News from ECSA: June 2026

On 5 and 6 June, ECSA's Board Member Johan van der Voet and European Affairs Officer Giacomo Bonetti participated in the Composers Soundtracks Festival (CSF) in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The festival brought together composers, filmmakers, and other professionals from Brazil and Europe to celebrate the art of film- and audiovisual music. During a presentation held on Friday, Giacomo provided an overview of today’s key challenges facing audiovisual composers in Europe, including harmful contractual practices such as buy-out contracts and pseudo-publishing practices (as also highlighted in our 2025 report on Audiovisual Composers Contracts). On Saturday, Johan van der Voet participated in a panel discussion on music supervision in Brazil and Europe, joined by Marcos Souza (Musimagem President) and composer Jeffrey Scott Pearson. On Friday, Johan performed live during a concert featuring original music and film scores by composers from Brazil and Europe. We warmly thank CSF for providing a platform for these crucial discussions.

On 2 June, 26 organisations from across the European music sector, including ECSA, welcomed the draft report by Members of the European Parliament Emma Rafowicz (France - S&D) and Alice Kuhnke (Sweden - Greens/EFA), and its recognition of music as a dedicated strand within AgoraEU. As stated in the letter, the proposed Culture – Music strand is a significant step forward and responds to a long-running ask from the sector for targeted support that reflects music’s economic, cultural and social weight as well as its specific structure and challenges. We encourage policy makers to ensure the music strand within AgoraEU has the funding, sector dialogue and practical tools needed to deliver long-term support.

Last week, ECSA submitted its response to a European Commission call for evidence on the review of the EU copyright framework, including the 2019 Copyright in the Digital Single Market (CDSM) Directive. The initiative aimed to collect stakeholders’ feedback to support the review of the Directive, with a focus on the challenges linked to the exercise of copyright and related rights in the context of AI and potential ways to address them. ECSA’s response focussed on four key issues: AI services’ unlicensed use of authors’ works and the inability to reserve rights effectively; the lack of transparency of AI services; the need for licensing agreements to be transparent and benefit all rightsholders; the need to tackle unfair competition and substitution by AI, and prevent the fraudulent dissemination of AI deep fakes impersonating artists. ECSA firmly supports the introduction of an additional legal framework to address these issues, in line with the recommendations recently put forward by the European Parliament’s Voss report and by EU Member States. In addition, ECSA stressed the urgent need to address pitfalls in the implementation of Article 18 to 23 of the Directive which create ongoing challenges for music authors’ fair remuneration. We thank all our members who submitted individual responses to further strengthen the voice of European music authors on these vital issues. 

Soundtrack Cologne, one of Europe's leading congresses for music and sound in film, games and media, will take place from 14-17 July in Cologne, Germany. On 14 July, ECSA President Helienne Lindvall will deliver a keynote speech at the conference’s opening. In addition, Helienne will participate in a roundtable on 15 July on rights attribution for AI works. During the roundtable, scheduled from 12:00 to 13:00, Helienne, Michael Duderstädt (GEMA) and Dr. S. Dennis Engbrink, LL.M. (Zirngibl Lawyers) will explore the most pressing questions and latest developments regarding AI and music. The roundtable is part of AI MusicCon, a full-day strand of Soundtrack Cologne featuring 16 events dedicated exclusively to AI and music.  

Earlier this month, The Atlantic uncovered four giant datasets of songs exploited by generative AI music generators – only four examples of the many sources available to those AI companies active in Europe. As part of AI Watchdog, the outlet provides a search tool allowing music creators to know if their works have been included in these datasets. Plenty of ECSA members have already seen that these datasets include their works without their consent - and the list keeps growing. This is yet a further indication that most generative AI companies have exploited all works available online without any consent, transparency, remuneration, or respect for any reservation of rights. The tool shows that transparency is technically possible, despite AI companies’ claims to the contrary. More info on The Atlantic’s investigation in the article below.

On 18 June, the EU institutions signed the Joint Declaration "Europe for Culture - Culture for Europe". ECSA welcomes the Declaration and looks forward to these commitments being turned into bold and concrete initiatives that can truly benefit artists and creators. Among other things, the declaration features commitments on ethical, sustainable and responsible use of AI through a human-centric and rights-based approach, including protecting IP by addressing the impacts of AI on creators and their fair remuneration and fostering transparency of AI-generated content. Furthermore, we welcome the declaration’s commitments to promote the diversity of European cultural works and content, its emphasis on working conditions, including the promotion of fair remuneration, and its commitment to safeguard the freedom of artistic expression. We encourage all EU policymakers to ensure creators and artists can concretely benefit from these commitments through concrete measures, including the  review of the CDSM Directive and an additional legal framework to promote a well-functioning AI licensing market.

On 20 and 21 June, the fifth edition of Composer’s Day took place across the Netherlands, with more than 100 concerts and activities in over fifteen cities. Organised by New Music NOW (of which ECSA member Nieuw Geneco is a collaborative partner), this year’s edition included live music on regular Dutch Railways trains for the first time, while nine City Composers premiered newly commissioned city songs for their cities. The festival concluded at TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht, where the Dutch Radio Philharmonic Orchestra took part in Composer’s Day for the first time with an evening dedicated entirely to new Dutch music. The next edition of Composer’s Day will take place on 19 and 20 June 2027. Find more info in the press release (in Dutch) below.

