Nine months after the start of the Covid-19 crisis, with most of Europe at varying stages of second wave lockdown and gradual deconfinement expected, IMPALA’s Covid-19 Task Force has issued a new call for action.

Earlier today, EU institutions reached a preliminary political agreement on the future EU budget 2021-2027, ending months of deadlock.

If confirmed, the agreement represents very welcome news for the cultural sector, as Creative Europe – the only EU programme fully dedicated to culture – would see its budget increase to €2.2bn, up from the current €1.46bn for the 2014-2020 programme.

IMPALA has teamed up with music business consultancy CMU Insights to launch One Step Ahead, a new digital intelligence facility to enable independent music companies across Europe to navigate and identify trends, developments, challenges and opportunities in the digital music market.

110 organisations from across the cultural and creative sector have published a joint call on the EU and its Members States to place culture at the core of each and every recovery plan.

IMPALA has adopted a Diversity and Inclusion Charter setting out a series of twelve commitments for the organisation, which it will report on annually.

Today, 21 organisations from across the cultural and creative sector wrote to members of the European Parliament to ask them to support a number of amendments tabled on the draft Report on a Recovery and Resilience Facility.

Today, 26 organisations from across Europe’s cultural and creative sectors wrote to European Commissioners Thierry Breton (Internal Market) and Paolo Gentiloni (Economy) regarding the EU’s flagship investment programme InvestEU.

Tonight, the nominees for the Music Moves Europe Talent Awards were announced at the Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg, Germany in presence of the European Commissioner for Culture, Mariya Gabriel.

As the European Commission consultation on article 17 guidance closes later today, IMPALA joins a wide-ranging group of rightholder organisations in expressing serious concerns with the Commission’s direction of travel.

Performance artist Marina Abramović, singer-songwriters Björk and MØ, dance choreographer Anne-Teresa De Keersmaeker, film directors Agnieszka Holland, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, electronic music pionneer Jean-Michel Jarre, theatre director Ivo Van Hove, conceptual visual artist Daniel Buren, film music composer Alberto Iglesias and writer Nina George are among the many acclaimed names behind this call.

Earlier this week, Music Declares Emergency and IMPALA had a video meeting with Mariya Gabriel, the European Commissioner responsible for culture, innovation, research, education and youth.

On 19 June, EU leaders will meet in Brussels to discuss the Commission’s proposed recovery fund and EU long-term budget.

Ahead of this meeting, 94 organisations representing the whole spectrum of Europe’s cultural and creative sector have issued a joint call for strong and systemic support measures at EU and national level to recover from the crisis.

In support of #BlackOutTuesday IMPALA is pausing all normal business and postponing its members and board meeting scheduled for 2 June.

As the EU’s Ministers of Culture prepare to meet tomorrow to discuss the impact of Covid-19 on cultural and creative sectors, IMPALA reiterates its call for an ambitious 5-year recovery strategy for this sector.

IMPALA proposes a timeline with ten steps designed to sync with the EU’s own recovery planning. This roadmap forms the basis of a 5-year recovery strategy focussing on one of Europe’s key industries, and one of the first and hardest hit by the current crisis – the cultural and creative sectors.

IMPALA proposes a timeline with ten steps designed to sync with the EU’s own recovery planning. This roadmap forms the basis of a 5-year recovery strategy focussing on one of Europe’s key industries, and one of the first and hardest hit by the current crisis – the cultural and creative sectors.

Merlin, the digital licensing hub for the world’s independent music sector, has today announced the promotion of Charlie Lexton to the newly created role of Chief Operating Officer (COO).

Promoting the #LoveRecordStores campaign, independent music companies see supporting local record shops as a vital part of getting through the current crisis.

Following the adoption of IMPALA’s ten point crisis plan, the organisation’s Covid-19 task force has launched a mapping tool to measure results for the independent music sector in Europe.

This open letter signed by nearly 40 pan-European music organisations from across the spectrum was sent today to EU institutions and member states.

IMPALA’s Covid-19 Task Force has published a package of ten recommendations seeking urgent action at EU, national and sector level. The aim is to try and secure a co-ordinated approach across Europe to minimise the impact of Covid-19 on the independent music sector.

IMPALA, the European independent music companies association, has set up a Covid-19 Task Force to help address the effects of the current crisis on the independent sector in Europe.

The 10th edition of IMPALA’s Album of the Year award goes to German artist Apparat, for “LP5”, released on British independent label Mute. Apparat fought off stiff competition from a shortlist of 22 albums from across Europe.

As EU leaders meet in Brussels to try and agree the EU’s long-term budget 2021-2027, IMPALA urges leaders to take a stance on culture in the negotiations.

Today, the European Commission presented its new strategy to shape Europe’s digital future. This includes a review of competition policy and other key policy areas to deliver a fair and competitive economy.

