14 July 2021

Statement: creators and live sector welcome EU guidelines

GESAC has once again united with our live sector partners to issue a statement addressed to European Commission Vice-President Margaritis Schinas and Commissioner Mariya Gabriel.

The statement, which can be read in full below, welcomes the recently released EU guidelines on the reopening of cultural venues. It also reaffirms the plethora of available evidence that shows events are being held safely all over Europe and suggests additional measures that can help facilitate the free movement of artists and cultural professionals.

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Brussels, 14 July 2021

Vice-President Margaritis Schinas
Promoting our European Way of Life
European Commission

Commissioner Mariya Gabriel
Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth
European Commission

Creators and the live sector welcome EU Guidelines on reopening of cultural events

Dear Vice-President,

Dear Commissioner,

Our group of organisations representing the live sector and creators community warmly welcomes the “EU guidelines for the safe resumption of activities in the cultural and creative sectors – COVID-19” issued by the European Commission, which strikes the right balance between proposals to foster safe reopening and recommendations to boost sustainable recovery of cultural events.

As underlined in the Communication, there have been very few cases of transmissions of the COVID-19 virus at cultural events. Indeed, cultural establishments offer safe environments, as demonstrated by a number of test events organised in several countries. Something the Commission also noted in its recommendations as evidence that live events can be safely held while taking into account the necessary sanitary measures and without causing a risk to public health.

The promising results of recent additional test events, held despite growing fear over variants, confirm that the reopening of cultural events can be sustained in safety.[1] We invite the Member States to take these findings into careful consideration when setting their required national reopening strategies and trust that the Commission can play a key role in coordinating and ensuring the implementation of such highly needed national plans at EU level.

Additionally, as European and international touring seem to be taking the most time to resume, we would like to call on the European institutions and EU Member States to implement EU digital COVID certificates and take appropriate measures to facilitate the free movement of artists and cultural professionals, for whom mobility is essential to carry out their work.

It is essential to continue building on the experience and positive developments that have taken place so far to ensure that cultural establishments remain open and to avoid any risk of returning to complete lockdown in the event of a new wave. This can be done safely thanks to the use of safety health protocols and measures put in place by venues and live events. We invite Member States to ensure the continuation of the cultural activities under the set measures, and the Commission to closely monitor and coordinate the implementation of such protocols.

We would like to congratulate the Commission for taking a clear and strong position in persuading the Member States to use the national recovery and resilience funds for the sustainable reopening and recovery of the CCIs in general, and the live sector in particular. It is also encouraging that several EU funding programmes can be used for the same purpose.

We look forward to working closely with the Commission’s services and national authorities to realise the objectives laid out in this promising initiative.

Your sincerely,

ARA – Arena Resilience Alliance

AFEM – Association For Electronic Music

EMMA – European Music Managers Alliance

GESAC – The European Grouping of Societies of Authors and Composers

LIVE DMA – European Network for Live Music Associations

Liveurope – The live music platform for new European talent

PEARLE – Live Performance Europe

YOUROPE – The European Festival Association

[1] For the recent results in France, see here https://www.aphp.fr/contenu/ap-hp-les-premiers-resultats-de-letude-spring-sappuyant-sur-le-concert-experimental-ambition

For more info on the new report of ARA on the results of test events: https://www.iq-mag.net/2021/07/ara-findings-european-test-events/

For some of the previous results and an overview chart of test events across Europe published in the end of May 2021, see here https://www.live-dma.eu/pilot/

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.