News

As some of our readers may know, in 2012 Pierre Lescure was appointed to lead a well-timed consultation on cultural policy in the digital era by the French government. Yesterday, he presented his findings to the French President, Françoise Hollande and the culture minister Aurélie Filippetti. Sacem, our French author society, has welcomed the report with much interest.

Many of SACEM’s suggestions have been taken into account in the report. The society is pleased that the report demonstrates an underlying concern for the protection of artists’ remuneration. It also applauds the report’s positive attitude towards the cultural industry and its acknowledgment of the close affinity between music and digital sectors.

The report – some key highlights:

Last week, as part of its first Masterclass, SGAE (the Spanish author society) interviewed Francisco Fonseca Morillo, Head of the European Commission representation in Spain.

Mr Fonseca Morillo talked openly about both the protection of intellectual property rights and the promotion of cultural industries in Europe.

Key highlights:

• Mr Fonseca Morillo reiterated that the European cultural industries represent some 4% of European Gross Domestic Product, employing some 6.7 million people.

• Mr Fonseca Morillo presented the Creative Europe Programme, a new instrument that will run from 2014 to 2020. Creative Europe will give artists and professionals from the sector access to an ever-broader public.

• Mr Fonseca Morillo emphasised that the Commission’s priority is to protect creators’ intellectual property rights via an efficient strategy that extends within and across the Europe – a crucial condition for ensuring that they are being fairly remunerated.

• Licenses for Europe, was referred to by Mr Fonseca Morillo as a vital dialogue between all stakeholders in the creative sector. This dialogue, that the creators of this platform are deeply engaged with, is a crucial path towards the innovative solutions that are needed to make the single market work.

• Touching on the ongoing EU-US trade deal talks, Mr Fonseca Morillo mentioned that some economic aspects of the creative sector will be included in the negotiations, but that the European Commission will continue to conserve the uniqueness of its cultural heritage through the cultural exception.

You can read the full article here in Spanish.

A new constellation of stars has seen the light of day in the Nordic area. The three collecting organisations Koda, TONO and Teosto have formed the “Polaris Nordic” alliance which aims at reducing costs and further enhancing the quality of their business.

The future role of Polaris Nordic is to develop and run a joint back-end system for music reporting and distribution of the revenues collected by the organisations. The first two systems, Polaris REP and Polaris DIS are in the pipeline and are expected to be used by all three organisations by the end of 2013. Koda, TONO and Teosto are among the world’s most efficient and lean collecting societies, and the aim is to further reduce their costs by working together and using the same system.