On Friday, Music Declares Emergency and IMPALA met with Frans Timmermans, the European Commission’s executive vice president in charge of the EU’s fight against climate change.

Today marks the official start of Brexit. The UK and the EU will now negotiate the exact terms upon which they part company.

2019 has been an incredible year for European independents, with 22 nominees for this 10th edition of our album of the year award. Once again, this shortlist showcases how Europe’s independent music sector is thriving in diversity.

The European copyright directive brings clear benefits for creators, citizens and of course start-ups. It was years in the making and should also be available in the UK.

IMPALA’s Helen Smith on how Brexit will impact the indie sector. With just days to go until Brexit at 11pm on Friday, January 31, there’s still uncertainty surrounding key areas for the music industry.

Merlin, the digital licensing hub for the world’s independent music sector, has entered into a multi-territory partnership with TikTok, the world’s leading destination for short-form mobile video with a mission to inspire creativity and bring joy.

The Worldwide Independent Network (WIN) has announced its newly elected board of directors. Five new directors join the WIN Board: Francesca Trainini (PMI), Garry West (Compass Records), Jörg Heidemann (VUT), Lisa Levy (Robbins Entertainment), and Zena White (Partisan Records).

Helen Smith’s name almost certainly draws curses in Shenzhen, China (the headquarters of Tencent Holdings), and with highfliers in the boardrooms of media, streaming, label, and music publishing giants around the world.

Merlin, the global digital rights agency for the world’s independent label sector, has today announced the appointment of Jeremy Sirota as the organisation’s new CEO.

For its first edition, Digital Music Days ended with a special closure ceremony. Helen Smith, Executive Chair of IMPALA and Carmo Cruz, Director of AMAEI, congratulated Charles Caldas for a decade of defending and promoting local and international independent music across the globe.

This year, IMPALA’s Outstanding Contribution Award goes to Music Declares Emergency, the UK organisation formed by a collection of artists, music professionals, individuals and members of leading environmental charity for the creative industries, Julie’s Bicycle, in 2019.

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

IMPALA is to formally oppose the strategic partnership between Tencent Holdings and Universal Music Group.

IMPALA is gearing up to oppose Tencent’s buyout of a 10% stake of Universal Music Group with an option to add a further 10%. IMPALA is also concerned about who might buy the additional UMG stakes that are up for grabs.

Creative Europe Programme 2021-2027. Investing in our culture is investing in our future : Open letter to EU leaders from Europe’s cultural and creative sectors.

Below is a statement from WIN and IFPI about an essential new data exchange project. This initiative is driven by WIN on behalf of IMPALA and other organisations in the independent sector worldwide.

Today, the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and the European Patent Office (EPO) jointly published the third edition of their “Intellectual property rights intensive industries (IPR) and economic performance in the European Union” study.

IMPALA held its annual general meeting at Reeperbahn festival in Hamburg this weekend. A new 32-strong board was elected for a term of two years. Six new board members were elected: E7LG – Eleven Seven Label Group (United Kingdom) and SCL/Lusitanian (Portugal), plus four national associations with HAIL (Hungary), INDIERO (Romania), RUNDA (covering all 7 ex-Yugoslavia territories as well as Albania) and VTMÖ (Austria).

Dear Member of the European Parliament. We are writing to you as a group of 26 organisations from across the music sector to ask you to support the Preparatory Action “Music Moves Europe: boosting European music diversity and talent” by adopting the corresponding amendment (CULT 5962) to the EU 2020 EU budget, and the proposed budget of €3 million.

Today, the nominees for the Music Moves Europe Talent Awards 2020 were announced at the Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg, Germany. This annual EU prize for popular and contemporary music celebrates emerging artists who represent the European sound of today and tomorrow.

Today, the President of the incoming European Commission Ursula Von Der Leyen unveiled her proposed team of Commissioners.

Following her confirmation earlier today as the new President of the European Commission, IMPALA wishes Ursula von der Leyen a warm welcome at the helm of the EU’s executive body and outlines its priorities for the new commission.

Today a code has been signed by a group of technology companies and music sector organisations including IMPALA to agree best practices to combat stream farms and other forms of streaming manipulation.

This interview was conducted by journalist Lars Brandle and was originally published in The Industry Observer.

Merlin, the global digital rights agency for the independent label sector, has today published its 2019 Membership Report & Survey – revealing a 63% year-on-year increase in member payments (April 2018 – March 2019) to $845m.

As part of its renewed partnership with MIDEM, IMPALA hosted and co-organised a series of panels and keynotes alongside the Worldwide Independent Network (WIN), Merlin, the global digital rights agency for independents, and the Independent Music Publishers Forum (IMPF). Together, we talked about labels, new business models, young publishers, and the digital business.

