PROJECTS

INFORMATION


MusicAIRE-EAC-2021-0090-1stCall

Abstract
IMPALA’s Climate Training and Standards project (IMPACTS) aims to build new climate literacy capacity for independent music companies in Europe to help them achieve a net zero carbon footprint. IMPALA has developed hands-on advice for its nearly 6000 members, SME music companies and self-releasing artists, as well as tools such as a bespoke carbon calculator (the first of its kind within in the music sector) with Julie’ s Bicycle, for members to track their footprint. The sector now needs training on how to use these new tools, to develop new capacity and skills at scale. This is where IMPACTS comes in. It will offer customised climate literacy training by international and local experts. This will include guidance on using the carbon calculator, encouraging capacity building in the sector and supporting them in green recovery actions. The project will also establish a framework to start setting up sector-wide benchmarks and standards. In addition, it will raise awareness of positive stories and best practices, as a catalyst for further change promoting climate optimism and the value of both individual and collective actions. Only a multi-territory project like IMPACTS, embracing a significant part of the sector, can achieve this level of transition and added European value at scale. Accounting for 80% of all new releases in Europe, across over 30 countries in the EEA and neighbouring territories, the independent sector’s actions through IMPACTS will add European value by developing new climate capacity and accelerating carbon reduction capacity in the entire music industry in Europe. It will also contribute to just and inclusive recovery in the sector, by recognising that every country and company is different, and that they all need different levels of support to develop capacity and embrace change. The same applies to the framework for standards and exchange of best practices. That will also make transition at scale more accessible and inclusive.

Name of the Entity: IMPALA – Independent Music Companies Association AISBL
Country: BE – Belgium
Theme: Green recovery
Strand: Medium (EUR 55.000)
Score: 95,5

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Abstract
FXR (‘fixer’) is a music tech startup dedicated to creating a music industry in which all creators and rights holders are compensated correctly. Every year, industry wide data problems result in hundreds of millions in royalty payments ending up in the ‘black box’, instead of with the rightful owner.
The royalty statements that creators receive contain many flaws and are nearly impossible to understand, resulting in very few people being able to use them to their advantage. This is where FXR comes in. Using machine learning, custom algorithms and common sense, we process and harmonize these files and other relevant data, offering users much needed tools and insights to overcome the existing data barrier.

Our MusicAIRE project consists of two parts:

  1. We want to work closely with local creator and managers’ societies in NL, DE, SE, FR and IT, providing ten creators per country free access to our (beta) portal for one year. Participants will be able to upload their personal performance, mechanical and neighboring rights statements and use our tools to get valuable insights into their payments.
  2. At the end of this process, we will create an anonymized dataset from the uploaded statements in order to research and compare how royalty data is being handled by EU collecting societies. While the music industry’s data problem has been written about extensively, we believe that with our technology we can provide a practical and novel perspective. This part of the project will be done in collaboration with music journalist Chris Cooke, and our findings and recommendations will be published in an online whitepaper.

With this project, we aim to raise awareness among creators, managers, and collection societies about the status quo of music royalty data handling. Our recommendations aim to incite change at the EU-level, and ultimately to create a fairer music ecosystem. Given that music creators have been among the hardest hit by the COVID-19 crisis, this is now more relevant than ever.

Name of the Entity: FXR BV
Country: NL – Netherlands
Theme: Digital recovery; Just and resilient recovery
Strand: Medium (EUR 55.000)
Score: 92,5

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The challenges of the European music industry have become more pronounced than ever in the light of the ongoing pandemic, proving the need for a future-proofed music industry that is fairer, healthier & more diverse. The EMPE aims to contribute to this mission by intensifying borderless cultural exchange & business opportunities between European music cities by enabling exchange for music policymakers, thereby empowering innovation and collaboration.

The aim of the EMPE is the crucial work of building a more resilient future for the European Music Industry, beginning with facilitating a knowledge exchange for European music cities & producing a music policy primer based on its findings. The primer will focus on engaging cities and policymakers, creating new investment frameworks for music and bringing together diverse stakeholders to create a robust toolkit to help frame policies in supporting recovery. Activities will include facilitating recovery roundtables with Music Cities Network members & other European cities to map actions, objectives and initiatives happening in each community. Using the CME’s Guide to Music and the SDGs as a framework, we will produce a first-of-its-kind, free-at-the-point-of-access policy toolkit offering best practices, case studies & draft templates and a compendium of data that will be made available to all European cities, outlining how music aligns with a variety of European cities’ strategic priorities, and guiding next steps to implementation.

The EMPE will provide guidance, frameworks & a methodology to insert music—in all forms and functions— into the wider strategic context that governs Europe’s cities. The EMPE seeks to create hands-on solutions that bridge the gaps between music city stakeholders: artists, music entrepreneurs, city marketing strategists and music policymakers, sharing MCN’s mission to convince decision makers and politicians to sustainably acknowledge music as an integral part of city development.

Name of the Entity: Music Cities Network e.V.
Country: DE – Germany
Theme: Just and resilient recovery
Strand: Medium (EUR 55.000)
Score: 92

ABSTRACT
The music sector as a creative powerhouse is a pivotal element in the European cultural and creative sector, both structurally and economically. Currently, the global music sector is in the midst of a major transformation. New (digital) business models have arisen in recent years. Cross-border cooperation especially in the EU is intensifying, requiring knowledge of national specifics and networks. Moreover, the economic struggles following COVID-19 highlight the importance of innovation, networks and creativity – to overcome crises and to be resilient. Additionally, the music sector needs and is willing to play its part in the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions to tackle climate change.

To tackle these questions, Hamburg Music will set up the European Music Business Training (EMBT). The first goal is to offer 10 seminars that provide music business-specific knowledge. The aim is to reach a total of 250 participants from up to 16 EU-countries. 4 seminars will focus on digital recovery, another 4 seminars will focus on resilient recovery, and 2 seminars will focus on green recovery. The seminars will be conducted by senior music industry experts.

The second goal is to set up and manage a network for transnational exchange. During the networking events, professional links between participants, externals and speakers will be established and fostered. EMBT will have several effects on the European music ecosystem. Short-term, it will give the participants another incentive to stay in the music business. Also, it will enable the participants to gain knowledge to make their businesses more resilient, digitalized and green. Medium-term, the increased knowledge will improve the competitiveness of European music business companies. Participants will bring back new ideas into their companies, culminating in new business opportunities. On a personal level, they will benefit from increased knowledge and international networks on their career path.

Name of the Entity: Hamburg Music Business e.V.
Country: DE – Germany
Theme: Green recovery; Digital recovery; Just and resilient recovery
Strand: Medium (EUR 55.000)
Score: 92

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ABSTRACT
Tune Green – connecting non-formal education and music Aims In ‘Tune Green’, our main aim is to connect youth workers and educators with musicians and musical methods – by developing a web-based toolkit, we wish to:

  • enable youth workers and educators to use musical activities in their work, thereby helping the (young) people they work with to engage with society and with key issues through music (in particular with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs));
  • make music education more widely accessible in Slovenia; to decentralize and de-academicize its execution;
  • create paid work opportunities for musicians in Slovenia – particularly in Eastern Slovenia, where we are based.
    Final product
    The final product will be a website, which will consist of a catalogue of activities for youth workers and educators to freely consult and use. It will also include a contact section, with the details of professional practitioners (musicians) who can carry out the activities or more complex workshops.
    Process
    We will start the project with a 3-day kick-off event in October, which will connect toolkit contributors from Slovenia with international experts, for sharing ideas and brainstorming.
    After collating the material from the kick-off, we will have a pilot activity camp in November/December with young people to demo the toolkit. Following feedback from this event, we will start developing the website.
    We will the further demonstrate and disseminate the toolkit at workshops in schools and on the street the following spring.

Name of the Entity: Društvo Lojtra Društvo za osebni in poklicni razvoj mladih
Country: SI – Slovenia
Theme: Green recovery; Just and resilient recovery
Strand: Medium (EUR 55.000)
Score: 91,5

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ABSTRACT
Every music lover has experienced the Berlin clubs or a festival in Barcelona at least once. These music scenes are an inspiration for thousands of people as audiences and models to follow for the music professionals. But what about all the other cities for contemporary music scenes and venues all around Europe? This is a reason to get active and to find new METE, new destinations ( “mete” in Italian means “destinations”) for a resilient recovery of the music sector.

These ‘minor’ and peripheral territories are full of best practices as well and are places of widespread culture that must be safeguarded for their social and cultural value. 12 representative students from music business masters and courses, based in Europe, will be selected for METE – Music Experience, Trips in Europe, an inclusive non-formal educational and training trip in 3 unconventional European music cities and scenarios.
METE is a project to underline how crucial it’s, in the study programs, that the future music business professionals learn and experience the good practices related to environmental sustainability, social cohesion and local community inclusion. These 3 trips will be scheduled with a special call to select 3 venues in the EU that use virtuous and SDG business models in their companies/associations and that use to engage and support the local communities of their cities.

In addition to the exchange of these best practices among both students and venues professionals from different cities, the project also wants to emphasize the idea that music is a decisive driver of local and international development for many cities and areas in each EU country. This project is an innovative model, fully scalable to other cities, to head for new ways for local music venues in exiting the crisis, in promoting the young and creative atmosphere and awareness-raising of their cities and in fostering connections between people in the EU through music.

Name of the Entity: Butik s.r.l. Impresa Sociale
Country: IT – Italy
Theme: Just and resilient recovery
Strand: Medium (EUR 55.000)
Score: 91,5

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ABSTRACT
MICS is a just & resilient rural music initiative in 3 countries with the aim of strengthening sustainable futures for music creators & listeners outside urban centres. MICS expands the music ecosystem into rural areas involving audiences in living music processes:
residencies, workshops, symposia, live performances, radio & web broadcasts & podcasts. MICS communicates the value & joy of music to new & existing audiences across borders, reaching out to minorities & rural inhabitants to bring them into the world of music. Through contact between artists & audiences MICS raises awareness for the value of music & the need for existential security in the music branch. Through music, MICS communicates socio-cultural togetherness across boundaries. MICS is a pilot project & innovative model that wants to be copied & continued: the sustainable value of collaboration helps to strengthen futures for music creators, expanding performance, teaching & networks into new non-urban areas to highlight the societal value of music as communication beyond language in the European landscape.
MICS addresses challenges thrown up by Covid-19 & the precarious situation of music in society by being a role model for grass-roots involvement in fair & sustainable music practice, including Ukrainian creators in 3 5-day live events in AT, SI and HR.
Digital tools, platforms & the radio will disseminate the project & its protagonists’ lasting input beyond the life of the project. Green behaviour is self-explanatory in relation to travel, recycling and responsible use of resources.
Upholding the cohesive value of music in society through a European collaboration, MICS transports EU cultural diversity & the common ground that we share in creative communication, drawing audiences into the organic, dynamic process.
MICS creates sustainable futures for participants through networks that will expand beyond the life of the project, propagating just & resilient fairness for musicians & audiences.

