News

The French, like all of us, love culture. We all listen to music, go to the cinema, watch television, listen to the radio, read newspapers, magazines and books, play video games, and enjoy going to shows, museums and art events. We all know that culture makes our lives richer and more enjoyable. Yet the value of the cultural and creative sector in economic terms is not as well-known. This means it can be underestimated at times.

A new study has been published in France to set the record straight. Here are the most striking facts we have spotted in the study:

• Cultural and creative industries employ 1.2 million people in France, which is 5% of the country’s job market. What’s more, most of these jobs cannot be moved offshore.
• The annual revenue of the sector (€61,4bn) exceeds that of the automobile industry (€60,4bn) and of the luxury goods industry (€52,5bn). It is almost equivalent to the revenue generated by the telecommunications industry (€66,2bn) and the revenue of the chemical sector (€68,7bn).
• The French cultural and creative sector has produced European and international champions: the n° 1 music production company in the world (Universal Music Group); two of the international leaders in web-based streaming services: audio (Deezer), and video (Dailymotion); the 2^nd largest publishing group worldwide (Hachette), and the 3^rd largest video game publisher (Ubisoft).

You might have seen our tweets yesterday at the Licences for Europe plenary meeting, which closed a 9-month cross-sector effort to identify solutions to bring more content online. Speaking at the event, EU Commissioner Michel Barnier shared a personal conviction: the next European Commission, which takes charge at the end of 2014, will have to present a strategy to support cultural and creative industries. This French study and a recent European study on the same sector give statistical evidence that confirms the cultural and creative sector is worth it.

The English version of the study’s website (www.francecreative.fr) will be available at the beginning of next week and the study later in the month.

GESAC is pleased to announce today at the European Commission’s Licences for Europe plenary a new commitment to support licensing for small scale uses and users. The commitment will see best practice guidelines promoted across authors societies in the EU and benefit a wide range of copyright users, such as schools, museums and small online businesses.

GESAC, on behalf of the 33 author societies it represents, will today present at the Licences for Europe Plenary Meeting an initiative developed by collective management organisations (CMOs) to simplify the licensing for a very wide range of activities from small-scale users and individuals (e.g. start-up businesses, background music on websites, schools concerts online, wedding videos, small-scale web/podcasting etc.). GESAC is committed to develop “Best Practice Guidelines” in this regard.
This new commitment is in addition to the significant progress in promoting the availability of cross-border music services, which has already been welcomed by the European Commission. Digital music services have developed vastly in the last few years, the market continues to grow, and repertoires from across the EU are widely available throughout the EU, reflecting the cultural diversity of Europe.

GESAC is pleased to announce today at the European Commission’s Licences for Europe plenary a new commitment to support licensing for small scale uses and users. The commitment will see best practice guidelines promoted across authors societies in the EU and benefit a wide range of copyright users, such as schools, museums and small online businesses.
GESAC, on behalf of the 33 author societies it represent, will today present at the Licences for Europe Plenary Meeting an initiative developed by collective management organisations (CMOs) to simplify the licensing for a very wide range of activities from small-scale users and individuals (e.g. start-up businesses, background music on websites, schools concerts online, wedding videos, small-scale web/podcasting etc.). GESAC is committed to develop “Best Practice Guidelines” in this regard.
This new commitment is in addition to the significant progress in promoting the availability of cross-border music services, which has already been welcomed by the European Commission. Digital music services have developed vastly in the last few years, the market continues to grow, and repertoires from across the EU are widely available throughout the EU, reflecting the cultural diversity of Europe.
Veronique Desbrosses, General Manager of GESAC said: “We welcome initiatives, such as L4E, that facilitated dialogues between stakeholders. CMOs are offering market solutions tailored to the specific needs of the users on a cross-border basis. We plan to launch further initiatives in the near future as result of our fruitful co-operations with the participants of this exercise”.