- The European Music Office is an international non-profit association promoting musical diversity and representing the interests of European music professionals at a European and worldwide level.
- EMO’s main policy consists in setting up a specific EU Programme for music.
- As coordinator of the European Music Platform, EMO develops music cooperation projects responding to the EU calls for proposals with the aim of promoting the mobilityof artists and of works of art.
- EMO members are mainly European Author Rights Collecting Societies, Music Information Centers and Music Export Offices.
Commission decides about music copyrights managers
Despite strong arguments against from the sector, the European Commission decided to ban certain copyright handling practices.
The Commission claims this move is in the interest of authors, who will be free to select Europe's cheapest and most efficient collecting society.
The commissioner also wants some territorial restrictions to be banned, notably those preventing collecting societies from offering licenses to commercial users outside their domestic territory. This practice brings with it burdensome administrative procedures for broadcasters, such as online or satellite media, which act at European level.
The decision applies immediately but does not involve the imposition of fines on the collecting societies it targets. They have now 120 days to inform the Commission about the implementation of the measures requested.
Composers and songwriters lobby EC President
Bee Gee and CISAC president Robin Gibb, British Academy of Composers and Songwriters chairman/ECSA spokesman David Ferguson, film score composer Patrick Doyle and French movie score composer Laurent Petitgirard met with European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso to express their deep concerns about a possible unfavorable decision on pan-European licensing of music.
The pending commission decision "risks creating major difficulties for smaller societies who represent less mainstream," and will reduce "the volume of business to support their own local writers," the musicians argued in a letter to President Barroso.
They tried to convince the officials of an option in which authors and the directorates-general covering culture, the information society, the internal market and enterprise and industry sit down and hammer out a solution that overcomes the complexity of multi-territorial licensing in the digital age while protecting the income of artists.
Diversidad! Event The Austrian capital, co-organizer of the 2008 European Football Championship, welcomed on the 23rd, 24th and 25th of June the 1st European urban culture festival : DIVERSIDAD.
For its first edition, the festival DIVERSIDAD took up its bet ! The concerts were sold out the whole 3 days and brought together for the 1st time the best of European hip hop. The Austrian audience could discover on this occasion all the urban culture diversity, with rappers, DJ’s, graffiti artists from all over Europe.
This festival has been selected to take part in the programme called «Etat des lieux» to draw up a panorama of the contemporary music creation in the 27 countries which make up the European Union. This project will be the guiding idea of their thirtieth edition, and in order to highlight the geographical and historical frame, the Transmusicales Festival will for the first time have the subtitle: “European Chronicles”.
We aim to account for the artistic contemporary diversity, and are looking for all music material and contact that could inform them of thestate of this creation in your country, in order to invite some of your artists to their festival. Whether it concerns labels, bands, festivals, websites or press reviews, don't hesitate to send those elements to them; mp3 or CDs are very welcome.
These platforms will give the culture civil society the opportunity to have a structured dialogue with the European Commission in two areas of focus, ‘Access to culture’ and ‘Cultural and creative industries’. There are five workgroups: Enviroment, SME’s, Exchange and export in a globalised world, Circulation of works and artists and Interface "creation-industry". EMO will run the secretariat with the support of Alliance Mondiale du Cinéma – Europe. We also are leader of the working group ‘Circulation of works and artists’ and participant to the working group ‘Exchanges and export outside of the EU’. These first meetings have taken place in early June and will be maintained until the end 2010
The fair music Initiative
Fair music is the first global initiative for fairness and justice in the music business. It strives to create awareness for the importance of fair music and to strengthen the position of both artists and music listeners worldwide. The aim is also to maintain cultural diversity during the current processes of modernization.
You already can enjoy the Diversidad video experience. Check it out!
THREE NEW MEMBERS
Initiative Musik is a german export office and the brainchild of the German government and collecting societies GEMA and GVL. It is a not-for-profit public-private partnership with three principal objectives: promoting new artists, integrating foreign artists in Germany, and exporting German rock, pop music and jazz. Contact person: Ina Kessler.
CNV(Centre National de la Chanson, des Variétés et du Jazz) is a public commercial and industrial organisation givinga support found for live music. Their members include concert promoters, representatives from relevant Ministries, and members of professional trade unions for employers and employees. Contact person:Catherine Giffard.
Mica (Music Information Center Austria) has become an EMO board member. Mica serves as an independent non-profit expert organization to promote Austrian music of all genres around the globe. It provides a link between policy makers and the music sector, and is a forum for different stakeholders. Contact person: Peter Rantasa.