Name of the Entity: Enterprise Z – Kultur- & Eventverein zur Realisation von intermedialen Projekten im und für den öffentlichen Raum
Country:AT – Austria
Theme: Just and resilient recovery
Strand: Medium (EUR 55.000)
Score: 91

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ABSTRACT
With around 100 000 visitors per edition, Cabaret Vert is a major music festival in Europe, close to the France-Belgium border. Since 2005, sustainability has been at the core of the festival values. In a context of sanitary crisis and climate change emergency, it is crucial for a cultural event of such a scale to innovate and to be part of the solution. For the upcoming editions the festival aims at building a pioneering low carbon strategy. In this ambitious plan, the project DECARB-ON! comes as a way to create bonds between the imaginary transformative power of festivals and sectors like transport, food, energy and so on. The objective of DECARB-ON! is to create and share resources to foster the movement of decarbonization in the European festival ecosystem. The festival team already identified some European initiatives in that domain and wants to be part of that story, getting inspiration from their resources, in line with the European Green Deal.
To implement this European project, the festival will conduct a first comprehensive calculation of its carbon footprint for the 2022 edition and will raise awareness about decarbonization among all of its stakeholders
during the process (The Climate Fresk, workshops etc.). The festival team will also conduct a study on transport of the audience and develop a set of benchmarking, consulting and best practices sharing with our service providers to create an innovative educational app for festival-goers. The project includes the presentation of the results of the studies. After the data is collected and the project conducted, the festival team will share and display the actions and results in European networks and professional events. The main objective of the expected results is to set up a comprehensive decarbonization action plan for the festival and to be able to share a synthesis of successes and pitfalls for other European events that would like to implement their own decarbonization strategy.

Name of the Entity: FLaP Association / Cabaret Vert Festival
Country: FR – France
Theme: Green recovery
Strand: Medium (EUR 55.000)
Score: 91

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ABSTRACT
EEnlarge Europe is a community of venues and an educational project of the grassroots scene where all live music starts. Our goal is to keep music alive by supporting and cooperating with each other, sharing knowledge, achieving a high standard of quality and helping emerging artists, because music is the oxygen in our blood.
Grassroot venues have a cultural mission and they are independent in music programming, providing a qualitative scope of artists to audiences and supporting emerging talents, but they need support and cooperation within the scene. Music venues are disappearing due to gentrification, economic problems and /or political reasons especially in the Eastern European region, therefore artists have almost nowhere to play and develop their live performances early on in their careers. This situation has become even more polarised by COVID-crisis.
EEnlarge Europe is an educational and cooperative project tailored for the grassroot scene’s needs. The project invites professionals from all fields from large venues to layers, from social media experts to showcase organisers, from associations to governmental decision makers. The founders of the project are five venues from four countries: Channel Zero from Ljubljana, Nappali from Pécs, Moszkva Kávézó from Oradea, Kvaka 22 from Belgrade, Zentropia from Senta and an enthusiast girl without any club from Budapest. It is currently co-funded by the European Union’s “Cooperation of small music venues” program.
Enlarge Europe wants to be a region-wide cooperative hub that actively provides knowledge, support and advocacy in order to shift from harmful market-based competition into a healthy transcultural and transnational mutual assistance, and support the emerging music scene. Their activities also include datadriven recovery actions, awareness raising campaigns, advocacy and scene strengthening catalyzation of communication and networking with the actors of the scene and with the policy makers.

Name of the Entity: Kulturális LABOR Alkotóművészeti Szociális Szövetkezet
Country: HU – Hungary
Theme: Green recovery; Just and resilient recovery
Strand: Medium (EUR 55.000)
Score: 90,5

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ABSTRACT
Eurotoire: Equaliser (EU:EQ) is a co-creation and capacity training programme matching emerging artists of underrepresented genders from underrepresented regions with emerging music media professionals. Participants will receive training disseminating the music co-created, produced and recorded during the programme to stakeholders and audiences while also diversifying the music industry’s tastemaking curation.

The main objectives are to boost both the artistic network and professional capacity of music producer-songwriters of underrepresented genders from underrepresented regions to collaborate beyond their borders, as well as music media professionals to develop their curation to form a just and resilient level playing field in Europe’s music market. EU:EQ cuts across gender inequality and challenges in access to the European music sector.

The project consists of two residential training camps in Cyprus where the artists will co-create and record an album, and a series of mentoring sessions providing artistic guidance and training on topics related to co-creation and music production, marketing, diversifying curation and challenges underrepresented artists face. The project will result in a collaborative album and the remuneration of the participating artists and music media professionals.

EU:EQ will uphold a diverse environment from which artists can benefit in cross-cultural collaboration, and the music media professionals will also act as importers. The project is designed to celebrate what diverse European repertoire truly sounds like, as it platforms music co-created by artists of underrepresented genders from underrepresented regions, empowering participants with skills to promote diversity and an expanded network. EU:EQ directly creates professional networks for artists from European countries which either before or during the pandemic suffer from low music support architectures.

Name of the Entity: Louvana Diskoi Ltd
Country: CY – Cyprus
Theme: Just and resilient recovery
Strand: Medium (EUR 55.000)
Score: 90,5

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ABSTRACT
Depending on their chosen digital path to market, Independent European Artists and Labels may receive very different levels of payouts from DSPs (Digital Platforms), especially in the streaming arena. It is fundamental to have the knowledge to maximize your earnings by choosing the right path to market – artists should not pay to distribute, for example. AMAEI, the Portuguese Independent Music Trade Association, proposes to launch a series of European webinars in articulation with its fellow TA’s (other European IMPALA member Trade Associations) with the dual purpose of conducting research on independent music being released across Europe and which digital distributors are used by each label and/or self-released artist and assisting labels and artists in making better choices – finding the most just and resilient path to market for independent European music, on a country-per-country basis. The project will begin by three phases of mapping: European distribution companies, labels, and artists self-releasing music, and which distributors they use – also gaging their level of satisfaction. Once the three mapping phases are accomplished, AMAEI will then initiate a series of capacity-building webinars to assist EU labels and artists in acquiring the knowledge necessary to chose the best digital path to market, partnering with European companies who can guarantee them proper licensing deals with DSP and do not charge artists up front. Furthermore, the capacity building webinars will highlight the need for correct metadata usage, for example using proper ISRC codes that identify the producer (label), not merely accepting ISRCs from the distributors that will often tag the phonogram with the wrong country code. The expected result is a more just and resilient EU recorded music sector, enhancing EU distributors with more transparent deals and a more informed decision-making process in choosing each digital path to market with a special focus on Emerging Artists development.

Name of the Entity: Associação de Músicos Artistas e Editoras Independentes
Country: PT – Portugal
Theme: Digital recovery; Just and resilient recovery
Strand: Medium (EUR 55.000)
Score: 90,5

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ABSTRACT
Boomtown is a medium sized music festival (cap. 3500) taking place annually during “Gentse Feesten”, one of the biggest European city festivals (with a total of 970.000 visitors during 10 days in the historical inner city of Ghent). Boomtown always had a big focus on sustainability (e.g. the pioneering use of reusable cups). For the 2022 edition the festival wants to measure and record all of its (electric) energy use. In collaboration with the KU Leuven a zero measurement will take place that will give the festival insight on its daily energy use. The measuring will give an insight on 5 different energy users: sound, light, foodstands, bars and ‘extra’.

Throughout the measuring process festival staff and volunteers will get involved by committing big or small changes to see what effect these have on the use of energy. All monitoring will be displayed and communicated to the audience via an on site video screen with easy to comprehend comparisons to everyday use of energy this will create awareness (e.g. one live band = XX washing machines).

All results will be recorded and openly available for every professional (other festivals, concert organizers and bands) in our network as a benchmark. An analysis made by Boomtown and KUL will be shared with the broad network of both partners.

Name of the Entity: vzw Oude Beestenmarkt
Country: BE – Belgium
Theme: Green recovery
Strand: Small (EUR 30.000)
Score: 90

ABSTRACT
SurveyHarmonies will build a bank of survey questions on music consumption and production that harmonise with public data, as well as an interface that imports these questions into popular surveying tools like SurveyMonkey. This will enable micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and civil society organizations (CSOs) in the European music sector to conduct meaningful market research and close the information gap with big data owners.
Surveying is often regarded as a go-to tool in market research – however, collecting data that is accurate enough to add value to business analytics is technically challenging. Truly representative surveys usually exceed the reach and budget of music entrepreneurs and MSMEs. As a leading market research institute led by musicologists, SINUS is committed to providing tools tailored to the needs of these players.

The SurveyHarmonies toolkit is inspired by “survey recycling”: i.e., using variables and questions that harmonise with prior surveys. This allows users to benefit from research that has already been conducted, and to pay only for the new, complementary information that they collect. Our strategy builds upon the prior work done by CEEMID, which used survey recycling to cut costs and increase data quality in music surveys presented in the Central European Music Industry Report. It works together with the Digital Music Observatory open knowledge platform and its well-tested, open-source tools.

The open-source ethos is central to SurveyHarmonies. We share this ethos with our colleagues in the Digital Music Observatory and the OpenMusE Consortium, which aims to build a comprehensive, open-source data-to-policy pipeline for the European music sector. SurveyHarmonies establishes a business foundation for this aim by offering surveying tools for music MSMEs and CSOs, which enable them to take advantage of open data – as well as to synergise with one another. We will encourage users to share the data they collect in repositories such as Zenodo, demonstrating the benefits of knowledge-sharing and establishing a new best practice in the sector and beyond.

