23 May 2024

David El Sayegh elected as the new President of GESAC

GESAC General Assembly also elects its new Board for 2024-2026 mandate

Brussels, 23 May 2024 – GESAC, the European Grouping of Authors’ Societies (CMOs) gathering 32 authors’ societies from the European Union, Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland, and representing as such more than one million authors and rightholders from all artistic fields, including music, audiovisual, visual arts, literacy, held the elections for its Board and the President for the 2024-2026 mandate, at its statutory General Meeting.

David El Sayegh Dsc7134 Copie©jean Baptiste Millot..jpg Resized

Mr David El Sayegh, Deputy CEO of SACEM (France) is elected as the President of GESAC and will chair the GESAC Board. Mr Gernot Graninger, CEO of AKM/Austromechana (Austria), Mr Victor Finn, CEO of IMRO (Ireland), and Mr András Szinger, CEO of Artisjus (Hungary) are elected as the Vice-Presidents and Mrs Cristina Perpiñá-Robert Navarro, CEO of SGAE (Spain), Mrs Laura Baškevičienė, CEO of Latga (Lithuania), Mr Tobias Holzmüller, CEO of GEMA (Germany), Mr Risto Salminen, CEO of TEOSTO (Finland) and Mr José Jorge Letria, President of SPA (Portugal) are elected as members of the Board.

David El Sayegh said: “I am thrilled to take over the Presidency of GESAC following the successful tenure of Gernot Graninger over the last two and a half years, and most thankful to GESAC members for the trust and confidence they have placed in me. I would like to congratulate Gernot for his outstanding job as the President, and very much count on his continuous contribution to GESAC as a Vice-President of the Board. Together with the elected Board members and the three Vice-Presidents, I look forward to starting this close cooperation with Adriana Moscoso del Prado, as the new General Manager, and Burak Özgen as Deputy General Manager, to serve the interests of GESAC members and the authors they represent in the best possible way. Huge opportunities and challenges lie ahead of us in an ever-changing digital content market. Our duty is first and foremost to ensure that authors’ rights get the protection they need and European culture continues to flourish regardless of the technology and the business model. For this, we very much rely on the commitment and dedication of EU policy-makers to uphold European rules and values.”

Gernot Graninger said: “It has been both a pleasure and a privilege for me to serve as the President of GESAC for the past mandate, during which we dealt with a number of issues that impact authors and composers across Europe. I am happy to pass the baton to David for the Presidency and looking forward to continuing to contribute to GESAC’s essential mission for authors and their societies at EU level, as a Vice-President of the Board during the next mandate.”

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For more information:

Véronique Desbrosses l +33 6 62 45 2601 l veronique.desbrosses@gesac.org

www.authorsocieties.eu / @authorsocieties

Policies

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence brings about many new opportunities for our lives, including in the field of culture and creativity, but its applications also raise a number of ethical and legal questions due to their wide-spread uncontrolled and unchecked usage.

Policies

Music Streaming

Music streaming has unquestionably become the predominant means of enjoying music, replacing traditional physical media and expanded far beyond the live sector by providing user-friendly, high quality, and affordable access to the largest possible repertoire anytime, anywhere, online, or offline.

Songs and compositions are at the heart of this thriving market, which counts 524 million users on subscription-based music services globally, reaches more than 2 billion users including the streaming on UGC platforms, and offers more than 70 million tracks from approximately 8 million artists.

Yet, the authors and composers cannot benefit adequately from this success, and the debate over unfairness of this market is gaining traction across Europe and around the world.

There is a need to look more closely at how songwriters and composers are connected to this thriving economy and what can be done to improve their currently neglected situation.

Read below to find out more about the Music Streaming market.

Policies

Buy-out contracts: a dangerous threat to European creators

European music creators (composers, lyricists etc.) are being forced to forsake thousands of euros in future earnings by draconian ‘work made for hire’ (WMH) and buy-out contracts.

Online audiovisual services and broadcasters that are mainly US-based are forcing music creators to accept such contracts, which enforce a one-time payment in exchange for their rights.

Given the worldwide popularity of shows and series on platforms like Netflix, Amazon, Disney etc., and their replay value, the audiovisual market represents an important revenue stream for creators. Soundtracks alone are part and parcel of series and often attract a similar amount of popularity, massively boosting sales, streams and the worldwide fanbase of their authors.

Read below to find out how video on demand (VOD) platforms and broadcasters are circumventing EU law and what can be done about it.

Policies

Authors’ societies & the collective management model

Authors’ societies are hugely beneficial to both authors (creators), users (platforms and services), and the broader public.

Beyond benefiting these different groups, authors’ societies also support the broader cultural ecosystem by funding and promoting cultural and creative initiatives.

Below are five key benefits to authors’ societies and the collective management model.

Policies

The Copyright Directive

In April 2019, the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market was formally adopted, a change that will positively transform authors’ rights throughout the EU. Each member state now has until 7 June 2021 to transpose the Directive into their respective national law.

This reform is an opportunity to address pressing issues for authors in the Digital Single Market and will promote the growth of Europe’s creative and cultural industries (CCIs) – a major driver of Europe’s economy.

One of the biggest achievements of this new piece of legislation was to address the
‘Transfer of Value’ problem, a priority issue for all European creators.

Below are some of the Directive’s key areas that will affect creators and those who profit from their work.