Origins, goals and effects of EU law and policy in the online music sector – report by Fairmuse project

Fair MusE is pleased to announce the release of its report titled “Origins, goals and effects of EU law and policy in the online music sector”. The report focuses on ‘fairness’ which has become a central concern for a variety of actors and stakeholders in the music industry. It studies the distinct ways in which ‘fairness’ has been diachronically conceptualised as a term in the EU policy related to the music sector, seeking to understand the emergence and evolution of the concept ‘fairness’, against the backdrop of the governance of digitisation and online platforms in Europe. The research is based on documents covering a period of more than 30 years issued by the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union, as well as the European Parliament and the Council as colegislators.

The analysis illustrates that the issue of ‘fairness’ in the EU regulatory framework of copyright, and especially the ‘fair’ remuneration of rightholders, have been predominant topics of discussion over time. However, due to the process of platformisation, copyright regulation – and the debate around the economic and cultural sets of values that should underpin it – progressively became part of a broader legal and policy framework dealing with the governance of digital platforms. From this perspective, what platformisation did was to make EU policy for the music sector go beyond copyright, and the legal and policy debate that surrounds it.

The report is authored by Antonios Vlassis (ULIEGE), Dealan Riga (ULIEGE), Evangelia Psychogiopoulou (ELIAMEP), Apostolos Samaras (ELIAMEP) and Anna Kandyla (ELIAMEP).

You can access the report here.