OPEN MUSIC EUROPE (OPENMUSE) – AN OPEN, SCALABLE DATA-TO-POLICY PIPELINE FOR EUROPEAN MUSIC ECOSYSTEMS

Project Information

OpenMusE

Grant agreement ID: 101095295

DOI

10.3030/101095295

Project closed

EC signature date 14 December 2022

Start date 1 January 2023

End date 31 December 2025

Funded under

• Culture, creativity and inclusive society

Total cost

€ 2 973 812,50

EU contribution

€ 2 973 812,50

Coordinated by

SINUS MARKT- UND SOZIALFORSCHUNG GMBH
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - OpenMusE (OPEN MUSIC EUROPE (OPENMUSE) – AN OPEN, SCALABLE DATA-TO-POLICY PIPELINE FOR EUROPEAN MUSIC ECOSYSTEMS)

Reporting period: 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Open Music Europe (OpenMusE) brings together music industry stakeholders and researchers from 10 EU countries and Ukraine. Our goal is to support the European music industry in becoming:
- More competitive: we develop more accurate ways to transparently measure the value of musical goods, as well as the value added by music to the European economy.
- Fairer: we identify instances in which music industry professionals are compensated fairly or unfairly, and call out cases of negative bias and discrimination based on gender, nationality, or other differences in identity.- More sustainable: we offer tools that small enterprises and civil society organisations can use to measure their environmental, social, and governance sustainability.
- More transparent: we ensure that the way big data is used in the sector – and the way algorithms recommend music – remain understandable, accountable, and fair.

We work with – and produce – open data, open-source software, and open policy analysis. This means that any music industry stakeholder, no matter how large or small, can use our tools freely and contribute to their further development. Our tools will enable music MSMEs and CSOs without data science expertise to access and analyse open data; model volume and value; create better business models; and generate environmental, social, and governance sustainability reports at a fraction of current costs. All tools are validated in four pilot studies.

Our key objectives are to:
- MAP the policy and data landscape: identify extant and potential data sources within EU policy contexts, develop novel data collection methods and tools, and propose policy-relevant indicators that capture the significance of the data at hand.
- BRIDGE data gaps: pioneer new methods and tools for data collection from multiple sources, and integrate these into an open-source software ecosystem that non-specialists can use.
- EMPOWER stakeholders and policymakers to take data-driven actions: validate the utility of the data collected, conduct pilot projects, and co-create scalable and transferable business models and policy guidelines through multi-stakeholder engagement.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The first four work packages in the OpenMusE work plan are structured in accordance with the pillars of data collection identified in the Feasibility Study for the Establishment of a European Music Observatory (2020):

- WP1 Economy of music in Europe assesses the full economic value of music, including zero-price uses and culminates in a pilot on improving music valuation models and music metadata management in the Bulgarian, Hungarian, and Slovak markets.
- WP2 Diversity and circulation identifies the European competencies and policies that influence diversity in the music industry, provide clarity on cross-border activity, and create respective legal and policy recommendations. It culminates in a pilot on improving the discoverability of local artists in several countries through better artist metadata collection and management.
- WP3 Music and society focuses on the extra-economic dimension of music, situating music-making in an SDG framework and defining indicators that capture societal value-adds such as participation (music education, amateur music) and the broader role of music in augmenting cultural and social capital. A pilot measures the environmental, social, and governance sustainability of small entities in the sector.
- WP4 Innovation and future trends serves a twofold function: development of a SW ecosystem capable of enabling data collection and processing in WPs 1-3, and to analyse the impact of technological innovations in the music industry. A pilot investigates the use of better artist metadata to create semi-algorithmically-curated in-store playlists that reflect the local music scenes in selected cities.
- WP5 Dissemination and exploitation develops an innovative Open Music Observatory (OMO), designed to serve as a proof-of-concept for a decentralised European Music Observatory.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

OpenMusE will produce the following results and impacts beyond the state of the art:

- The project as a whole will validate the applicability of best practices in open science and innovation to music research: e.g. the Open Policy Analysis framework, open scientific software development, and reproducible research.
- WP1: novel valuation models with which MSMEs and collective management organisations can better assess the true economic contribution of their musical activities, thus enabling better business planning and sectoral advocacy.
- WP2: metadata management procedures and tools with which artists can improve their discoverability, and which industry organisations can use to advocate for more diversity and inclusion in distribution channels.
- WP3: procedures and tools for the effective and affordable assessment of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) sustainability, both on the level of individual entities and on the level of the sector as a whole.
- WP4: open-source software ecosystem that music industry actors without extensive technical expertise can use to access and analyse relevant data.
- WP5: the Open Music Observatory, an open-source platform that provides intelligence on the music industry by integrating numerous data sources. It is highly automated, providing “living policy documents” that refresh when the backend data assets are updated.

To amplify the impact of these results beyond SOTA
- OpenMusE applied and was picked for the Horizon IP Scan, to enable smooth exploitation of project results throughout the project lifetime.
- Between M9 and M12, OpenMusE will hold an exploitation session to work on the Lean Canvas method.
- The Innovation Radar tool will be used to identify and support the project’s most exploitable outcomes.
- The project outcomes will be exploited via the Horizon Results Platform.

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