Armonia is the only project of its type to be up and running. It reinforces cultural diversity in Europe and meets the objectives of transparency and efficiency laid out by the European Commission and included in the draft directive on collective management of authors’ rights. Europe’s first portal for licences for on-line services is a veritable symbol of efficient cooperation between collective management societies – to the benefit of authors, composers and music publishers and the advantage of users.

The agreement signed with Google in November and June illustrates the effectiveness of Armonia: it enables its different components – including Google Music Play (Store, Subscription and Locker) – to access the repertoires of Armonia member-societies all over Europe and, for some of the repertoires, in countries in Asia, the Middle East, the Arabian Peninsula, Africa and the Indian sub-continent.

Quote from Natalia Garzon Pacheco (SGAE’s General Manager and President of the Management Board of Armonia)
“Armonia welcomes with open arms the joining of Sabam and Artisjus. These new members represent a step forward in the aggregation of key European repertoires, providing users with a greater variety of works which benefit both music service providers and consumers in general, giving an effective and simple licensing solution. The inclusion of the Belgian and Hungarian repertoires thereby strengthens cultural diversity, the basic principle which inspired the creation of Armonia, in order to ensure fair remuneration for authors and creators. Armonia is a great economic opportunity for creators in the online market, who need to be more competitive than ever in our global world, where territorial borders have disappeared and been replaced by the emergence of a new multi-territorial market for music.”

Quote from Dr. Andràs Szinger (Artisjus)
A small repertoire society cannot be anything but open to new challenges. We are happy to be the first authors’ society from Central and Eastern Europe to join a music licensing hub. It also reflects that our quest for more efficiency and transparency in managing authors’ rights has been fruitful. We see our role in the future as a society that answers the needs of music creators and music users alike.

Quote from Christophe Depreter (Sabam)
“SABAM is pleased to join Armonia and to share with it the negotiation of digital licenses of its repertoire in 32 countries. The online music repertoire is unfortunately fragmented, making it considerably more complicated for the users to obtain the necessary licenses. Armonia simplifies and accelerates obtaining these licenses to the benefit of consumers and creators. Authors and publishers affiliated to SABAM will thus profit from this association. Not only does the repertoire managed by Armonia grow, it also constitutes another step towards simplifying online licenses, as requested by the European Commission.”

Created at the initiative of Sacem, SGAE and SIAE, Armonia is a one-stop shop that aims to encourage the issuance of pan-European licenses. A European Economic Interest Grouping (EEIG) created on 30 April 2013, Armonia represents 6.5 million works in 32 countries; it covers the repertoires of Sacem (France), Sacem Luxembourg, Sgae (Spain), Siae (Italy) and Spa (Portugal) in Europe, as well as a bulk of Anglo-American and Latin-American works and now the works of Artisjus (Hungary) and Sabam (Belgium).

Please find the original press release on the Armonia website here:http://www.sacem.fr/cms/site/en/lang/en/home/about-sacem/documentation/the-last-one/artisjus-sabam-join-armonia-september2013