I had the honor and pleasure to be invited to attend the prestigious Forum of Avignon, an international meeting organized by the French ministry of culture, bringing together major actors from governments, the industry, administrations, law firms, research laboratories and of course creators to discuss today’s cultural “market”. While it has been marvelous to meet so many incredibly talented and interesting people, I found that the “debates” were lacking of interaction with the participants (non speakers), and, well, yes, of “debate”. Two antagonistic messages were conveyed: On the one hand, Internet is considered a danger to cultural life and to the artists earnings and has to be controlled and regulated (mainly by fighting piracy), on the other hand, Internet is considered a new opportunity for cultural expression and development and has to be given a constructive approach (mainly by offering legal alternatives to Internet users and new ways of earning money to creators). Personally, as composer, I go for the second approach: Cultural actors have to embrace this marvelous invention as a new chance for artistic expression and diffusion of our work. Without getting into the debate of privacy protection or the cost and efficiency of Internet traffic control, a specific issue is of concern to me, as a composer working in Europe today, which I wished to address and wasn’t given a chance to. This issue has also been raised in an interview I gave to the law firm Mazars whose market research about “the earnings of creators in the numeric era” hasn’t been considered for the forum either. Since the forum is concerned with the necessity for a creator to earn a living in order to be able to produce cultural good for all of us, here is my question:

My main concern as a composer in France today is not piracy or the Internet, but the market situation with respect to the SACEM. I have been working in various markets over the years, producing music for over 50 games soundtracks, for industry films and for web sites. As I am very passionate about film making and movies in general, I wish to work in this market. The problem is that to be paid moneys earned by the diffusion of my work in theaters, on television, on radio and as DVDs , I have to become a member of the SACEM. It is a private society which collects royalties paid for the diffusion of the music of its members (i.e. a PRO – Performance Rights Society). The SACEM in a situation of monopole, which means that there is no other way to access my earnings than by becoming a member. Hence, why not become a member then? Because the membership agreement is so restrictive and exclusive that all markets I have been working in until today would be fenced off to me (especially the video game market). Worse, agreements I have concluded with clients over the years might be attacked by the SACEM, since the SACEM membership is retroactive. In other words: Should I join the SACEM, my agreement with them would dictate the way I have to do business with my clients. Thus, to me (and any other working composer), the market is split into two halves: The “exclusive market” (offering payment a single fee, also called work for hire or buy out in American) and the “royalty based market” (offering less upfront payment but a supplementary revenue for each public diffusion of the work).

To be competitive in today’s international market, where it becomes harder and harder to make a living, you have to be flexible and able to adapt to very different products and situations. Thus, my question is: Will we, European composers, be offered an agreement by the SACEM (or any alternative structure) which would allow us to strive for our passion in a legally adapted and secure way?

But is this a real problem or a personal concern of mine? What is the situation on the “down to earth” market today? Having spoken to many professional composers in Europe, I can assure the reader that this is a problem for all of us (except those who can afford to work in one market only , but they may very well run into same the problem later on in their career), forcing creators into an illegal situation, where many of us are hiding their names, in order to be able to get what is rightfully ours. Game composers working in the TV industry using accounts of people who are not the author of the music (creating a complicated and insecure “black” market for royalties), SACEM members hiding their names when working on game titles or industry films (putting into danger their clients and missing out important professional references). One of the world’s hugest game publishers and developers, the French Ubisoft, categorically refuses to work with any European composer, only on account of the risk, that such composer may someday sign a retroactive agreement with a society like the SACEM and the SACEM attack them legally (which has happened before, for example to the game publisher Cryo). Hence, publishers like Ubisoft will work exclusively with American composers, who offer a legally satisfying contract to game publishers, while the composer is still make a good living out of his art. The SACEM membership is not protecting us, but making an already very difficult situation worse for content and culture creators. Here is what we are asking for, plain and simple:

We want an agreement with the SACEM (or any other European PROs) allowing us to offer any kind of license to any kind of client. Meaning that if we composers chose to exclude the mechanical rights for our client in a specific agreement – allowing the client to physically reproduce our music without additional fee (as it is standard in the game industry) – we want to be able to offer just this. A point very often made by the Forum was that this is our music, our “intellectual property”, so why can’t we decide such a basic aspect of a prosperous business?

When we discuss how we can protect intellectual property today and how we can allow our highly talented European artists to make a living and to continue to offer wonderful films, music and games for all of us, can’t we also raise the following question : How can we adapt legally to a market which has changed in so many ways in the numeric era?

This is my unheard question to the forum of Avignon. Thank you for reading – please get in touch if you have any additional information about the subject or just want to share your experience or opinion with me.

Markus Schmidt.

A new interview with the online magazine Cinezik – a great place for film music interviews on the web – is now available. I discussed music in games and more precisely my last work on the game Cursed Crusade with Benoit Basirico. French readers, enjoy!