The International Classical Music Awards (ICMA), aware of the planned reform of the German copyright company GEMA, is concerned about the potentially serious consequences of the reform plans.
ICMA President Remy Franck says: « The International Classical Music Awards give contemporary music an important place with an annual prize in the Contemporary Music category and the Composer Award. The planned reform in Germany could have devastating consequences for the new music and classical music in general. We therefore call on GEMA to reconsider these reform plans and to continue to ensure the continuity of musical creation. »
Here is the ICMA statement:
« It is no secret that many actors in the field of so-called classical music are unfairly remunerated. This is particularly serious in the area of recordings and digital distribution, which is not optimized for classical music and is only concerned with range. A similarly unfair remuneration principle is now to be applied in the planned reform of GEMA, which will drastically reduce the income of young or older, less well-known composers.
GEMA wants to eliminate the principle of solidarity that has made it so important in the past, especially for art music. The reform plans represent a great danger for the entire field of new music and threaten to stifle creativity.
Without contemporary music and the image it gives of our society, the music world will be poorer. If the repertoire stops developing, the illusion will be created that musical innovation has ended in the past.
Classical music as a whole, which is often enough called into question in the current socio-political debate, would suffer an erosion of artistic continuity. This marginalization must be stopped and the weakening of innovative music ecosystems must be prevented. With this in mind, the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) call on GEMA to fundamentally rethink its approach. »