From 9-15 May, Polish ECSA member SPACe (Society of Polish Audiovisual Composers) organised SyncCamp Zakopane, bringing together 15 composers from Poland, Latvia, Iceland, the Netherlands, Finland, South Korea and Hungary for a week of international collaborations focused on music for film, television and advertising. Participants worked in teams on audiovisual briefs presented by music supervisors Patrycja Bukowska (Poland), Lena Obara (Germany), Livy Rodriguez and Jenna Wilson (USA). The programme also featured film composer and ECSA Honorary Vice-President Luis Ivars, who served as a mentor, offering artistic guidance and sharing his professional experience with emerging composers. The camp combined creative work, networking and industry discussions, fostering new international partnerships and opportunities in the audiovisual music sector.

On 28 May, the Council of Danish Artists launched a Fair Practice Code for the arts and cultural sector in Denmark during two events in Copenhagen and Aarhus, Denmark. The code is created in close collaboration with Fair Practice Culture, an initiative run by ECSA Member Danish Composers Society and the Association of Visual Artists in Denmark. The project is the result of a three-year process to establish a fair practice movement in Denmark to improve working conditions for artists and freelancers. So far, the initiative led to collaborations with the municipality of Copenhagen to implement the Fair Practice Code in their support scheme for arts and culture, and to agreements with organisers and producers in the cultural scene in Copenhagen.

During its Annual General Assembly at STMPD Studios in Amsterdam, Dutch ECSA Member BCMM awarded composer and producer Stephen Emmer the title of Ambassador of Media Music, a distinction granted for the first time. The title recognises his contribution to media composition and his work in education through lectures and workshops at institutions such as HKU (Utrecht University of the Arts) and conservatories. The award coincides with Emmer’s decision to step back from active media composition. He will focus on independent projects and remain involved with BCMM in an advisory and mentoring role.

On 16 May, as part of the Audiovisual Forum at the Krakow Film Music Festival, Polish ECSA Member SPACe organised the panel “Who Gets Paid? The Hidden Economics of Film Music”, dedicated to often overlooked financial realities of working as a film and audiovisual composer. The discussion brought together composer and ECSA Honorary Vice-President Luis Ivars, SPACe President Marek Hojda, and composer Łukasz Targosz and was moderated by music supervisor Lena Obara. The panel explored copyright, royalties, buy-outs, publishing, synchronisation and the various revenue streams available to composers working in film, TV and games. The session highlighted the growing need for practical industry knowledge, fair remuneration and greater transparency around creators’ rights in the audiovisual sector.

Last month, German ECSA member organisation Deutscher Komponist:innenverband (DKV), elected a new Board: President Alexander Strauch, Vice-President Hans Lüdemann, Fabian Blum, Franz-Michael Deimling, Rainer Fabich, Johannes Hildebrandt, Uli Pohl, Charlotte Seither and Andreas Wolff. The DKV aims to strengthen composers’ shared voice across genres. Key issues such as AI, streaming remuneration, cultural funding cuts, public broadcasting reform and music education require coordinated action. The association will also closely follow the implementation of GEMA’s cultural funding reform, and will advocate for fair, cross-genre solutions.

We're excited to announce that the next European Contemporary Composers Orchestra (ECCO) Concert will take place in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 10 October 2026 at Koncertkirken Blågårds Plads. For this edition, the wonderful Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen, under the direction of Susanne Blumenthal, will perform six selected works, carefully selected by the ECCO Steering Committee out of 146 applications for the ECCO call for works. Find all selected works on this link. This edition is organised with the support of Creative Europe, and in partnership with Kyiv Contemporary Music Days and dissemination partner Art Music Denmark. More information on how to attend the concert will follow soon.

Earlier this month, we published the fourth episode of our Tune in Dialogues Podcast series. The episode contains a recording of the panel "AI, Transparency, and Fairness in Today's Music Streaming Ecosystem", held at our conference on "Authors’ Rights and Music Streaming in the Age of AI" on 2 June. During the panel, Nathalie Birocheau (CEO and Co-founder, Ircam Amplify), Helen Smith (Executive Chair, IMPALA),  Tobias Stenkjaer (Chair of Danish Pop Auteurs and ECSA Board Member) and moderator Fabien Miclet (European Affairs Consultant) discussed the impact of AI-generated music on the music streaming ecosystem. Among other things, they covered the challenges this impact poses to music creators, the effects AI-generated music and algorithmic recommendations have, and what can be done by policy makers and industry stakeholders to address and tackle these issues.

This month, AMPLIFY, a Horizon Europe project exploring human-centred digital innovation in live music and the cultural and creative industries, published a survey addressed to musicians, producers, engineers and promoters. The project consists of a consortium of artists, technologists and researchers from 8 European countries dedicated to supporting the digital transformation and innovation of the cultural and creative industries. The survey explores how AI is perceived and experienced by artists working in live music, including their hopes, concerns and expectations. The survey is anonymous and remains open until 31 July 2026.

Nordic Music Days has launched its open call for the 2027 edition of the festival, inviting composers and artists from the Nordic countries, the Baltics and Scotland to submit works for consideration to be performed at the festival. The festival, initiated by the Council of Nordic Composers, takes place in Helsinki, Finland, from 10 to 13 November 2027. Applicants may submit one work to one of the six open call categories, covering a wide range of artistic formats. The deadline for submissions is 24 August 2026. Further information on eligibility criteria and submission details is available at the link below.