European Composer and Songwriter Alliance

History

The foundation for ECSA was laid on 4 February 2006 when a group of 100 composers from over 30 European Countries met at the European Composers’ Congress at Musikverein in Vienna to sign a letter of intent in order to create a “Federation of European Composers Association”. On 7 March 2007, three associations, the Alliance of Popular Composer Organizations in Europe (APCOE), European Composers' Forum (ECF), and the Federation of Film and Audio-visual Composers of Europe (FFACE), came together in Madrid to form the European Composer and Songwriting Alliance (ECSA).

Structure

ECSA is organized into three committees based on music genre: the Alliance of Popular Music Composers of Europe (APCOE), the European Composers Forum (ECF), and the Federation of Film and Audiovisual Composers of Europe (FFACE). The ECSA board is made up of 9 members, three from each of the committees. The current president, chosen from these 9 members, is Alfons Karabuda from the APCOE committee. The ECSA office (ECSA Secretariat), located in Brussels, Belgium, is an administrative office that handles day-to-day business.

Creators Conference

The Creators Conference is an annual European Forum that brings the members of ECSA together along with European policy makers and music industry representatives to discuss important issues and events relevant to the creators of European music, such as fair contracts, remuneration, and the EU Copyright Framework. The first conference was held in 2012 and continued during the years of 2013 and 2015. In 2012, ECSA and the Creators Conference were presented the Visit Brussels Award as International Congress 2012. The 2015 Creators Conference began on February 23 with an opening concert. The conference commenced the following day with panelists discussing fair contracts, remuneration, and EU copyright law. Speakers included composer Michael Price, MEP Julie Ward, and UN Special Rappateur in the field of cultural rights Farida Shaheed.

Festival de Cannes

ECSA hosts their own event, European Film Music Days, at the Cannes Film Festival in France during which they work with partners such as the Federation of European Film Directors (FERA) and Soundtrack Cologne in order to promote the rights of Film directors. ECSA sometimes participates in workshops with young composers at Cannes as well.

And also ECSA, joint to Biggest International campaign Freemuse for Iranian musician mehdi rajabian and his brother filmmaker hossein rajabian, he was signed by the following of the ARJ group.

Complaint against broadcasters

In February 2012, ECSA announced that they had filed a formal complaint with the European Union competition law authorities against Europe's largest broadcasters stating that they coerce composers into signing unfair publishing agreements and therefore violate fair competition as well as diminish the earnings of these creators. ECSA and the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA), one of ECSA’s key members, proclaimed that broadcasters persuade composers to sign less than fair contracts unless they want to receive no commission for their work. They called this practice “coercive commissioning”, and stated that it was “a malignant growing business practice in the audio-visual and media productions sectors”. Finally, ECSA acknowledged the financial impact that this practice has on creators and that any continuation of it must be halted immediately. This formal complaint caused a solidarity agreement between other relevant organizations and ECSA and resulted in an extensive study released by the European Parliament (Contractual Arrangements Applicable to Creators: Law and Practice of Selected Member states).

Collaboration with Other Organizations

ECSA collaborates both within Europe and overseas with the Human Righs Council of the Unites Nations, the society of Composers and Lyricists (SLC), the Songwriters Association of Canada, and the International Music Council.