Name of the Entity: SINUS Markt- und Sozialforschung GmbH
Country: DE – Germany
Theme: Digital recovery; Just and resilient recovery
Strand: Small (EUR 30.000)
Score: 90

ABSTRACT
LLSMECM initiative calls on the music sector to reimagine the organisation, production and programming of small scale outdoor music events. The main objective is to establish a new paradigm of sustainable, climate positive festival culture. Embracing the theme of green recovery, LLSMECM focuses on prototyping a certification model for outdoor music events, while testing its objectives developing and producing an exemplar event. The model and its test event answer to the challenges of environmental degradation, unsustainable patterns of consumption and hostile work environment often associated with festival production. The focus of the LLSMECM lays on reducing pressure on the environment, sharing tools and knowledge about regenerative culture and raising awareness through participatory, collective action.
LLSMECM activities include:

  1. Creating guidelines and a certification model for outdoor music events;
  2. Prototyping a climate positive event: LIOS labs micro festival production;
  3. Disseminating the know-how and sharing the developed strategy with the European network. Expected results:
  4. Publicly available set of guidelines for event in the form of pdf;
  5. LIOS labs certificate – certification scheme that validates the compliance with sustainability guidelines by other organisers available for affordable price;
  6. A prototype of a fully sustainable event.

    European added value:
    The onEarth Foundation is strengthening European collaboration by sharing knowledge about the sustainable practices and providing a clear set of guidelines to music and cultural event organisers in EU and abroad, promoting European Values internationally and incorporating them into daily practice. The Foundation educates about sustainability of events being the common goal of the organisers in EU and outside. Both the certification model and the prototype of a sustainable event are developed by a transregional team of collaborators, deriv

    Name of the Entity: onEarth Foundation
    Country: PL – Poland
    Theme: Green recovery
    Strand: Small (EUR 30.000)
    Score: 89

    Social Media

ABSTRACT
Engagement with music through streaming platforms continues to grow, and the processes of creating, disseminating and listening to music are completely transformed by them. Streaming platforms use artificial intelligence (AI) for classification and recommendation of music to facilitate the search and consumption of music. But often the way the AI algorithms are developed tends to reduce the existing diversity of contents, and influence our interests and tastes, having an important impact on society and culture. In recent years, the study of the challenges related to the ethical aspects of AI has become important. Specifically, the way in which the AI models are designed and the choice of data used for their development, generate a variety of relevant biases in the algorithms used for music search and recommendation. For this reason this project proposes an open discussion process involving all relevant stakeholders and the elaboration of concrete action plans. The process will be focused on identifying the problems and opportunities of the use of AI in the whole music creation and distribution pipeline, and proposing solutions to support a fair and transparent digital transformation of the sector. The project is structured into four sequential actions: (1) Information gathering through interviews and work groups with different agents around the challenges posed by the use of AI in the different steps of the music creation-consumption pipeline; (2) Open workshop aimed at music professionals to raise awareness, train, and foster critical thinking around the use of AI in music; (3) Creation of a report based on the discussion, proposals, and feedback from the professionals, aimed at influencing the creation of technologies that foster diversity and transparency, and at policy makers, aimed at influencing the regulation of these developments and their uses; and (4) Dissemination of project’s conclusions through a series of podcasts.

Name of the Entity: Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Country: ES – Spain
Theme: Digital recovery
Strand: Small (EUR 30.000)
Score: 86,5

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ABSTRACT
Music is an essential part of the EU and contributes over €25 billion to its revenue annually. When well integrated into a city, across policy, infrastructure, private sectors, tourism, transportation and all other aspects of city life, music boosts the city’s economy. According to Music Moves Europe it has created more jobs for Europe than the film industry alone. Sound Diplomacy’s work has empowered 36+ European cities and 60+ cities worldwide to achieve their social, cultural and economic goals through music and the night time economy. The group organises global conventions on the topic of music cities, policy and tourism. It also produces an international awards ceremony on music cities, and runs the Music Cities Community platform. Our aim is to educate 54 diverse and carefully curated participants (2 from each EU member country) on the topic of music ecosystems through a capacity building programme. The programme will outline the role and impact of a healthy music city, and its contribution to socio-economic development, night economy, and tourism. It will explore policy’s role in building a music Ecosystem while including relevant stakeholders in the process. Live digital lectures, workshops and discussions will take place, where case studies from music cities around the world will be examined among other activities detailed below. At the end of the programme, participants will demonstrate a strong understanding of the music cities concept and its greater impact. They will be able to identify relevant policies, take action and teach others
about the key elements of successful initiatives. Participants will understand how music can be used to achieve the UN SDGs. The learning outcomes will also significantly impact the advancement of the Five Music Rights in the 27 member states. Our programme will build champions of resilient and just European music ecosystems and facilitate knowledge exchange across regions, cities and organisations.

Name of the Entity: SOUND DIPLOMACY, SLU
Country: ES – Spain
Theme: Just and resilient recovery
Strand: Small (EUR 30.000)
Score: 86,5

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ABSTRACT
Organization of the online cooperation camp for Ukrainian and European musicians and producers. 25 pairs of creatives: one – from Ukraine, another – from other Creative Europe country, will be able to spend time and create together, show mutual support, collaborate and work on the better future together. This project will help to raise the awareness of the power of art and creative solidarity during the most challenging times for the whole Europe. The main activities of the project would include online and/or offline collaborations for mutual tracks, production, podcasts recordings, interviews, etc. The main results of the project would be the selection of creative pieces between 25 paid of collaborators using the same language they all speak – music, and it’s power to unite communities, which will be widely distributed for the general audience and music fans.

In the times of the horrific war of Russia on the sovereign territory of Ukraine, many Ukrainian musicians joined territory defense organizations, joined volunteer organizations, and were actively protecting their country and people. Therefore, their music talent was left behind. With this project, we’d like to support those talented and courageous artists and motivate them to come back to their craft and connect with European peers. We’d like to provide 25 scholarships to 25 artists/bands from Ukraine for online cooperation with EU colleagues. They can spend this money on traveling, online production, paying musicians or simply having time to create without the need to worry about how to earn money due to the unstable economic situation.

The main objective of the project: to support Ukrainian musicians financially and organizationally, so they can continue creating despite terrible events in their home country. Along with that, we’d like to unite the European music community around the cooperation with Ukrainian artists in solidarity to complement the European democratic values and creative freedom.

Name of the Entity: Music Export Ukraine
Country: UA – Ukraine
Theme: Just and resilient recovery
Strand: Small (EUR 30.000)
Score: 86,5

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ABSTRACT
‘AVANT Learn – Advanced Music XLR8R’ is a specialized education-training program that aims to form the new music managers of the future. It is open to students and creative unemployed (20-35) willing to learn how to create and manage a music project.

The course is intended as a dynamic learning space where new audiences can grow and have fun with other likeminded music enthusiasts. It differs from any other Italian music capacity-building project, for the completeness of topics covered and for its imprinting to a flexible, collaborative and competitive mindset.

The training is divided into three phases – mentorship, master class, and internship – and each phase presents theoretic and pragmatic thinking. In fact, students have the opportunity to learn a multitude of interrelated skills, stay in contact with experts, and apply the learnings in occasion of two regional music festivals of European relevance.

During the mentorship and master classes, conventional and contemporary key topics are explored, such as: music management, marketing, communication; digital project management; music tourism; green music; fundraising; event production; copyright & licensing. During the internships, participants are in charge to handle logistic and management tasks at AVANT Festival (5-6th August, Lecce) and MUNDI Festival (1-4th September, Bari).

The European added value of the project comes from the process of “sharing and scaling”, in which students are able to get a “universal” and “pragmatic” vision, and replay it in micro or macro contexts. Our team wishes to transfer such process to external companies, festivals and creative schools, that are invited to replicate such process, and contribute to forming new audiences and developing the music system on a regional, national and European base.

The programme will produce results translating into the acquisition of vertical skills; the capacity to work in the music world; a sense of belonging to the local community.

Name of the Entity: Sud Sonico Associazione Culturale
Country: IT – Italy
Theme: Just and resilient recovery
Strand: Micro (EUR 15.000)
Score: 90

ABSTRACT
Listen Local Lithuania, a project of MXF, in cooperation with Music Export Ukraine, will create the Lithuanian Demo Music Database and the Ukrainian Demo Music Database following the methodological work laid out in the CEEMID project with Listen Local Slovakia with the aim to increase the visibility and revenues of the artists involved in this project. We will develop a non-profit data service using open data and open source software.

This project builds on the findings of the Central European Music Industry Report found in 2019 that in the CEE and Lithuania up to 70% of artist income was related to concerts, which is far above the historical average (where more than half of the revenues were royalties for artists.) It also showed that in Lithuania and in the region, streaming prices have been declining steadily in the period of 2015-2019, and streaming revenues for self-published creators were minimal in the region.The Covid-19 crisis wiped out the most important revenue stream, concerts, from the music ecosystem for two seasons, and in Ukraine, the war made things worse. We want to raise awareness of the potential of revenues lost due to missing/incorrect copyright management and licensing data, and help achieve a more balanced revenue base for artists with a higher percentage of royalties.

The project partners cooperate within the Digital Music Observatory open knowledge platform with partners who originally developed Listen Local Slovakia to understand the under-representation of Slovak music within Slovakia, and reuse that project’s open source components in a way that it also creates a template for further European regional or national reutilizations. We will pilot a sustainable non-profit business model to various services that help self-releasing artists, small labels and publishers to better manage their data and metadata, and make sure that big data on big platforms works for them, and not against them.

The resulting LDMDb and UDMDb will be harmonized with MusicBrainz, Wikipedia and Wikidata, the existing Ukrainian Music Industry Database and other resources, and it will be made available for further research for the OpenMusE or other research consortia that aim to support the diversity of music on global music platforms.

Name of the Entity: Muzikos eksporto fondas VšĮ
Country: LT – Lithuania
Theme: Digital recovery; Just and resilient recovery
Strand: Micro (EUR 15.000)
Score: 87,5

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ABSTRACT
The music sector must increase its environmental and social (ESG) sustainability management to meet the challenges of the climate emergency and to make the music sector a fairer, more just workplace for womxn and artists coming from minorities, small countries. The EU will make target setting and audited reporting mandatory in environmental and social sustainability for large companies. The application of these new accounting, reporting and disclosure rules are optional for the music sector where almost all entities are micro-, or small enterprises and civil society organizations.

Even if music organizations are not pushed by regulators to adopt these new standards, it is in their best interest to take the initiative on the principle of subsidiarity, and develop tools that can be applied as an extension to their simplified financial and tax reporting. Music organizations and businesses that can prove that they are making progress in reducing their carbon footprint, making their water use more sustainable, and they provide equal opportunities for womxn, they will be eligible for new, green bank and insurance products (which are particularly important in live music) and can attract new sponsors and donors.

Compliance with these new rules is very costly, because tools are being developed for stock-exchange listed big companies and financial institutions, often running into 10,000 euros per company or more. Reprex, working together with large accounting, audit and value-based banking partners, scientific, research and industry partners in the Digital Music Observatory open knowledge collaboration, hopes to bring down this cost below 500 euros, which will immediately pay off when a music organization receives green money.

