Call for Participation

And what if we did everything differently? The aim of this 2-day workshop is to rethink copyright for music and the processes and systems that are currently based on copyright, using a blank paper approach. It provides room to connect and think with people interested in reimagining the frameworks that regulate and enable the cultural sphere. It gives space for in depth discussions and thought experiments. What would be the perfect conditions for a diverse and vibrant music culture to flourish?

Musicians, composers, legal scholars, academics, activists and everyone with an interest in rethinking copyright for music are invited to join the workshop. Already confirmed as workshop contributors are festival speakers Mat Dryhurst (artist) Martin Kretschmer (University of Glasgow), Ruth Okediji (Harvard Law School), Joey Akan (music journalist) and Joe Karaganis (Columbia University). The workshop will be projected and chaired by Andrea Goetzke (Music Pool Berlin) and Till Kreutzer (iRights e.V.).

The workshop is linked closely to the Right the Right festival and the issues outlined in its curatorial statement. Its results will inform and feed into the panel conversations at the festival.

Imagine you were to design frameworks and working conditions for music culture today, for the creation, distribution, financing and legal environment of music, given the current economic and social systems, how would you do it? How would you organize claims for recognition, participation and compensation? Which issues would you prioritize?

Which legal mechanisms of control are required? What do we aim to legally protect and what do we want to achieve with protection? And further - How can creative work be made financially possible? Who pays for music and at which points in the process? How do organizational structures look like that enable making, working with, and distributing music? How do musicians collaborate with each other and other stakeholders and on what terms?

For example, it’s in the realm of technical possibility to detect every single manifestation of song anywhere in the world at any time and in any context and make it a micropayment. Is that scenario desirable? And who pays? Or, would we rather think of solidarity based models to provide a base to create, and how would they be financed? How would power structures and infrastructures look like in an ideal scenario? Would there be central players, the likes of streaming platforms? Or organizations like collecting societies? What do fair conditions for music look like from a global perspective?