With One Voice - December 2024
Available in English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese
This month's With One Voice showcases CIAM's General Assembly in Montreal including the 2024-2026 Presidency and Executive Committee announcement; a call for comprehensive solutions beyond legal regarding generative AI; the unique National Institute of Music in Argentina; and a timely message for music creators leading into these holidays.
Latest CIAM News:
- CIAM International Songwriting Camp for women in Montreal: recap-video and behind-the-scenes
- Global economic study shows human creators’ future at risk from generative AI
- New ECSA report seeks to improve gender equality for music creators
- Join the I Am CIAM campaign and fight for sustainable livelihoods in music
- Africa’s largest radio station Ukhozi FM discusses CIAM and what it means for African music creators with Thando Nyameni
- APMA Donation Awarded to NGO UACRR and AMA
- Winners of the Camille Awards 2024 revealed
- GEMA files model action to clarify AI providers‘ remuneration obligations in Europe
- Music creators push for the case for agency at CIAM General Assembly in Montreal
- CIAM announces new President and Executive Committee for 2024-2026
- CIAM General Assembly in Montreal Photo Gallery
- CIAM International Women’s Songwriting Camp in Montreal Photo Gallery
- Fair Trade Music International announces 2024 FTMI Award winners
- Podcast examines AI, music creator rights, and Prof Gervais white paper
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Protecting agency for music creators paramount at CIAM General Assembly in Montreal
The arrival of GenAI added a new urgency to the fight for sustainable livelihoods for music creators. Together with industry professionals and legal experts, CIAM held its annual General Assembly in Montreal on October 23rd and 24th focused on preserving and protecting creator agency.
What is agency, you ask? It is the capacity, condition, or state of acting or of exerting power.
Speakers emphasized the need to protect creators from emerging technologies that threaten their livelihoods and income. Vanderbilt University Law Professor Daniel Gervais echoed this in his keynote address, who called for a new right to remuneration to be put in place for creators for the use of their works by GenAI. This is crucial to protect creators not only today but also for the future. We don’t want a future where machines take over making music.
While many panels reflected upon AI’s arrival, discussions also shone spotlights on relationships with publishers, legal challenges, navigating pressure to sign rights away, collective rights management, improved data, technology finding “money left on the table”, the future of music creation, and women in music. Partner alliances gave updates on activities in their regions.
The GA saw the announcement of the 2024-2026 CIAM Presidency and Executive Committee. Outgoing President Eddie Schwartz passed the torch to Netherlands songwriter Arriën Molema of BumaStemra. The new Executive Committee includes: Amanda Brown (Australia, APRA), Crispin Hunt (United Kingdom, PRS for Music), Carlos Lara (Mexico, SACM), Eleanor McEvoy (Ireland, IMRO), Stan Meissner (Canada, SOCAN), Thando Nyameni (South Africa, CAPASSO), Facundo Saravia (Argentina, SADAIC), and Dr. Ralf Weigand (Germany, GEMA)
Fair Trade Music International announced that songwriter, composer and inaugural Minister of Culture for Argentina Teresa Parodi and longtime creators’ rights advocate Satoshi Watanabe won the 2024 Fair Trade Music International Awards for their outstanding contributions to the cause of fair remuneration for music creators.
The GA ended with a panel and listening session celebrating songs created during the second CIAM Women’s Songwriting Camp. Songwriters from all over the world shared their experiences of collaborating with and learning from other artists at Planet Studios. It was a celebration of creativity, new ways to make music, and sharing life experiences-the best way to wrap up the CIAM GA on a high note.
Law Suits Aren’t Enough
As generative artificial intelligence continues to ingest the world’s creative works without permission, there is one approach that is dominating rights holders response to this massive infringement being perpetrated by the AI giants, and that approach is law suits.
We at CIAM support legal action and hope it succeeds, but we know that for individual human music creators, even significant victory in the courtroom is at best, only part of the comprehensive solution we need, and won’t result in a sustainable revenue stream for music creators for the ongoing exploitation of our music by generative AI platforms, apps and related uses.
That’s why CIAM enthusiastically welcomes our colleagues at the German CMO GEMA, who have announced their intention to license both the ingestion phase of GenAI systems, and crucially, the commercial output as well.
GEMA’s plan is to license “all economic benefits that can arise from the subsequent use of AI-generated music content”. GEMA goes on to say “This is important because the latter [AI generated music] is largely based on the original musical works and contains protectable elements of the works used for training”
We thank GEMA for announcing this important development in how our creative community can respond to the enormous challenge of generative AI. Full details can be found here.
National Institute of Music Initiatives Builds Music Careers in Argentina
Music creators have a wide variety of resources available to them to pursue a career. This support is different by territory, but once you know what to look for and where to look, these programs can help give your musical life a boost. If you’re not familiar with or your country doesn’t have such an institution, here is what INAMU provides for Argentinian music creators.
The non-state public entity the National Institute of Music (INAMU) supports, preserves, and spreads musical activity nationally and globally. It is part of the Ibermusicas program through the Ministry of Culture of Argentina, along with several other Latin American countries. It educates musicians through workshops, training, and public education about their intellectual property and collective management. It also reinforces live music by coordinating access to the public with establishments like cultural centers, clubs, bars, and festivals.
The institute promotes phonographic and videogram production and distribution. The “Unisono” program on national radio and public TV helps by giving a platform to new bands and solo artists. The institute also helps by giving discounts for transportation, technology, and music instruments.
Argentinian creators don’t just get support domestically, but also receive help to promote their musical projects abroad. Since 2018, INAMU has helped independent musical projects export with opportunities in Latin America and Europe. 22 delegations have had their music heard at WOMEX in Finland, MMVV in Spain, SIM in Brazil, and Global in Canada, among others, thanks in part to the support of SADAIC.
It is, without a doubt, a necessary initiative that provides tools that contribute to the training, growth and, improvement of musicians, authors and composers of music.
Not Today
This article is not to highlight the difficulties that we continue to encounter as music creators along the way.
It is also not to inform you of an event, remind you how unfair streaming platforms continue to be, or discuss the real threat of Artificial Intelligence to the future of those of us who generate the raw materials that feed our industry.
We used this space to remind you that your work is invaluable and that the unrepeatable magic that you usually create is the bridge through which millions of emotions cross every day.
Tomorrow, we will continue to inform you about the constant fight that the CIAM has as its mission, and we will surely urge you again to join our present and future battles.
But not today; today we just want to wish you happy holidays, and may 2025 come to your house full of blessings and good news.
Peace.