Name of the Entity: Reprex besloten vennootschap
Country: NL – Netherlands
Theme: Green recovery; Just and resilient recovery
Strand: Micro (EUR 15.000)
Score: 83,5

Social Media

ABSTRACT
The festival ‘Piano en Fleur’ was created Amandine HABIB, pianist and is divided as such: an OFF, an IN (the festival itself) and another OFF. This sectioning takes the form of an itinerancy in the South-East of France (Marseille).The choice of the itinerancy is relevant from an environmental perspective, reducing the carbon footprint: the artists, in small number, go to a public, in a large number. It allows us to target diversified audiences and to go to territories lacking cultural programing. This festival was created in the middle of the pandemic, the choice to do concerts in gardens gave us the opportunity to secure a first edition. This project has several purposes, on the one hand an excellence of programming for the public: the choice of performers, and especially a focus on regional artists (South of France). On the other hand, the link between botanics and music: an immersing experience, a back and
forth between the music played on stage, the garden, and the dishes composed by the chef around floral gastronomy. An experience of all the senses, hearing, taste, and then a goal: raising awareness of the flora. Activities are planned for the younger public. Parity is at the heart of our concerns, in the production teams and in the festival’s programming, the artistic director being a woman and an artist, half of the artists programmed are women.In addition, there is an educational dimension : workshops about improvisation (Jazz), but also by advocating for inclusion for ASD people. Including disabled people is one of the first concerns of our festival, which since its creation
advocates to open music festivals to this public. Therefore, special concerts and activities are planned. The European but also Mediterranean dimension of our project comes from the composition of its team: France, Italy, Algeria, and also from the artists programed: Muza Rubackyte – Lithuania, Boyan Rodenitcharov, Bulgaria… etc.Our ultimate goal: MOMENTS OF GRACE AND SHARING for all

Name of the Entity: La Compagnie Nine Spirit
Country: FR – France
Theme: Green recovery; Just and resilient recovery
Strand: Micro (EUR 15.000)
Score: 83

Social Media

ABSTRACT
CLASSIC UNLIMITED aims to scale up a project developed in response to COVID-19 pandemic as an informal learning platform that aims to make classical music accessible and easier to understand by those facing barriers in enjoying this type of music.

The main project objective is defined around two topics: (A) The use of on-line technologies for classical music promotion by creating a set of four new episodes where musical works are introduced to the audience from the perspective of the composer, artist and historical events and their interpretation in high-quality audio /video production; (B) Four live performances in small cities as community events. This year, the project is promoting the theme of feminism where the audience is invited to discover the less known but amazing works of women composers and, in an equal way, how feminism is perceived by artists in romantic and contemporary music.

The main activities of the project are: (1) the creation of 4 on-line materials under the name of Classic Unlimited Explained, at least one of them being a new composition by a local artist, their production, recording and distribution via different on-line platforms, (2) the organization of 4 live events in small cities with free access as part of Classic Unlimited Tour, (3) the promotion of classical music through multiple channels and (4) the promotion of feminism in classical music.

The project results capitalize on the potential of digital transformation in the music industry while tackling sectorial problems such as reaching young and new audiences. CLASSIC UNLIMITED targets an audience of 40.000 viewers at European level. Videos will be produced in Romanian and German with English subtitles.

The on-line materials link Classic Unlimited (Romania) and Klassik Mittendrin (Germany) projects with European level innovation through an original initiative of developing an informal educational platform for classical music and the promotion of feminism and women composers.

Name of the Entity: CLASSIC UNLIMITED ASSOCIATION
Country: RO – Romania
Theme: Green recovery; Just and resilient recovery
Strand: Micro (EUR 15.000)
Score: 83

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MusicAIRE-EAC-2021-0090-2ndCall

Abstract
GreenME is the first environmental awareness programme included in the academic curriculum of a High Education Music School. It offers both an open conference, a training module and a project based on the “Learning by doing” methodology, so that the students may experiment their new abilities in a real context.

It arises from Albéniz Foundation’s main programme, the Reina Sofía School of Music, a reference education centre in Europe, based in Madrid (Spain). GreenME aims at promoting initiatives that develop synergies in two fundamental fields for the institution: music and environmental commitment. With more than 30 years of history and a complete free tuition each year for its 150 students, the Reina Sofía School emerges as a pioneer in ecological tuition for musicians with GreenME.

The project targets the transmission of knowledge and development of skills in the environmental field, as well as the awareness and creation of an ecological conscience in the students that results in good practices when starting their music professional activity. The development of sustainable musical careers is one of the challenges of the sector in its eagerness to adapt to the climatic situation.

The project will be developed in 3 phases:

1. Design: creation of the environmental module and adaptation within the academic curriculum (assignment of ECTS).

2. Execution:

  • Initial conference on environmental literacy;
  • Training module for the students enrolled in the Entrepreneurship programme or the “Artist Development” subject;
  • Real project or realisation of a project on environmental issues that a group of students will create from scratch to put into practice everything they have learned.

3. Communication: dissemination and publication of its results towards the educational community.

The project is going to generate documentation and results that can be applied to other contexts and can even be taken as a model for the elaboration of new strategies at the climatic and musical level.

Name of the Entity: fundación albéniz
Country: es – spain
Theme: Green recovery
Strand: Medium (EUR 55.000)
Score: 94,5

Social Media

Abstract
Lost Souls of War (LSW) is a project with the goal of producing a collection of classical music composed by musicians who were murdered during times of war. The project is supported by 93 international entities and has recovered more than 580 sheet music from 17 countries. LSW aims to promote a just and resilient recovery, and integrates several activities and actions focused on:

  • raising awareness about preserving culture and promoting a more resilient society by eternalizing the cultures of countries affected by war, especially those influenced by extremist and dictatorial policies;
  • promoting classical music by supporting artists and raising awareness of cultural issues through concerts, distributing profits to music education institutions, and artist residencies;
  • promoting classical music through digital platforms and emphasizing the value of art for bringing people together and aiding in the recovery of the artistic ecosystem, with the aim of sharing the message globally.

The project coordinator, Mickael Viegas, and his team will ensure the proper coordination and implementation of the project, which includes a sheet music editor, producer, and production assistant, all of them with extensive experience in the industry, which ensures that all the proposed activities and goals will be achieved.

LSW is innovative because it will be the first complete phonographic record of music created by composers who were fatally victimized by war, with a central role of artistic, educational, and inclusive character. The project has a sustainable character over time, and the communication activities will promote all the results obtained, with the ultimate goal of reaching an audience of millions of viewers worldwide.

Name of the Entity: toca das artes – núcleo cultural
Country: pt – portugal
Theme: Just and resilient recovery
Strand: Medium (EUR 55.000)
Score: 94,5

Social Media

Abstract
In 2021, Opéra de Lille has invested in 10 connected glasses to promote the accessibility of its activity, in line with its sustainability policy (certified by the international ISO20121 certification obtained in April 2021).

These glasses allow the surtitles (French or translated into another language: English and Dutch in particular) of a performance to be individually projected and are adaptable to the eyesight of each equipped spectator.

They thus promote the inclusion of non-French speakers as well as people with disabilities (deaf and hard of hearing, visually impaired, elderly, with neck or upper body mobility difficulties).

From now on, Opéra de Lille wants to develop this innovation by joining forces with two other cultural venues in the north of France (the Rose des Vents, Villeneuve d’Ascq and the Tandem, Arras-Douai) and in conjunction with the manufacturer Panthea in order to attract new spectators, local or not, non-French speaking or disabled. Deployment to other national and European venues could be considered at a later date, depending on their respective equipment, bearing in mind that a pooling of other accessibility tools is already in place locally (loan of vibrating waistcoats, for example).

The objectives are as follows:

  • To be part of the development of the accessibility of its activities for a just and resilient culture;
  • To make regular use of the connected glasses by offering spectators who need them the possibility of personalising the surtitles and content that already exist in all the operas;
  • Experiment with lyrisign or adapted surtitles on a production (Pelléas & Mélisande in January and February 2023 or Falstaff in May 2023);
  • Continue the use of connected glasses for the accessibility of non-French speakers ;
  • Participate in new innovations in uses: accessibility from a smartphone, study on lyrisigne, live surtitles by voice recognition for improvised scenes, etc., which would be useful to all cultural venues.



Name of the Entity: opera de lille
Country: fr – france
Theme: Just and resilient recovery
Strand: Medium (EUR 55.000)
Score: 94,5

Social Media

Abstract
There are three interconnected problems around data in today’s digital world: Data sovereignty (who owns data and rights), data accuracy & accountability (who is responsible for data and rights) and data remuneration (enable rights owners to make money with their data). The music sector is a very data driven sector, with composers and creators depending heavily on the digital distribution and exploitation of their copyright. In order to accurately do this, all three aforementioned problems need to be tackled. Copyright Delta is developing a solution for these problems and within this project, we will be testing the first applications built on this solution.

The applications we are developing, are build on a next generation rights management network, and are based on the basic premise that once copyright is verified, entered, and stored on a regulatory compliant and trusted banking blockchain, thus uniquely identified, it can accurately be tracked, traced, and administered into perpetuity. Copyright Delta has built network of vaults that can provide this solution, called Digital Rights Exchange (DRX). A one-time registration of a work and the accompanying metadata in DRX unlocks two functionalities:

  1. correct accounting on inaccurate historical streaming- and airplay data;
  2. create the opportunity to distribute music to Web3 environments like Avalanche, NEAR, Polygon, FewAndFar.

For this project, we focus on functionality 2: we have created a one-stop-shop Web3 distribution network. We will test this distribution network with creators & managers; iterate the software to better cater their needs; develop and publish a set of best practices and ultimately unlock new revenue streams and strengthen the capacity and digital literacy of the participants.

Name of the Entity: copyright delta
Country: nl – netherlands
Theme: Digital recovery
Strand: Medium (EUR 55.000)
Score: 93

Social Media

Abstract
MUSICAR project (which means MUSICKING in English) aims to provide access to music for blind and deaf individuals through the creation of theoretical classes and ensemble music practice at Metropolitana – an institution that promotes musical training at the various levels of education (primary, secondary, and higher). It aims as well to the training of its musicians, teachers, and undergraduate students for teaching music to these communities, which will make it possible to disseminate the practices developed in this project and to look for its future adoption in a broader scope.

