Brussels, 29th November 2019

Joint letter in support of a sectorial focus on music in Creative Europe (2021-2027)

Dear Member States representatives,

As the trilogue discussions are ongoing, we are writing to you as a group of 7 organisations from across the music sector to ask you to reinforce the focus on music in the sectorial actions of the Creative Europe programme 2021-2027, in line with the European Parliament’s position.

The European music sector employs more people than film and generates more than €25bn in revenue annually. It was the first cultural and creative industry to be impacted by the digital shift, but also the first one to adapt to it, paving the way for other content industries. And yet, music has only benefited so far from 3,9% of the current Creative Europe budget(1), which is in no way commensurate with the sector’s contribution and need. This makes it one of the most underrepresented sector in this programme.

The European Commission and European Parliament have taken note of this imbalance and decided to address it.

The Commission, which has increased its focus on music via its Music Moves Europe framework initiative since 2015, decided to introduce a sectorial action for music in its proposal for the next Creative Europe programme.

In parallel, the European Parliament launched in 2018 the Preparatory Action “Music Moves Europe: boosting European music diversity and talent”, to help test projects that could be replicated on a larger scale in the next Creative Europe programme. Currently in its 2nd edition, this preparatory action was renewed with a 3rd and final edition planned for 2020.

Building on Music Moves Europe, the Parliament decided to reinforce the focus on music in its position on the Creative Europe programme adopted earlier this year(2).

Meanwhile, the Council has also included “diversity and competitiveness of the music sector” as a key topic in the Work Plan for Culture 2019-2020.

These initiatives are great signals towards the realisation of a music policy at EU level, but their impact will be limited if they are not better reflected in the future Creative Europe programme.

We need to seize this chance now and build on the momentum created with Music Moves Europe to give a much needed boost to the competitiveness and diversity of the European music sector.

We hope we can count on the Council to pursue this commitment by reinforcing the focus of the future Creative Europe programme on music.

Kind regards,

The undersigned organisations

ECSA – European Composer & Songwriter Alliance
EMC – European Music Council
EMEE – European Music Exporters Exchange
GESAC – European Grouping of Societies of Authors and Composers IMPALA – Independent Music Companies Association
IMPALA – Independent Music Companies Association
Live DMA – European Network for Live Music Associations Liveurope – The Live Music Platform for New European Talent
Liveurope – The Live Music Platform for New European Talent

(1) To date, music projects have received approximately €57 million in funding from Creative Europe, a programme with a budget of €1.4 billion https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/creative- europe/actions/music-moves-europe_en 

(2) The Parliament has introduced a number of amendments to reinforce the focus on the music sector (see for example amendments 11 recital 7.a new; amendment 69 Article 4 – paragraph 2 a (new); amendment 114 Annex I – point 1 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 2 – point a)