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT ADOPTS TWO REPORTS ON CULTURE
The European Parliament adopted on 10 April a report on cultural industries in Europe, which calls for a new task force on culture and the creative economy and a programme to support the culture industries. Another report addressing the European Commission's Communication on an Agenda for Culture in a Globalising World was adopted on the same day. The latter report calls for a ''European Heritage'' label, to emphasise the European dimension of cultural goods, monuments, memorial sites and places of remembrance. For further information and access to full texts, click here.
Rainbow Paper II - Take part now in this online diversity consultation
From now until 16 May you can rewrite how Europe should tackle cultural diversity. Help shape the future by going online and responding to a paper produced by the 'Rainbow Platform' (Civil Society Platform for Intercultural Dialogue, an initiative of the ECF and EFAH)
The project aims to promote and encourage intercultural dialogue in the long term through the organisation of artistic events and panels of discussion, in the framework of urban culture and hip-hop.
EMO's "DIVERSIDAD!" PROJECT IS SELECTED FOR THE 2008 EUROPEAN YEAR OF INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE !
The 4th of December, the European Commission held a press conference to present the projects that have been selected for the “European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008”. 7 projects among over 300 have been selected including “DIVERSIDAD! - Promoting Dialogue and Exchange through European Urban Culture”, presented by EMO together with MICA (Music Information Centre Austria) and DIVERSITÉS.
The project will take place all over Europe and especially in Austria during the European Football Championships 2008. The theme will be Hip Hop and Urban Culture, covered through a digital platform of exchange, conferences and seminars, live shows and forums, music singles and collaborative album, radio show and TV documentary. The aim of each activity is to allow artists to exchange inspiration, experiences and professional information, favouring artists’ mobility and circulation of music works overall Europe.
LAUNCH OF THE EUROPEAN YEAR OF INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE 2008
7-8 January 2008. Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Conference launching the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008. Official opening by Commission President José Manuel Barroso, Commissioners Ján Figel' and Jánez Potocnik and the Slovene Prime Minister Janez Janša.
Amsterdam Dance Event 2008 The Amsterdam Dance Event is Europe’s leading electronic and dance music conferences as well as the worlds biggest club festival. ADE expects 2.000+ professionals from over 36 countries, 600+ artists/acts to perform and a festival audience of 80.000 people. Organised by Buma Cultuur, ADE is the place to promote businesses to the international electronic music industry.
Commission prohibits practices which prevent European collecting societies offering choice to music authors and users
The European Commission has adopted an antitrust decision prohibiting 24 European collecting societies from restricting competition by limiting their ability to offer their services to authors and commercial users outside their domestic territory.
However, the decision allows collecting societies to maintain their current system of bi-lateral agreements and to keep their right to set levels of royalty payments due within their domestic territory.
Culture & Arts centre WUK in Vienna is one of the largest centers of its kind in Europe. Situated in a 12.000m2 early industrial warehouse building in Vienna‟s city centre it is a place for presentations of visual art, photography, media art, theatre, dance, music, literature, political events and interdisciplinary art mediation. Its events, workshops, studios, social and cultural initiatives are being visited by some 200.000 people a year. WUK is one of the mayor cultural institutions in Vienna and a well established venue for Off-mainstream Music.
Cultural industries and the creative sector are substantially contributing to European GDP, growth and employment. A recent independent study carried out for the Commission estimated that more than 5 million people worked in 2004 for the cultural sector, equivalent to 3.1% of total employed population in EU-25. The cultural sector contributed around 2.6% to the EU GDP in 2003, with growth significantly higher than that of the economy in general between 1999 and 2003, the ‘Economy of Culture in Europe’ conducted by KEA for the European Commission, 2006 [1].
For the first time, all the European actors of urban culture will be able to get together and exchange in a 3 day event of concerts, conferences and exhibitions, under the exceptional patronage of Akhenaton (IAM), Abd Al Malik and Ahmed (La Caution)
This festival will be preceded by two events:
- 10 European groups will get together in April to record a single, available for free.
- Seminars in several cities (BERLIN, STOCKHOLM, MADRID, BRIGHTON, LYON, BRUSSELS)
27 May 2008, Kägelbanan, Södra Teatern, Stockholm, Sweden.
The first "Mini-Diversidad" is coming, you will enjoy several seminars about language barriers, the scandinavian hip-hop scene, european music experiences... And also there will be concerts with scandinavian and other european artists. See the information here
CULTURA URBANA
30 and 31 May 2008, Madrid, Spain.
Diversidad project will has presence in this important hip-hop festival with workshops of music journalists, experts and artists from France, UK, Germany, Portugal, Italy and Spain. They will discuss about the actual situation of the european urban culture. See the information culturaurbana.es
European Border Breakers
The European Border Breakers Awards is a testimony to this cooperative spirit between the Commission and the music industry represented by EMO, GESAC, ICMP/CIEM, IFPI, IMPALA and Billboard Information Group.