In Portugal, several constraints prevent full access to music for communities with visual and hearing impairments. Music teachers lack specialized training in Braille musicography, Portuguese Sign Language and appropriate teaching methodologies, which leads them to refuse to work with these communities; other educators take on this work, but they have a very basic mastery of music. Thus, Metropolitana invites professionals with previous experience in these matters to explore and implement best practices, methodologies and curriculum contents of proven use. At the end, the ensembles of the Blind and Deaf MUSICAR Classes will join a blind conductor, a blind soloist and the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra in a public concert to be held on the stage of the São Luiz Theater at the end of November.  

In future years, with suitably qualified professionals, and always in articulation with other entities and stakeholders, Metropolitana will be able to welcome new students, contribute to equal opportunities and to elevate music as a civic right for everyone in Portugal.

Name of the Entity: Associação música, educação, cultura – o sentido dos sons
Country: pt – portugal
Theme: Just and resilient recovery
Strand: Medium (EUR 55.000)
Score: 93

Social Media

ABSTRACT
MUSE – Music Unified Strategies for Environment implements and develops strategies for greening music industry and system valorizing significant experiences and practices with a bottom-up approach.

TUCEP, its partners and stakeholders are collaborating transnationally in fields of environmental topics, education and training and artistic and cultural initiatives. These three themes have found a focus and convergence in the music sector. Together with other regional organizations and training providers, a ESF training plan is being implemented addressing also music professions (as artists, technicians, labels, producers, events promoters). Moreover, an Erasmus KA2 VET project is ongoing involving Partners from Lithuania and France. Joint needs analysis carried out with target groups, learners and experts have then revealed specific needs for greater knowledge about the positive and negative impacts, both material and immaterial, of music activities on the environment and how to monitor and improve related practices, in particular as to the ‘carbon footprint’ monitoring.  Hence, TUCEP has proceeded with a series of meetings with experts in technological and environmental aspects, principally from the Department of Industrial Engineering of Perugia University.

MUSE is a prosecution of this pathway, involving other “critical” target groups, fostering multiplier effects on professional, social and territorial contexts and extending follow-up also transnationally. The activities’ scenario addresses: a) musicians, technicians and music production and distribution professionals – directly involved in the project (100 per Country involved); b) event and festival organizers (10 per country involved); c) cultural and citizens’ associations representing the audience (at least 5 per country with a direct and indirect involvement of 1000 people) and at least one environmental association; d) carbon footprint and environmental impact assessment experts.

Name of the Entity: tiber umbria comet programme – tucep
Country: IT – Italy
Theme: green recovery
Strand: Medium (EUR 55.000)
Score: 92,5

Social Media

ABSTRACT
Female music producers (FMPs) are the most disadvantaged group within the music industry. They could not advance their inclusion and equality in the past few years especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mostly there is only one female music producer participating in professional or organized music collaborations, songwriting camps or bigger scale music projects if any at all.

COVID-19 made FMPs separated and got them even more excluded from music industry business during the pandemic. The project aims to bring female producers back to active networking on an international level, by creating a new support community, connections, collaborations and raising awareness within the industry.

As a chapter of its supportive work for women in music and arts, Karton Foundation is proposing a multi objective project to support our long term goal: Making Female Music Producers To Be Involved And Employed In An Actively Growing Number In The Entertainment, Music Industries And Beyond.

Our project is focusing on creating equality and inclusion for FMPs by

  1. Raising awareness among EU music industry players and stakeholders to support project first.wave and promote gender balance in the music industry. This includes encouraging them to commit to sustainability goals related to female and non-binary music producers and joining the FMP Association supervisory body;
  2. Initiating cooperation projects with music industry players to support them in the design process of FMP related SDG policies and building gender equality related strategies (e.g. supplying design and strategy guideline);
  3. Initiating the establishment of a support network /community and FMP Association in which FMPs can actively support and coach each other and grow their presence in the music industry;
  4. Conducting research for laying the foundations for a future digital community network for female music professionals and beyond (like a LinkedIn for music professionals).

Name of the Entity: Karton – karikatúra és képregény múzeum alapítvány
Country: hu – hungary
Theme: Just and resilient recovery
Strand: Medium (EUR 55.000)
Score: 91,5

Social Media

ABSTRACT
Culture has always been advancing efforts to promote inclusion and creating economic justice playing an important role in local development. However, the existing vulnerabilities of the music sector have been further exacerbated with the COVID-19 pandemic and require effective solutions to ensure their resilience.

Wazo Coop proposes Music4Coop to strengthen the cooperative mindset in the music sector for local development. It is based on Social and Solidarity Economy which is an ethical approach to economic development based in cooperation that prioritizes the welfare of people and planet fostering diversity, social cohesion…

The objectives of the project are:

  1. Definition of a new professional role in music: The European music cooperator (music professional who work in conjunction with community-level stakeholders for the promotion of a common end);
  2. Develop an innovative upskilling experience to enable music professionals to gain new skills in cooperation and SSE to allow sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work in the music sector;
  3. Reinforce the contribution of the music sector to the three dimensions of sustainable development (social, economic and environmental) in local, regional and rural areas.

Music4Coop aims to foster the role of music as a driver for local and regional development by upskilling music professionals to cooperate with community-level stakeholders to achieve common objectives of sustainable development. The project will directly involve 20 aspiring European music cooperator that will visit Extremadura (SP) to meet 20 community-level stakeholders to live a full-immersion cooperative experience in Extremadura to jointly solve real problems of sustainable development with a European perspective. After the project, they will be prepared to start their professional activity as music co-operators in their home countries and generate synergies with European community-level stakeholders.

Name of the Entity: wazo sociedad cooperativa
Country: sp – spain
Theme: just and resilient recovery
Strand: Medium (EUR 55.000)
Score: 91

Social Media

ABSTRACT
We live in an era of unprecedented digital transformation. The music sector, especially its nonprofit actors, is notorious for not keeping up with modern trends in technological development. The COVID-19 pandemic forced music organizations to move many of their practices online, but few have really adjusted or created new business models and are instead adopting a “back to normal” approach instead of finding the balance between virtual and physical. If Europe’s cultural institutions are not properly prepared for an infinitely more digital future, the role they will be able to play in it for their people will be significantly diminished and will certainly be filled by multinationals with very different objectives.

JM International, as the world’s largest youth-music movement, has always endeavored to meet young people where they are and to communicate with them in the mediums and manners in which they can relate. This has become an increasingly difficult challenge over the last 10 years as new social networks arise, technologies advance and new generations bring new perspectives and ideas, vastly different to that of their predecessors. Throughout JMI membership and partners in more than 80 countries worldwide, we see similar trends, which cause concern when juxtaposed with the new digital era on our doorstep. There are challenges to be met head-on to support new ways of working to recover from the pandemic as well as to build future resilience.

With JMI Digi Bazar, the aim is to support the music sector’s process of digital transformation, by creating spaces (both digital and physical) where we can empower the sector to move towards digital working models that support their physical activities. The project builds on the foundation of JMI’s Mubazar platform, a digital tool that allows for new ways of working, where music organizers can run their calls online and where musicians and music practitioners have a centralized point from which they can discover relevant opportunities based on their interests and needs. With further support we can bring this innovative tool to the European music sector, creating greater access for musicians and music practitioners, saving time and facilitating new revenue streams and ways of engaging digitally with European music organizers.

Name of the Entity: jm international
Country: be – belgium
Theme: digital recovery
Strand: Medium (EUR 55.000)
Score: 88

Social Media

ABSTRACT
#BREAK IN CASE OF EMERGENCY is a two-week hybrid bootcamp for independent musicians and labels, focused on the exchange and transmission of digital skills concerning some of the most pressing aspects of today’s music industry.

#BREAK may be joined physically at the charming coastal town of Aveiro, Portugal, or remotely through digital access to video-streamings. Hosted by a brilliant selection of national and international experts within each field, the program is divided into four thematic #tracks, each composed by a series of masterclasses, a debate and a practical assignment. Complementary #breaks will encourage the immersion of participants in the territory and provide a safe harbour for sharing experiences, debating ideas and envisioning future collaborations and networks.

The four #tracks will cover issues such as how AI, blockchain, WEB3 and NFTs are shaping radically new value chains within the music industry; release planning, manufacturing and distribution; copyright, licensing and revenue streams; opportunities and pitfalls of digital marketing in music.

The three #breaks will include a sensorial boat tour through Aveiro’s inspiring lagoon resulting in a collaborative music performance that will address concepts concerning acoustic ecology, exploratory music co-creation and live performance; a visit to a state-of-the-art music studio in the region, resulting in the creation of a collaborative video podcast; and a round table involving some of the most active and bold music programmers in the Portuguese independent circuit, followed by a set of live music shows focused on innovative and disruptive approaches to live music performance.

The knowledge and insights generated throughout the program will result in the posterior publishing of the #SurvivalKit —a step-by-step guide for independent artists and label managers, focused on surviving and surfing the emergent digital paradigm within the music industry, which will be freely available in digital formats.

Name of the Entity: navalha – associação cultural
Country: pt – portugal
Theme: digital recovery
Strand: Medium (EUR 55.000)
Score: 88

Social Media

ABSTRACT
The European Spatial Sound Exchange (ESSE) is a pilot project to explore how spatial sound works by musicians can be shared between European venues with spatial sound capabilities with the objective of creating a network of venues sharing and creating musical works and opening up new revenue streams for musicians, venues and rights holders.

Home to the original 4DSOUND system, Monom Studios was founded in 2017 in Berlin, becoming one of the first of a growing network of event spaces and studios around the world utilizing 4DSOUND technology. Monom has been working for over 5 years with the technology 4DSOUND and has helped over 100 musicians and sound artists to learn how to mix and produce for spatial sound, experiment in this new format and present their immersive sound pieces to the public through regular concert programming.

As more and more pieces are being specifically created for spatial sound, the ESSE will look at how this increasing catalogue can be further utilized within existing venues that use spatial sound technology. In the long-run the goal is to create an ecosystem of venues, cultural and educational institutions that can become creators as well as presenters of new work.

Monom will run three capacity-building online workshops for venues, artists and researchers. In the next phase, four venues in Europe will be able to participate in an on-site capacity building workshop and an exchange of spatial sound works that will be presented to the public at the end of the project. The project will end with the ESSE event, which will happen at Monom in Berlin and at the four venues, where selected spatial sound works will be presented.

By creating a network of venues and bridging the gap between different technologies, the objective is to start licensing works between venues, and thus creating new revenue streams for rights holders. In the long-run, the objective is to grow this network of spaces that are able to present musical works to their audiences in ticketed events, increasing the potential life-time value of spatial sound works.

