"Music Moves Europe": The European Union boosts Music


​"Music Moves Europe" was born in 2015 from an EU initiative to help and encourage the European music sector.


THE MUSIC AS PILLAR OF THE EU CULTURE

Music with its authors, singers and huge audiences is certainly an important pillar of European culture. Music is creativity, represents cultural diversity and contributes to the growth of society. Music also represents a very important sector of the European economy: with over 25 billion euros in revenue per year, it is the leading economic and cultural sector.

The European music sector, as in the rest of the world, has undergone major transformations with the transition to digital, which has made music more usable and in real time and has increased competition from other global players. Digitization has led to radical changes in the way music is created, produced, distributed, consumed and monetized. The music industry is also constantly adapting, opening up new business models, offering new ways to interact, as the audience grows. Also expanding the market.


WHAT EU IS DOING

1. Funding
  • € 57 million has funded more than 90 music projects (cooperation projects, platforms, networks) under the current Creative Europe 2014-2020 program. In the new Creative Europe 2021-2027 program, there will also be a sectoral approach to music, giving even more space to the enhancement of diversity, creativity and innovation in the field of music. In particular, it would invest in the distribution of the musical repertoire in Europe and in the world, also with the promotion of training and public development actions.
  • In addition, the music sector benefited from an additional budget of € 1.5 million in 2018 and € 3 million in 2019, through the preparatory action "Music Moves Europe: Boosting European music diversity and talent".

2. The European Policy
EU Member States decided that "Music Moves Europe" should become part of their cooperation on culture; and therefore an action on music was included in the 2019-22 Council work plan for Culture, with a conference under the Romanian presidency of the Council in June 2019.

Prior to the pandemic due to the new Coronavirus, additional expert seminars led by the EU Commission were scheduled for 2020. Another EU presidency conference is scheduled for 2021 under the Portuguese presidency of the Council.

3. The Legal Environment
The EU does not have direct legislative competence in the field of culture, but only indirectly, because in related policy areas it has a great influence: funding, working conditions, remuneration, mobility, etc.
One example is the EU Copyright Directive, which is crucial for the music sector by making the copyright market fairer and more transparent.

4. Dialogue with stakeholders
EU and stakeholders are in constant dialogue to identify the main challenges facing the sector.
For example, the results summarized in the AB Music Working Group report led to the creation of Music Moves Europe.
In particular, the EU Commission participates in all European showcases, music fairs and festivals to exchange information with the music sector.
The Music Moves Europe dialogue that took place in May 2019 was to discuss the most current issues related to musical diversity in Europe and the competitiveness of the sector.
This first meeting dealt with topics such as the future of music media, the challenges for live music, access to capital for the music industry e the new EU copyright directive. Find the Conference report here.
The following Music Moves Europe Dialogue took place in the second half of 2019.

5. Talent Award
The European Union promotes the diversity of the European repertoire with a Prize for popular and contemporary music, called The Music Moves Europe Talent Awards.
The most recent annual awards are given to emerging artists who best represent the European sound of today and tomorrow.
The Prize is organized by Eurosonic Noorderslag (ESNS) in collaboration with Reeperbahn Festival and co-funded by the Creative Europe program.

MUSIC PROJECTS FUNDED BY EU

More than 120 music projects (among which approximately 73 small and 25 large cooperation projects, 2 Refugees integration projects, 9 platforms and 5 networks) have been financed by Creative Europe during the period 2014- 2019 for over €80 million. The projects address a wide variety of music genres (opera, jazz, classical music, pop&rock, electronic, traditional music, contemporary music, music for youth, etc.) and a number of common cross-cutting themes (for example gender balance or cultural heritage). Read the  complete Report.