Join the launching ceremony of the new federation on Thursday at Oosterpoort, 13:00 CET, meet the founding members, and find out how to join them and benefit from this brand new network.
The role of music conferences and showcases festivals is to serve and to address all parts of today’s music ecosystem. They are enabling participation by providing stages to introduce new talents and platforms where to meet those that empower careers and artist development. Additionally, music conferences offer other parts of the cultural and creative sectors to gain access towards the music branch and its audience.
The music sector is facing a highly dynamic environment, being triggered to adapt simultaneously to different transformative processes. As part of the European Commission’s Music Moves Europe initiative the Federation of Music Conferences took on the mission to support the Commission in its ambition to strengthen the dialogue with the music sector in Europe.
The founding members of the federation invite other music conferences to join the network with the aim to share expertise and knowledge and to build capacity with a view to current and future needs of the music sector. It is also an invitation to become part and to contribute to this new MME dialogue, which is ultimately aimed to help shape EU policies and programmes in order to support the sector and to address its challenges.
As the Commissioner in charge of culture, Mariya Gabriel stated in the news today: “This (i.e. the new MME dialogue) action will complement our existing communication channels with the music sector. I am convinced that it will bring a useful contribution to our continued efforts – under the Music Moves Europe initiative - to provide targeted support to the sector, its professionals and musicians."
The Federation’s founding members are represented by Codruta Vulcu (EEMC), Robert Meijerink (ESNS), Dino Lupelli (Linecheck), Fernando Ladeiro-Marques (MaMA), Detlef Schwarte (Reeperbahn Festival) and Helen Sildna (Tallinn Music Week).
Robert Meijerink, artistic director of ESNS comments: “We are aware of the challenges the music sector is currently facing. With this in mind, we invite other music conferences and showcases festivals to join us. Enabling dialogue fosters improvement and innovation and the music sector like other sectors deserves awareness and consideration of its interests.”
Helen Sildna, director of Tallinn Music Week says: “Music conferences have become an integral part of our industry calendars and it would be hard to imagine music professionals functioning without these annual gatherings. Creating a network of colleagues across Europe is a collective effort to offer an integrated platform to benefit the whole music ecosystem. Our aim is an inclusive process to host and conduct an open dialogue between industry players and policymakers on both national and EU level.”
The four years road map of the dialogue with the music sector foresees discussions at various music conferences. The first one will take place at Tallinn Music Week 2023, on 11-14 May. Additionally, the first of two EU level conferences to address policy makers and European stakeholders is planned to go on in the second semester 2023. In addition, a research report with a conceptual definition of the term “Music Ecosystem” will be supplied.
About the Federation of Music Conferences
The founding members of the Federation of Music Conferences - FOMC - are East European Music Conference (RO), ESNS (NL), Linecheck (IT), MaMA (FR), Reeperbahn Festival (DE) and Tallinn Music Week (EE). This network is committed to host events for the music community, being dedicated hubs that serve the various players of the music sector and affiliated branches to meet and to promote music. The joint agenda is to provide access and opportunities enabling to connect within and with the music sector on various stages and levels. More information is available on musicconferences.org