Solange Cesarovna joins CIAM Executive Committee during meetings Cabo Verde meetings
CIAM held its Executive Committee (ExCo) meetings on January 26thand 27th in the African nation of Cabo Verde to help boost the country’s collective management organisation SCM in their efforts to bring reforms to Cabo Verdean music creators. The ExCo is made up of continental partner alliance and collective management organisation representatives, who gather to address and draw attention to pressing concerns affecting music creators regionally and globally.
Reflective of the CIAM 3.0 strategy to refresh the council, music creator and host society SCM CEO Solange Cesarovna was added to the ExCo as an observer to add her perspective and experience to CIAM’s current and future deliberations and plans.
The ExCo meetings allowed members and observers to discuss and monitor progress made since the CIAM General Assembly in Mexico City in November 2018, including initiatives on gender equity and diversity and updates on technology and work identifiers (e.g., ISWC) that will be affecting the world’s creators of music going forward. It also allowed the Exco to get an update on the major change in music licensing in America regarding the MLC as well as the European Union’s Copyright Directive’s progress.
The two-day meeting came following educational seminars open to local artists and creators, about the importance of registering their works and copyright, and how that can lead to receiving royalty payments, as well as other practical aspects of pursuing music professionally. The success of the training seminars, which drew over 320 participants, was reviewed by the ExCo as well as the importance of such activities in changing the perception of collective management societies. Africa faces many of the same problems seen elsewhere in the world, such as issues related to the dominance of digital distribution. Cabo Verde showed that if one country can initiate change, it can inspire others to do so as well.