Name of the Entity: monom sound gmbh
Country: de – germany
Theme: Digital recovery
Strand: Medium (EUR 55.000)
Score: 87,5

Social Media

ABSTRACT
Constellations is a groundbreaking collaboration of 8 programmes from 9 countries: Germany, France, Norway, Finland, Israel, Italy, UK and Belgium/The Netherlands (a joint venture). The primary objective is to support artists reignite their international ambitions in the wake of the pandemic, addressing recovery, wellbeing and environmental needs in an international tailored development exchange. Through mutual consultation and collaboration, we enable musicians and professionals to meet, participate in each other’s programmes & access each country’s jazz infrastructure.

Each partner runs existing exceptional artist development programmes and is highly skilled at supporting artists. This project will pool these skills in a cost-effective way, resulting in:

  • Deeper understanding of and engagement with international jazz environments
  • New work opportunities and collaborations
  • ultimately, sustainable international careers

Our 2 overarching actions:

  1. Create a cohort of 8 artists and 8 host organisations (1 from each country) and escort them into existing established professional networking gatherings in another country;
  2. Enable each artist and host to join a partner’s existing development programme, accelerating learning of local ecosystems, meeting peers and joining working groups.

This is an innovative approach, because it is normally difficult or impossible for artists to access these environments. Escorted by a partner host, each artist will be granted access to the same networks and connections enjoyed by industry professionals, thereby boosting their potential for international profile and opportunity.

The project unites Europe Jazz Network members with close peer links. It launches a solid model to inspire other networks to collaborate, empower musicians and create further opportunities. By capitalising on existing strengths, exploiting parallels in delivery and celebrating differences, Constellations will result in a stronger, more connected and sustainable music scene across and beyond Europe.

Name of the Entity: jazzlab series vzw
Country: BE – Belgium
Theme: just and resilient recovery
Strand: medium (EUR 55.000)
Score: 87

ABSTRACT
Singing in a choir can help children to engage with music, to take part in a diverse community, and enable self-efficacy and empowerment. But to have that effect, the environment in choir practice and the methods used to teach singing need to be positive, encouraging and safe. Child safety is often taken for granted or at least often not openly discussed and measures are not systematically implemented. CCCSS aims to support children’s and youth choirs in the development and implementation of strategies for child protection and child welfare on two levels:

  1. employing methods of teaching music in choirs that are participatory, appreciative and empowering;
  2. shaping choirs as safe spaces free from physical, psychological or sexual violence.

To achieve this, we create a team at Deutsche Chorjugend who will provide the amateur choir scene in Germany with the expert knowledge necessary to develop and implement child welfare policies and strategies of high-quality choir practices. They will guide choirs to build up expert knowledge within their own community by working as an expert advisor with individual choirs, by organising and holding workshops for choir directors and choir organisers, and they will work towards including these topics in the curriculum of the training of choir directors. They will contribute to raising awareness regarding child welfare by showcasing the engagement towards child welfare, and search for further funding so that the results of this project can be scaled up afterwards.

Thereby, we aim to build up comprehensive structures that protect and strengthen the rights of children as actors within the music scene and that help to shape choirs into safe spaces that encourage children in their development, empower them to self-reliance and active engagement, and enable them to have fulfilling group experiences that promote self-efficacy and resilience.

Name of the Entity: deutsche chorjugend e.v.
Country: DE – Germany
Theme: Just and resilient recovery
Strand: medium (EUR 55.000)
Score: 87

Social Media

ABSTRACT
Roma youth in Serbia are deprived of opportunities for exchange and international mobility due to political, economic and social issues present, which have been worsened due to the Covid pandemic. Jazz music represent for Roma youth a natural environment where they can freely express themselves and their culture.

Professional Roma musicians are in frequent contact and often organize encounters involving youth. Project is putting its basis on these activities and relations in order to both expand and deepen Roma jazz music to Roma and non-Roma music youth that, usually, are not in position to take part in given limits of technical or financial resources, both institutional and personal, available.

Project involves a music festival and Roma professional musicians promoting transnational mobility of Roma jazz musicians and strengthening of their careers, as to reinforce music festival promoting Roma music as inherent part of European identity. Objective is to facilitate creativity and open artistic exchange of young and professional Roma and non-Roma jazz musicians of different cultural, social and economic origins, as to develop intercultural dialogue, cross-cultural cooperation. Young musicians to be involved will be able to identify differences and similarities, learning and sharing, exchanging ideas and communication, understanding, meeting new people and discovering “new worlds” through mobility, workshops, residencies, joint performing with non-Roma peers. Project also aims to raise awareness on richness of diverse Roma culture and its influence on European jazz music. Organizing of cultural events shall strengthen European belonging feeling among Roma youth, as increase awareness among general public that Roma music provided essential piece in European cultural mosaic.

The objective is to facilitate creativity and open artistic exchange of young Roma jazz musicians by connecting them with non-Roma music youth of different cultural, social and economic origins, as to develop different levels of intercultural dialogue and cross-border movement, through performance in Nis, Sofia and Skopje. Roma and non-Roma youth to be involved will be able to identify differences and similarities, learning and sharing, exchanging ideas and communication, understanding and opening to meeting new people and discovering “new worlds” through mobility, workshops, residencies, joint performing.

Name of the Entity: nisville foundation
Country: srb – serbia
Theme: just and resilient recovery
Strand: medium (EUR 55.000)
Score: 87

Social Media

ABSTRACT
Opened in May 2019, DumBO – Distretto Urbano Multifunzionale di Bologna is a regenerated cultural hub settled in a former railway yard: thanks to its large size (6 buildings, for a total area of over 18,000 sqm, plus 20,000 sqm uncovered), is able to propose a wide range of cultural and social activities.

Music is at the core of the DumBO activity: more than 300 music events have been organized since its opening, with thousands of participants coming also from outside the region; in this sense, DumBO represents a “music landmark” for Bologna, which is a UNESCO Creative City of Music. But all that has a wide impact on the environment in terms of waste, carbon emissions, raw materials use, etc. We are aware of the need to become more sustainable and to take measures to reuse, use materials sparingly and prevent litter. We believe that cultural centers, especially those big in size such as DumBO, can serve as a microcosm for circular economic innovation and experimentation.

DGD – DumBO Green District’s main aim is to increase the environmental sustainability of the music events/festivals organized at DumBO, through the development and the implementation of a green strategy based on the circular economy paradigm and involving communities in the process.

DGD intends to be exemplary by developing a roadmap towards sustainability for large cultural hubs that can be easily adapted and replicated without major investments. As the DGD topics are of interest to many of our EU peers, we aspire to be an inspiration for many others in the music field. Thus great attention in the dissemination of project activities and results to the wider cultural sector and public institutions, to widen the DGD impact and build synergies and long-lasting collaborations. In this way we intend to contribute to rebuild the resilience and capacity of the sector to adapt to unforeseen circumstances, suggesting how to grasp and develop potential opportunities to save money by the reusing of materials and waste, and the reduction of the consumption – especially for large-sized cultural centers; draw attention to sustainable practices within the public – thanks to our membership to EU cultural networks we can easily reach audiences all over EU.

Name of the Entity: open event srl
Country: it – italy
Theme: green recovery
Strand: medium (EUR 55.000)
Score: 87

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ABSTRACT
Soulstone Gathering Route – toolset of activities for a fairer and more professional independent rock music market

We aim to procure a toolset of activities, that will be focusing on different groups and elements of the whole, but together, as a whole and complex “ecosystem” of tools will increase all the aspects mentioned above, resulting in a better ground for this part of the music market and community.

We will divide the activities into a couple of strains.

  1. The professionalization of the music personnel (musicians, performers, agents) – a cycle of online workshops, including activities at the Soulstone Gathering Festival, to increase the networking factor;
  2. Organizing a showcase for emerging bands (3rd, extra day of Soulstone Gathering Festival) – all will be recorded (professional audio + video), connecting this with the basis of the “main” Soulstone Gathering Festival will elevate the networking level, and will increase the chances of extra bookings (also as support bands playing before the main acts, that will perform during the first 2 days of the festival);
  3. Recording and creating digital materials for emerging bands – the recordings will later be used both as a presentation for additional bookings – and as a form of increasing the remuneration for the bands;
  4. Conducting a thorough examination of the “green impact” of the Festival, showcase part and the carbon.

Footprint of other project’s activities (online workshops, recordings) – to prepare a case study and good-practices implementation toolkit, with emphasis on the specifics of the music genre and community.

As a result, the project (proposed toolset and activities) will create a space for development, promotion, competence enhancement and networking for its participants. We will focus on underrepresented genders (often from underrepresented regions) with emerging music media professionals.

Name of the Entity: fundacja soulstone gathering
Country: pl – poland
Theme: Just and resilient recovery
Strand: medium (EUR 55.000)
Score: 86,5

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ABSTRACT
Accessibility has been a key subject in the music sector, in fact there’s a large community of people that face strong obstacles to participate in cultural events. Legislation and good practices have been improving, so that everyone is allow to participate as audiences, but there is still a lot to do regarding full artistic participation.

It’s easy to understand that a community can and will participate more if they have role models on the stage and in the sector. There is a discussion to be made regarding accessibility for the artistic teams and other music professionals. STAGE 4 EVERYONE is based on that belief. Through a video documentation, we will reflect the thinking and sharing of experiences between artists and professionals with disability, associations that work in the field and music venues, illustrated with footage from a European tour with a band where four stage musicians are disable, referring to difficulties and best practices on accessibility, fostering a participatory approach, studying policy framing and leaving more ‘food for thought’ in policymaking. In Coimbra’s Cerebral Palsy Association there’s a rock band that has been active over the last 25 years, 5ª Punkada, who played more than 200 gigs in several countries (most in disability festivals and social projects) and to whom CCER MAIS proposed a full artistic participation plan, record an album and prepare a show to go on tour in regular venues and music festivals, in Europe.

STAGE 4 EVERYONE aims to improve the accessibility of artists and professionals with disabilities or impairments in live concerts, on stage and offstage. The new ‘normal’ must change to a more inclusive and accessible artistic and cultural ecosystem, regarding physical, intellectual and social conditions, improving and changing the current practices, almost nonexistent for artists, technicians and music professionals with disabilities. We goal to contribute to advocate, at a national and international level, about the difficulties and inequalities that artists and professionals with disabilities face, and raising awareness and collecting best practices as guidelines, sponsoring better conditions and empowering them. We must test and prepare future EU support actions and policies that could benefit other stage arts.