On 20th and 21st May, IMPALA took part in the first of a series of meetings organised as part of a “structured dialogue” between the European Commission and the music sector.

The winner of the 9th edition of IMPALA’s Album of the Year award is VIAGRA BOYS with “Street Worms”, released on Swedish independent label YEAR0001. Viagra Boys succeeds previous winners including Gurr, Agnes Obel, The xx, Adele, Guadalupe Plata and Efterklang.

This morning, EU Member States gave the copyright directive the final green light, closing over two years of legislative process and hundreds of hours of debates.

The European trade body IMPALA held their board meeting in London yesterday, where they also met with AIM, the voice for the UK independent music sector. It was agreed that sector specific deals must be on the priority list for negotiators.

Dear Member of the European Parliament, We are writing following Tuesday’s vote in favour of the copyright directive.

Taking a stance has paid off. Earlier this week, the European parliament voted through important changes to copyright, amid intense negative PR.

It was a moment of truth for the IMPALA executive chair Helen Smith as she witnessed the crunch vote in Strasbourg. Here, Smith explains why Article 13 could now lead to closer co-operation between the industry and YouTube to grow the streaming economy…

The European parliament voted today to bring copyright rules up to date. 348 MEPs voted in favour, 274 against and 36 abstained.

Ahead of the European parliament vote tomorrow on reforming copyright, young and emerging musicians have recorded “Just Say Yes” to get their message across about a fair future online. The aptly named song was originally released by Snow Patrol.

The beauty of the beast – in support of the Copyright Directive
Why the copyright directive needs to be adopted now as a package
Composers and artists speak out for the first time with managers and independent sector

This opinion piece by Debbie Harry was published in The Guardian on 22 March 2019.

#YES2COPYRIGHT
More than 300 national, European and international organisations from the entire cultural sector call for adoption of Copyright Directive

Two months ahead of the European elections, a Harris Interactive poll shows that European citizens want stronger regulation of tech giants like Google and Facebook. 6,600 people were surveyed from France, Germany, Poland, Spain, Italy, the Czech Republic, Greece and Romania.

Europe For Creators is asking YouTube for access to the same tools YT has used to promote its own messages on the EU’s copyright directive and article 13. The request is to allow Europe For Creators to message YouTubers and place banner ads on YouTube’s network, in the same way YT has done.

IMPALA and more than 300 organisations from across the cultural and creative sectors representing authors, composers, writers, journalists, photographers as well as news agencies, audiovisual producers, book, press and music publishers, unite in calling on the European Parliament to adopt the directive on copyright in the digital single market.

Each year, IMPALA recognises a person, an organisation or an initiative whose actions had a major impact on the independent music sector. This year, the award goes to journalist Markus Tobiassen and the Norwegian newspaper Dagens Næringsliv for their exceptional work investigating alleged streaming data manipulation. The award was handed out to Markus by IMPALA’s Executive Chair Helen Smith during the by:Larm music festival in Norway.

The Worldwide Independent Network (WIN) has today announced its appointment of Charlie Phillips to lead the network’s operations, stepping up from his previous role as Director of Legal and Business Affairs.

Independent music companies associations and labels from across Europe met in Brussels this week to examine the text of the copyright directive agreed in trilogue.
Member state approval was also forthcoming this week, allowing the directive to now move through the final approval process in the parliament.

IMPALA and organisations from across the cultural and creative sector representing authors, composers, writers, journalists, photographers as well as news agencies, audiovisual producers, book, press and music publishers, have published the following statement calling on EU member states and the European Parliament to adopt the text of the Copyright Directive as agreed in trilogue last week.

After much debate and further changes to the text of the copyright directive, an agreement was reached in Strasbourg last night and the directive can now move to the final stages of the European legislative process. Member states now need to approve the final text as well as the European Parliament. The changes made in the trilogue discussions this week will be published soon and IMPALA understands that they will help achieve a balanced text.

2018 was a great year for European independents and it’s time to have a look at the pick of the bunch: there are no less than 18 nominees for this 9th edition of our album of the year award, showcasing once again how Europe’s independent music sector is thriving.

Today marks the official launch of RUNDA – complete name Regionalna udruga nezavisnih diskografa – the regional association of independent discographers for the Balkans, whose work and membership will cover the whole of ex-Yugoslavia (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Macedonia) as well as Albania.

EUROPE FOR CREATORS is launching a new website and a newsletter, as part of a renewed effort to promote clarity around Article 13 of the European Copyright Directive.
The new tools set out facts. The website, www.article13.org (also available in Italian, German, Czech, French, Polish, Croatian and more to come) and the newsletter, INSIGHT 13, take a no-nonsense approach to the issue and go back to basics: What does the Directive actually say and how does the process work?

