Working Groups

Key to the success of a endeavour like the European Agenda for Music is accurately representing the diverse needs and priorities of the sector. For such a document to be valid, it needs to reflect the interests of all stakeholders in the European music sector, from commercial to creative to educational or non-profit. To ensure this, the EMC invited its members as well as other significant non-member organisations to join the debate on what actions need to be taken to secure a musically thriving Europe in the future. From there, a membership survey and a detailed mapping of EMC members was conducted. Using the results, the music sector was divided into various ‘sections’ chaired by specialist industry/sector representatives as follows:

  • creation (composers, songwriters, performers, authors and copyrights),
  • education (mainly music schools, music in general schools, music universities and academies and career development)
  • information/research (music archives, music information centres)
  • media (communication/distribution)
  • participation (amateur music making – vocal & instrumental, informal and non-formal music education)
  • presentation/live music (festivals, managers, agents, musicians, music exporting)
  • production (record companies, publishers, instruments, music publishers, music fairs)

Representatives from each of these sections were organised into working groups. After conducting research among their networks, they met on several occasions to reflect and debate on their specific topics. Their work disproved the prevailing notion that economic and artistic and not-for-profit interests cannot sit comfortably side by side. On the contrary, as issues and concerns were debated, it became apparent that everyone shared the same priorities when working towards a common interest: the protection and promotion of European music.

The EAM’s horizontal approach brings together the music industry and the civil society organisations for music, giving everyone an equal voice. This is what makes the EAM both distinct and unique. It is the European music sector itself that speaks in this document, with clear objectives and priorities agreed upon by all.

Here you will find the key recommendations of the different working groups, which served as a base to determine the priorities laid out in the EAM.