Name of the Entity: Ccer Mais – CooperATIVA PARA A CRIAÇÃO E PROMOÇÃO CULTURAL, MARKETING E INTERVENÇÃO SOCIAL, COOPERATIVA DE REPSONSABILIDADE LIMITADA
Country: PT – PORTUGAL
Theme: Just and resilient recovery
Strand: MEDIUM (EUR 55.000)
Score: 86,5

ABSTRACT
Despite the growing global awareness, thanks in large part to the #metoo movement, regarding the violence and discrimination endured by women and gender minorities in the cultural sector, the inequalities therein remain massive and systemic. The disparity in the European music sector is particularly glaring. In France, women represent approximately 14% of artists on stage in pop music, 28% in classical music, and only 6% of conductors. Women musicians and artists receive significantly fewer rewards and less recognition, publicity, and funding than their male colleagues. A similar situation can be observed in other European countries.

In 2021, the European Parliament adopted a strategy for promoting equality between women and men 2020–2025 with precise and comprehensive recommendations that remain to be applied and implemented at all levels. The European Commission has made social inclusion one of the five priorities for structural funding in 2021–2027, and gender equality a cross-cutting criterion, offering the means to take concrete action beyond mere principles and declarations of intent.

During 3 days, music sector professionals, people active in the music sector, institutional employees, elected officials and politicians, from all aesthetical genres, fields, and occupations, are invited:

  • to outline and analyze the situation and the stakes involved at the European level in plenary sessions with round tables and debates (mornings);
  • to define objectives, projects, and means of joint action among possible European partners in work groups (afternoons);
  • to attend free concerts as part of the Jazz à la Petite France festival — with women making up roughly 40% of the artists on stage.

Preregistration via email: sturmproduction(@)gmail.com

Financial aid of a maximum 150€ per participant is available for European residents living outside of France.

Name of the Entity: STURM PRODUCTION
Country: FR – FRANCE
Theme: Just and resilient recovery
Strand: MEDIUM (EUR 55.000)
Score: 86,5

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ABSTRACT
The proposed project seeks to contribute to the building of a more just and resilient music ecosystem after the pandemic, through the development of a methodology for the creation of inclusive youth orchestras in our increasingly diverse societies. Through a social music education program, Sistema Cyprus strives to provide children with opportunities for social integration. Building on its expertise, Sistema Cyprus proposes the development and piloting of a new holistic methodology for building inclusive youth orchestras, that is inspired and theoretically grounded from the epistemological areas of community music and informal music education and the best practices witnessed from the successes of the El Sistema methodology. This new methodology ultimately seeks to contribute to the capacity building for the sustainability of the music ecosystem in Europe by increasing diversity in youth orchestras. Through this proposed project, the new methodology will be piloted in Cyprus, with 160 children participants of migratory background and Cypriot children from low-income families. The final results and the completed methodology will be presented through capacity building activities to music operators, artistic directors, instrumental teachers and music professionals from at least 20 music organisations across Europe.

The project’s objectives are to:

  1. Develop a new innovative holistic methodology that will strengthen the capacity and increase the diversity levels, solidarity, active citizenship and social cohesion of youth orchestras and music ensembles in Europe;
  2. Empower disadvantaged groups and specifically 160 children and young people in Cyprus through piloting the new methodology that will ensure their active engagement while also seeking to foster connections between people through music;
  3. Train music operators, artistic directors, instrumental teachers and music professionals in the use of the produced methodology in order to develop their artistry and interconnect with the needs of our diverse musician community;
  4. Ensure that the new methodology could easily be adapted to serve the individual needs of youth orchestras in different European countries.

Name of the Entity: Systema cyprus
Country: cy – cyprus
Theme: Just and resilient recovery
Strand: MEDIUM (EUR 55.000)
Score: 85,5

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ABSTRACT
LIVEFOREVR! It is a LAB XR with its own immersive archive and meta-stage in Web 3.0. Liveforevr has been developing and growing in collaboration with Festivals, artists, technicians, universities and companies.

The Liveforevr team has been designing and building immersive music spaces (meta-scenarios) since 2014 where artist and audience coexist in a digital and physical world at the same time. In this time we have been creating a new support for the enjoyment of music and its distribution for future generations. This support combines the live event, the online event but both in immersive digital format, breaking down (as it has happened in other cultural industries) the barrier between the traditional AV and the virtual production of the video game world.

Our project so far has explored in a very pioneering way the potential of immersive technology to tell the story of music in 3D. We have also been able to develop operational prototypes of this new format and even publish dozens of concerts and performances on XR or Web3 platforms. In fact we have a vast unpublished 3D archive, unique in Europe, which we continue to augment with new captures and edits.

All this journey has given us a unique position to detect the needs of the industry in the new world that is emerging: web 3, blockchain, game engines as generators of culture, online and offline merged and a long list of changes. For them we present the project: LIVEFOREVR presents: “ROAD TO META-STAGE: A Web3 Training For The Music Industry ”.

We want to share with the music industry, the audiovisual industry and almost everyone our experience, successes, failures and above all this new world mixed with gaming that is sweeping everything and that usually does not stop with anything.

This is where our training proposal comes from. We believe that the time has come to create a comprehensive training on the present-future of music after the pandemic and in fusion with the evolution to Web3, immersion and facing the gaming world. We will offer a certification for all those who complete it and of course each chapter will contain downloadable materials. It will contain a language designed to make traditional users of music culture feel represented and at the same time integrate that language in the new formats of the new generations of gamers.

Name of the Entity: antonio cabanelas justo
Country: es – spain
Theme: digital recovery
Strand: MEDIUM (EUR 55.000)
Score: 85,5

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ABSTRACT
SHARPE music festival & conference is a music-educational event in Bratislava, Slovakia that took place for the first time in April 2018 in Nova Cvernovka (major cultural and creative space and community in Bratislava). During five years it brought almost 250 shows on 8 stages. Part of the event is a music conference, which hosts more than 250 music professionals from all around Europe and brings over 10 inspiring panels, workshops, presentations and networking sessions where attendees can learn from each other and discuss the latest topics concerning music industry and current issues. The festival is attended by more than 2000 visitors every year.

SHARPE brings a unique concept of showcase festival to Slovakia which mixes club music festival with conference for music professionals. The lineup of the festival consists of varied alternative music genres and its goal is to provoke curiosity in music lovers to discover new music and to help young artists to launch their careers. The festival creates a platform for networking of the key Slovak and international actors from the music business with artists from all over Europe.

SHARPE belongs to one of the most prominent places for presentation of Slovak as well as European alternative music genres, education, networking and development of the independent music scene. Other distinguished brands and projects take active part in the festival such as Pohoda festival, Nova Cvernovka or the association of independent cultural centers Antena and many others. Sharpe festival is a platform which connects local and international music scene on the finest level.

Name of the Entity: lala slovak music export o.z.
Country: sk – slovakia
Theme: Just and resilient recovery
Strand: MEDIUM (EUR 55.000)
Score: 85,5

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ABSTRACT
Responsible for 4% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, digital technology is a source of environmental impact as much as it is a tool that is now essential to the operation of the whole music ecosystem and creative value-chain, to the promotion of culture, to the inclusion of audiences and to artistic creation.

While the live performance industry has started adopting eco-friendly practices, the environmental impacts of music storage and sharing, blockchain or the use of data and social networks to target fans and promote releases are still too rarely discussed. Moreover, today, actors in the music sector are caught up in contradictory injunctions between digital acceleration and ecological transition.

To propose an overview of the issues at stake and the various strategies and concrete tools to fill this blind spot, as well as some theoretical and practical perspectives to resolve the tension between ecological concerns and cultural ambition, The Green Room presents the STOMP – Sustainable Tools for Online Music Practices – A Practical Guide for Musicians’ project. This guide will be co-designed to support musicians who want to implement a responsible and sustainable digital strategy with a set of tools and techniques aimed at reducing the environmental footprint of digital technology.

Based on research conducted through interviews and literature review, it will be an opportunity to further assess the needs of musicians, explore practical cases on sustainable digital practices and take stock of the current obstacles and opportunities for the music sector. We will also open a discussion with the different stakeholders (technicians, producers, institutions, venues, solution providers, etc.) on whether and how our industry can be organised in a way that supports low-carbon and sustainable digital practices in the “new normal”. Led by The Green Room in close collaboration with the responsible digital design studio Pikselkraft and in association with its European partners, the STOMP project will pay special attention to the contextualization of the issue and to exploring current practices on various European territories. Since 2016, The Green Room has been working on a local, European and international scale on integrating environmental issues into our professional practices in the music industry, looking at all the stages and impacts of our work, and coproducing studies and recommendations.

Name of the Entity: the green room – arts, eco-responsabilité et participation
Country: FR – France
Theme: Green recovery
Strand: small (EUR 30.000)
Score:96,5

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ABSTRACT
The overarching objective is to coordinate, support and publicize the full extent of activities as a pilot of the first ever European Folk Day, an initiative proposed by EFN’s 132 members from 27 European nations. The Folk Day aims to harness traditional music and arts activity across Europe – from grassroots communities to national organizations – in a way that is only possible through the emerging pan-European network and with the use of available digital communication technology – to raise awareness and profile of this essential element of European cultural identity and diversity with the general public and policy makers.

EFN and its partner members has already worked to raise awareness of the concept in the sector, recruiting participants and encouraging creative participation at every level. Practical support and coordination in this pilot will indicate the full range of activity across Europe and demonstrate the prevalence and critical mass of traditional arts in European societies.

Coverage for Folk Day activities will be achieved at local, national and pan-European level by participants working on their own local and national contacts, digital and social media channels, coordinating and crosslinking with EFN’s PR and marketing at European level.

Through this manifestation of music and arts activities, taking place simultaneously across Europe, traditional artists, communities and organizations will experience visible collective solidarity, dispelling the debilitating isolation brought on by the pandemic. The Folk Day will engender self-confidence in the sector and determination to prove its importance and value through collective action and advocacy. EFN has a unique role as facilitator and will make a significant impact on public awareness by coordinating the European added value of the inaugural Folk Day whilst gaining information, contact, knowledge and experience to apply to the development of the network and the Folk Day in future years.

