the seminar puts focus on contracts with the big streamers, with a special attention to the role of music publishers. What can publishers do to pave the way for a composer? What contractual details should one be careful about when it comes to productions created for streaming services? Touching on various contractual elements that are crucial when working with streaming services, Pär Frid (Composer, SKAP), Wendi Pendeza Kazonza (GILT), Barbara Persyn (Strike A Score), and moderator Jesper Hansen (Composer, ECSA Vice-President) will highlight potential pitfalls and best practices for creators. Register for free via the link below.

On 13 February, ECSA and the Screen Composers Guild of Canada (SCGC) host the fourth  International Creators Dialogue titled “Artificial Intelligence: Mapping the Future for Screen Composers" at the Embassy of Canada in Berlin, Germany. The discussion will be moderated by Marc Ouellette (Chairman of the Board, SOCAN) and will feature Anna Jahn (Senior Policy Director, Mila - Institut québécois d’intelligence artificelle), Andrea Kokonis (Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel, SOCAN), Micki Meuser (President, DEFKOM, Board Member, GEMA) and Marc du Moulin (Secretary-General, ECSA). The International Creators Dialogue (co-funded under the Creative Europe programme) is an event series dedicated to enhancing exchange with counterparts' networks and music authors’ organisations in the Americas, Asia and Africa. The panel is organised in the frame of SCGC’s International Screen Composer Leadership Summit (more info below). For more information on how to attend, please contact SCGC’s Executive Director Tonya Dedrick via tkdedrick@screencomposers.ca.

On 13 and 14 February, the Screen Composers Guild of Canada (SCGC) organises its International Screen Composers Leadership Summit in Berlin, alongside Berlinale and the Nordic Film Music Days. Uniting Canadian and international screen music experts, the event will host discussions on AI in screen composing, composer rights, and more. Both days will feature small group discussions, idea sharing, networking opportunities, and expert insights on key issues facing the screen composer community and its leaders. Next to the co-organised panel with ECSA outlined above, confirmed speakers for the summit include among others ECSA Vice-President Jesper Hansen. The summit is targeted at screen composers in leadership roles within their trade organisations or Collective Management Organisations. Limited virtual participation will also be available. For information on how to attend, please contact SCGC’s Executive Director Tonya Dedrick via tkdedrick@screencomposers.ca.

On 18 February, ECSA Secretary General Marc du Moulin participates in the panel “How Music Composers Can Find Their Voice And Their Paycheck in the Film Industry” at Afro Film Music Days in Berlin. The panel focuses on the monetization opportunities that recent developments in film music, such as the rise of digital distribution, streaming platforms, and new technological avenues bring for composers. Marc will be joined by Godwin Tom (Sony Music Publishing Nigeria), Keziah Myers (Advance Music Canada), and Gitte Bendzulla (Deezer). Afro Film Music Days showcases the business of music in the film industry across the African diaspora. Organised by Sydney Levine, founder of SydneyBuzz, in partnership with Yanibes Foundation and in association with the European Film Market, the conference connects composers, publishers, producers, and stakeholders from the entire film ecosystem. Find more info on the programme below.

On 21 January, German music collecting society GEMA announced that they filed a lawsuit against Suno Inc., a US provider of AI-generated audio content. In the lawsuit, filed with the Munich Regional Court, GEMA accuses Suno of processing copyright-protected recordings from GEMA’s repertoire without paying for their use. The CMO was able to gather evidence that Suno’s tool outputs content that is clearly copyright-infringing and copies the melody, harmony and rhythm of several famous songs created by GEMA members. In a statement, GEMA CEO Tobias Holzmüller highlighted that AI output “competes with the works created by humans and deprives them of their economic basis”. ECSA warmly welcomes GEMA’s lawsuit, the second action taken from GEMA against an AI provider after suing OpenAI in November 2024 for the unlicensed use of protected song lyrics.

On 20 December, the outgoing Hungarian Presidency of the EU published the results of its “Policy questionnaire on the relationship between generative AI and copyright and related rights”, initially sent to EU Member States in June 2024. Among other things, the document unveiled skepticism on the applicability of the text and data mining (TDM) exception of the 2019 Copyright Directive to generative AI. According to several Member States, copyright uses for AI training go beyond the scope of TDM exception, while a few others noted that the exception would not satisfy the three-step test if applied in a broad sense. Several Member States also expressed concerns on the practical use of the opt-out (reservation of rights). Overall, most respondents favoured however a “wait and see” approach, opposing the introduction of new legislation and waiting for the full implementation of the AI Act and the related Code of Practice, the latter of which should be finalised by May 2025. Find the complete results via the link below.

In a different policy questionnaire published on 15 January, the Policy Presidency of the EU, which will hold the helm of the EU Council for the next six months, is requesting the opinions of Member States on challenges faced by collective management organisations (CMOs) in the EU. The consultation, which comes ahead of next year’s revision of the 2019 Copyright Directive, aims at collecting insights on four topics: generative AI, the relationship between CMOs and online platforms, supervision and transparency of CMOs, and independent management entities. In relation to AI, the Presidency highlights the creative sectors’ “growing calls for clarity regarding consent, transparency, and fair remuneration for authors and performers”, and that a “win-win approach” for both rightsholders and AI providers could be achieved through the development of “healthy and fair licensing marketing.” The consultation also includes questions on licensing content for AI training and on challenges with expressing and identifying the rights reservations. Find the questionnaire at the link below.

Last month, German Collective Management Organisation GEMA interviewed ECSA Board Member Anselm Kreuzer about artificial intelligence. In the interview, Anselm talks about the impact AI has on music authors, and about what opportunities and risks it brings for composers. The full interview is available (in German) below.

This month, Nordic Film Music Days (NFMD), taking place from 15-17 February at Nordische Botschaften in Berlin, announced its programme. The conference is packed with seminars, networking events, film screenings, and the HARPA Nordic Film Composers Awards. All activities celebrate Nordic craftmanship and Nordic film making at its best from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Since 2010, NFMD has been the place where composers, musicians, producers and directors within the film and music industry communicate, start future collaborations, educate, and network. This year’s programme also includes a seminar co-organised with ECSA (see item above). Click here for more information on the conference, including info on the nominated scores for the HARPA Nordic Film Composer Awards.

From 23 January to 6 February, Belgian ECSA member Forum de la Création Musicale offers a varied program of concerts with the LOOP Festival. Launched in 2008, the LOOP Festival - a festival of classical contemporary, electroacoustic and mixed music from Belgium and elsewhere - takes place every two years between January and February. Its programming aims to represent all the aesthetic trends of its community over the course of its editions. For this 14th edition, the festival presents a varied program at several venues in Brussels, offering 7 events, including audiovisual shows, piano recitals, musical theater for young audiences, and evenings dedicated to electronic music.

A consortium of organisations is inviting you to take part in a survey being conducted for the European Commission. The survey is part of a study on the discoverability of European music and books in the digital environment (to which ECSA has also been contributing) and its findings will help shape policies at EU and national level to promote cultural diversity and improve the visibility of European music and books online. The survey takes about 10 minutes and is available in several languages including French, Spanish and German.

Film music conference SoundTrack_Cologne, taking place from 8-11 July 2025 in Cologne, Germany, invites film composers and filmmakers to submit their short films with their original compositions in the call for the Peer Raben Music Award 2025. The award, now in its 17th edition, will award a prize of 1500€ to the film scores that stand out for their innovation and for coherently reinforcing narration from music and sound. The submission deadline for the competition is 15 April 2025. Short films with a maximum length of 15 minutes are eligible. Find the full eligibility criteria via the link below.