The following is a joint letter signed by 30 organisations from across the cultural and creative sectors, sent to EU member states’ research Ministries in the framework of the trilogue discussions on the EU’s future Horizon Europe programme:

We are writing to you as a group of organisations representing European authors, composers, songwriters, featured artists, picture agencies, book publishers, academic publishers, audiovisual producers and broadcasters, independent and major music producers and publishers, and news and media companies.

Following the news that Alison Wenham is stepping down at WIN, we are making the following statement thanking Alison.

IMPALA’s President Kees van Weijen took part in the “Independent Music Day” conference in Warsaw, organised by Poland’s newly established and fast-growing alliance of independent music companies, which already counts 35 members.

WINTEL 2018 is the third report produced for Worldwide Independent Network (WIN), mapping the global market share of the independent sector at copyright, rather than distribution level.

IMPALA, the European organisation of Independent music companies in Europe, congratulated Sugar Music and its team for the extraordinary achievement of a number 1 in the album charts at the same time in the USA and the UK with Andrea Bocelli’s “Si”.

YouTube’s campaign against Article 13 of the Copyright Directive shows a lack of respect for the EU democratic process of law making. The revisions to the Directive have been under discussion for over four years already and the three main institutions of the European Union have all given their position.

As things heat up again on the copyright directive, IMPALA’s Executive Chair Helen Smith speaks out. The Financial Times has given IMPALA the lead letter slot today to reply to YT’s CEO opinion piece posted in the FT earlier this week.

Dear Member of the European Parliament,

We are writing as a group of 80 organisations from across the cultural and creative sectors ahead of the plenary vote on the next EU MFF 2021-2027 on 14th November.

STOMP is delighted to give its STOMP Independent of the Year Award to Helen Smith, Executive Chair of IMPALA – the Independent Music Companies Association – in recognition of her exceptional efforts to represent the independent music sector and help it grow. The award was handed out to her by STOMP’s chairman Kees van Weijen in person yesterday during STOMP’s Annual General Meeting.

Dear Members of the European Parliament,

We are writing as a group of 59 organisations from across the cultural and creative sectors ahead of today’s vote of the Budget committee on the next EU Multi-Annual Financial Framework (MFF) 2021-2027.

Sony’s move from joint to sole control of EMI Music Publishing has been approved today by the European regulator. This take-over allows Sony to double its catalogue of songs (from 2.16m to 4.21m compositions).

Analysis of national music charts for 2017 carried out across key European countries raises further concerns about the true impact of Sony’s take-over of EMI Music Publishing. Control of national charts is the test the EC uses when it examines mergers in the music market.

Following key recommendations on Brexit debated by IMPALA and other cultural organisations in Brussels last week, further IMPALA discussions will take place on implementation for the music sector at IMPALA’s AGM on 5 October. Hosted by the Finnish independent labels association Indieco, IMPALA’s AGM will take place at Music and Media conference in Tampere.

Sony’s intended take over of EMI Music Publishing has been notified to the European Commission, who now has until the 26th of October to make an initial assessment. Precedents set by the Commission in 2012, when it ruled that divestments were required for Sony to become a minority shareholder, suggest that Sony’s attempt to take over EMI completely will be met with stiff opposition and a detailed Phase 2 investigation.

Today, the nominees for the Music Moves Europe Talent Awards were announced at the Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg, Germany. This brand new annual music prize celebrates emerging artists who represent the European sound of today and tomorrow. All winners will be presented at the award ceremony during the opening night of ESNS 2019.

Member of the European Parliament Giorgos Grammatikakis calls for the doubling of the funding for Creative Europe and for securing dedicated funding for “Music Moves Europe” in his report on the New European Agenda for Culture.

The European Parliament voted today to move ahead on copyright reform. The whole directive was adopted by a clear majority of 438 votes for, 226 against and 39 abstentions.

The following MBW blog comes from Helen Smith (pictured), Chair of European independent music trade body IMPALA.

In a recent article for POLITICO — “For artists, internet platforms are less threat than opportunity” (September 9) — the founder of the Fugees, Wyclef Jean, argues that those seeking to rewrite copyright laws want to “tear down the internet.”

What you need to know about the copyright proposal in 10 keys.

Today sees the launch of the #EuropeForCreators campaign in support of a fair and sustainable internet for creators, ahead of a new vote in the European Parliament on copyright.

Independent music companies have made a pre-emptive strike to oppose Sony’s attempt to gain sole control of EMI Music Publishing. IMPALA confirms today that it has lodged concerns with the European Commission about the transaction, which it describes as “seismic’.

IMPALA is a proud member of a unique alliance of European music industry partners supporting new music talent. The Music Moves Europe Talent Awards are the new European Union Prize for popular and contemporary music implemented by ESNS (Eurosonic Noorderslag).