Name of the Entity: European folk network
Country: be – Belgium
Theme: Just and resilient recovery
Strand: small (EUR 30.000)
Score: 91

ABSTRACT
Sound River System is a European cooperative project involving various emerging participants in the music sector, labels, venues and support structures, revolving around the organisation of a tour of creative residencies, crossed and mobile, between German, Belgian, French and Dutch artists, punctuated by several stopover concerts throughout those cross-border countries. This cooperation aims at bringing together and initiating future partnerships between the different participants in and out of their borders, in an original and visible way, to encourage the circulation of artists, while confronting them to other approaches of their work and to actively invest territories lacking concert venues in order to target wider audiences.

Those mobile residencies will take place aboard the Urban Boat barge, which provides a rehearsal room, cabins, and most importantly, an entirely autonomous outside stage, fitted with solar energy. At each stopover, the goal will be to get musicians from different countries on board, at each step of the procession, who will work together on new compositions to play at the next stopover.

Working together on a tour across France, Belgium and Germany or Nederland, with parties from each country will not only strengthen the relationship between them, but also to put light on a unifying, federative project at the European scale. It will also be an opportunity to involve indirect territorial partners in the position of welcoming the project and participating in its co-financing (premises, associations, public authorities…)

Furthermore, the energetic autonomy of the boat and its “fully-equipped” concept (stage, bar, dressing rooms, catering and accommodation) also offer technical simplicity and a reduction of costs of production. Recordings and radio broadcasts (Milk Me Radio Berlin) will leave a mark of those achievements.

Name of the Entity: association urban boat
Country: fr – france
Theme: Just and resilient recovery
Strand: small (EUR 30.000)
Score: 86,5

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ABSTRACT
The project FreeSounds is a cultural initiative for development of open-air music events on unconventional temporary open-air scenes to strengthen the connection between culture – nature – people. The project is focused on two main strands. It raises the awareness of the importance of music for individuals’ well-being and mental health, social cohesion and inclusion. The concerts will be performed by young emerging musicians from different European countries, who will participate in a mentoring program as part of Varna Summer International Music Festival in partnership with International Music Academy Orpheus Vienna.

Through the project FreeSounds, the team of Varna Summer Festival will bring music outside the concert halls, to remind that music can re-connect, can bring joy and positive emotions and it is necessary for the well-being of all people. We will concentrate on three different locations in the city – each of them selected by a special reason. The concerts’ content will be interrelated with an international mentoring program, implemented by our main partner in this project – International Music Academy Orpheus Vienna. 10 selected young performers from Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, Japan, USA will participate in the mentoring program, mastered by 6 internationally-renown lectors.

Varna Summer International Music Festival is the oldest festival in Bulgaria, with almost 100 years of history. For our country and for our region it is a special project exploring new possibilities for audience development and open-air concerts, contributing at the same time to the professional development of young emerging artists. That is why we estimated costs in the budget also for e-readers for music scores and electric piano – things that our festival has never possessed, but are so needed for a professional open-air concert. Based on the results achieved through the project, we will continue to develop similar initiatives every year as part of the festival program.

Name of the Entity: varna municipality, culture directorate, varna summer international music festival
Country: bg – bulgaria
Theme: Just and resilient recovery
Strand: small (EUR 30.000)
Score: 86,5

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ABSTRACT
The “Cooperative local scenes” project proposes to establish cooperation between actors in the music sector by co-organizing concerts between small and large music scenes in the Bordeaux agglomeration. The project proposes to approach the music environment as an ecosystem of interdependent actors. Our project intends to go beyond the competition that is present in the music sector in order to encourage cooperation between operators. To do this, we want to strengthen social cohesion through the professionalization of artists, technicians and concert presenters in small venues.

The project to support the musical dissemination activities of alternative venues is based on the following diagnosis: the territorial precariousness of intermediate cultural dissemination venues that has been at work for several years is aggravated by the COVID-19 epidemic and threatens the local environment for the emergence of contemporary music groups. As a result, part of the activity of larger venues, relating to artistic emergence, is threatened.

The core of our project is to enable the organization of concerts in small concert halls in cooperation with structured venues. We hope that structured and small venues will develop cooperative reflexes, consolidate and strengthen exchanges between music scenes.

In this way, we hope to offer more work opportunities to musicians and technicians in the process of becoming professional. The observation that the ecosystem of large and small concert halls is weakening after the Covid crisis can be extended to the many countries of Europe. We exchange with partners in Belgium, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Iceland who share the same observations and the same problems.

On this subject, we are in contact with the LIVE DMA network and the Court-Circuit federation in Belgium and we are working on submitting a file to the ERASMUS+ program (youth workers’ mobility KA153) in order to set up a mobility scheme for Bordeaux players towards European partners who have good practices in terms of cooperation and strengthening the ecosystem of local players. We also hope to establish links with cities in the European Union, to develop a model of local cooperation between music scenes.

Name of the Entity: association stigmergie
Country: fr – france
Theme: Just and resilient recovery
Strand: micro (EUR 15.000)
Score: 87,5

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ABSTRACT
The

“The Path is Yours” is a three-part initiative of the Off the Beaten Path Foundation in Bulgaria, which will address the following challenges of the music sector:

  1. Support for emerging composers from Bulgaria
    • The Off the Beaten Path Foundation is launching a new program that will provide week-long residencies to three emerging composers from Bulgaria at the Fifth Edition of the Off the Beaten Path Chamber Music Festival in the village of Kovachevitsa in August 2023. The resident composers will work closely with the Off the Beaten Path chamber music festival musicians and write three new  works for chamber ensembles inspired by the history, traditions, and magnificent nature of the Rhodope mountains.
  2. Access to music education for young people from diverse backgrounds in the municipalities of Garmen and Gotse Delchev, Southwestern Bulgaria
    • The Foundation will expand its music education program by offering a week-long summer music camp for children of all ages in mid-July 2023. The event will be free of charge and open to children in Southwestern Bulgaria with a focus on bringing kids from diverse backgrounds together through singing a variety of repertoire as well as interactive musical activities and community-building performances. At the end of the camp, participants will present two community concerts.
  3. Audience expansion
    • Classical music is rarely heard live in Southewestern Bulgaria. Therefore, the Foundation will organize two special community outreach concerts (one for children and one for adults) in the town of Gotse Delchev as part of the Off the Beaten Path Festival’ 2023 edition to reach new audiences from the surrounding communities. The audience will hear unique chamber music programs showcasing the connections between Western European form and Eastern European folklore and the importance of folk tradition in developing compositional language in Europe. The young people’s concert will focus on age-appropriate material and interactive audience engagement. Performers will include renowned musicians from around the world.

Name of the Entity: Off the beaten path foundation
Country: bu – Bulgaria
Theme: Just and resilient recovery
Strand: micro (EUR 15.000)
Score: 83

ABSTRACT
Envirofest Bečva času 2023 connects music and art with environmental themes.

The festival will take place on 25-27 August 2023 in a natural area on the shore of a gravel lake in Hustopeče nad Bečvou. The aim of the event is to offer visitors an attractive and high-quality alternative music programme, theatre, dance, performance and poetry readings, while educating them on environmental issues. The ecological and environmental education takes the form of lectures, discussion panels and workshops with environmental themes focusing mainly on water, the Bečva River, waste management, sustainability and renewable resources. The festival was created in 2020 as a response to the environmental accident on the Bečva River, when several as yet unexplained releases of toxic substances into the Bečva River occurred.

On 20 September 2020, an unknown poison leaked into the Bečva River, poisoning 40 tonnes of fish along 40 km of the river.

The accident is still unsolved. Gradually, the activities of civil society – demonstrations, marches, petitions, etc. – have evolved into a festival that aims to educate and seek ways to live sustainably on Earth through music and art.

Envirofest is a unique type of festival in the Czech Republic, building a sustainable and community type of festival with a strong ecological overlap and a sustainable approach to life.

Festival approaches:

  • pleasant environment, strong connection with nature opens the hearts of visitors, who are then more willing to educate themselves in the field of ecology;
  • no non-biodegradable waste, general elimination of waste at the festival;
  • building trust and responsibility among visitors (a festival without fences and without controls);
  • inspiration by positive example (we invite personalities who can inspire others with their ecological way of thinking);
  • the musicians and bands we select for the programme are not mainstream stars who are well catered for in the post-covid era, instead we select those who place a strong emphasis on original work, by inviting them to the festival we help to spread their fame. Concertizing in the post-covid era has also stagnated and the festival is an opportunity;
  • inspiration is also provided by musical personalities from abroad, we invite bands mainly from neighboring countries (Slovakia and Poland), who are currently on tour and their route leads through the eastern part of the Czech Republic, where the festival takes place, thus eliminating transport costs and therefore the ecological footprint;
  • the three-day festival includes joint activities between visitors, such as landscape art, which is then left at the festival site.

Name of the Entity: zdravá Bečva z.s.
Country: cz – czechia
Theme: green recovery
Strand: micro (EUR 15.000)
Score: 79,5

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ABSTRACT
EnMusicDigit will address the digital challenges posed to musicians during the pandemic by supporting their digital upskilling and recovery. The project will develop a MOOC training for musicians on the topic of NFTs. The aim of the training course will be to equip musicians with knowledge and digital skills that will allow them to become resilient and more efficient on how they distribute and monetize their work. It will also support the musicians’ recovery from the challenges faced during the two years of the pandemic by exploiting the potentials that new digital technologies are offering and thus boosting the income of musicians that are struggling financially.

The project’s main objectives are:

  • Support musicians to develop and increase their digital skills to face the results of the COVID-19 crisis and keep up with the digitalisation of the music sector;
  • To spread the knowledge on blockchain technologies and NFTs among musicians in Cyprus and abroad and how they can benefit the music production;
  • To equip musicians with digital skills in developing NFTs and promoting them in relevant platforms;
  • To offer alternative solutions and means of monetising the musicians’ artwork;
  • To combat piracy and protect musicians’ property rights on their productions.

The project will develop an online course for NFTs in the music sector that will support musicians in establishing contemporary monetarization systems for their artwork. Majority of the artists are not familiar with blockchain technologies and NFTs, and how they can be used to create an income. As experienced during the pandemic, the professionals in the creative sector lack the digital knowledge and skills that could help them upgrade their services and products and make them more resilient in times of crisis. Musicians are focused on creating and producing artistic work following mainly traditional means of distribution and selling. A course on NFTs created by artists for artists could make musicians more open to explore alternative means of selling their work and creating income for themselves.

The project team will maintain the project’s website and the platform for three years after the project’s end.

After that period the training material will be hosted on the company’s website. STAVE ENCRYPT will continue using the project’s training material as part of its services and support to artists.

Name of the Entity: kgi stave encrypt
Country: cy – cyprus
Theme: digital recovery
Strand: micro (EUR 15.000)
Score: 76,5

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