Open Music Europe

Open Music Europe brings together music industry stakeholders and researchers from 10 EU countries and Ukraine. Our consortium recognises that placing European music ecosystems on a more competitive, fair, and sustainable footing requires evidence-based policymaking, business planning and accuracy. We provide the data needed for these actions.

Data-to-policy Pipeline

Open Music Europe aims to create an open, scalable data-to-policy pipeline for European music ecosystems. This aim entails three objectives. A data pipeline is a method in which raw data is ingested from various data sources and then ported to a data store, for further analysis, in this case, to an open, shared, collaborative music observatory. We extend this pipeline using reproducible research techniques, a novel application of the Open Policy Analysis Guidelines, and good statistical practices to support evidence-based policy analysis, scientific music research and sound business strategy building. In this last leg of the pipeline, we emphasise usability for our project’s target audiences and good documentation practices. We want to ensure that our data is high quality and well understood to support robust and correct business, scientific or policy conclusions.

We provide the data needed for these actions. Using transparent methods and tools, Open Music Europe maps the policy and data landscape; bridges data gaps; and empowers stakeholders and policymakers to take data-driven actions. Our project is grounded on principles of open policy analysis, open science, and open-source software development. We work with stakeholders to identify data gaps on the EU, national, and regional levels; co-create indicators and methods for bridging them; develop free software tools for data collection and analysis; and report not just our findings, but every step taken to reach them.

This is the logic behind our Open Music Observatory (OMO, developed from the earlier CEEMID and the Digital Music Observatory concept), an open-source platform that provides 360-degree intelligence on the music industry by integrating numerous data sources. The OMO is highly automated, providing “living policy documents” that refresh when the backend datasets are updated: these datasets include official statistics on music goods and services; data on musical participation via pan-European surveys, rights-holder data voluntarily shared by industry partners, and streaming service data sampled using novel algorithms developed by our consortium. Using the OMO and our open-source software, music MSMEs without technical departments or expertise will be able to access and analyse open data; model volume and value, including of zero-price uses; create better business models; and generate corporate social responsibility and sustainability reports; all at a fraction of current costs. We validate these tools in four pilot studies that will bring concrete benefits to stakeholders within the project lifespan.

Open collaboration

Our project is based on open collaboration. Our proposal, will provide us with resources to supply further music businesses, music civil society organizations and researchers with high-quality data (during the duration of the project for free.) The open collaboration means that

• we will ask all representative music organizations to join our advisory board and set priorities so that we can work for the benefit of all the European Music Ecosystem.
• our improved valuation, ESG/SDG reporting, diversity promotion tools will be open for national public organizations and businesses to use;
• for-profit and non-profit organizations who are not members of our Consortium can solve in the form of public use case studies some of their valuation/ESG; reporting/diversity measurement issues provided that they pay for their own project management and translations costs;
• our cases studies intended to improve the economic situation, resilience and diversity problems of organizations in the Consortium can be freely replicated with our online tools, live policy documents, and our Open Data Observatory.

See existing business partners, civil society & social enterprise partners and academic partners.

The project’s scoping aim is to create an open, scalable data-to-policy pipeline for European music ecosystems.

• MAP the policy and data landscape all over Europe, but with a focus on select countries
• BRIDGE data gaps with open data that anybody can use
• EMPOWER stakeholders and policymakers to take data-driven actions

The objectives are designed to advance the state of the art with regard to data collection, policymaking, and business practices in these three pillars of the music industry. Both the objectives and the outputs will be optimised for transferability to other cultural and creative industries.

MAP the policy and data landscape all over Europe

“Develop indicators to better detect the performance of the European music sector and its contribution to economic and social development, as well as to sustainability”

1. Develop policy-relevant indicators for the total economic value of music
2. Develop policy-relevant indicators for music diversity and circulation
3. Develop policy-relevant indicators for the societal impact of music ecosystems, within an SDG framework
4. Develop policy-relevant indicators for the resilience of music ecosystems, within an SDG framework.

“Provide new/improved methodologies for capturing the economic and societal value of music”

1. Develop new software for rendering fragmented and unharmonised/unprocessed data usable
2. Implement data-sharing cooperation to make hidden and restricted data accessible
3. Develop new survey methods for capturing scarce data.

These methodological innnovation build on the previous collaboration among many of the OpenMuse Consortium partners. For examples, see the Publications section of the Digital Music Observatory page.

BRIDGE data gaps with open data that anybody can use

“Promote standardised data collection about the music (sub-)sector(s) to measure the contribution of the EU music sector to the whole economy”

1. Define and demonstrate best practices on harmonisation of public data (e.g., Eurostat)
2. Define and demonstrate best practices on harmonisation of proprietary data (e.g., CMO data)
3. Create and run standardised enterprise surveys suitable for music MSMEs, that capture the contribution of numerous small players to the economy
4. Enable and promote collection of streaming service data using novel sampling strategies.

See data we can offer below.

“Provide an estimation of the impact of music participation to the society”

1. Create and run standardised Cultural Access and Participation surveys
2. Create and run valuation models that incorporate zero-price music use (e.g., home copying, piracy)
3. Create and run valuation models that synthesise economic and non-economic societal values of music participation
4. Report and visualise music valuation data and models in an automated, continually-updated online dashboard.

EMPOWER stakeholders and policymakers to take data-driven actions

“Increase the transparency of the music industry, in particular the online/streaming business”

1. Publish open-source software and econometric models for streaming music data valuation (demonstrated for at least one major provider and transferable to others)
2. Build awareness of industry conditions through regular face-to-face and online dissemination, communication, and exploitation activities

“Provide policymakers with effective tools for measuring and enhancing the impact of EU policy making”

1. Develop an open-source online dashboard that continually aggregates and reports disparate music data, with “plug-and-play” functionality vis-a-vis national databases
2. Implement transferable pilot projects on music valuation (BG/HU), diversity (SK), social and environmental sustainability (IT), and technical innovation (DE)
3. Release policy reports and recommendations on Music Economy; Music Diversity and Circulation; Music, Society, and Citizenship; and Music Technology.

Our results will be published in the Open Music Observatory, which will follow the specificaiton of the Feasibility Study on the Establishment of the European Music Observatory.

Data that we can offer

By providing continually updated data on five industry pillars – innovation, music and society, music economy, music diversity and circulation, and music policy – we will accurately capture the economic and social value created by the sector, as well as providing stakeholders with data-driven means of maximizing this value.

• For copyright and neighbouring rights-holders and their organizations: Value of music, euro value of the value gap, private copying, privacy—we have data and make estimates with all known music value estimation techniques.
• For live music organizations: Pan-European audience surveys; demographic comparisons of all European audiences; attendance predictions, attendance profiling.
• For granting authorities: we have the world’s largest survey-based dataset on how musicians work and live; we create ex ante needs assessment and grants evaluation indicators and ex-post grant evaluation indicators.
• For labels and music publishers: we make big data understandable; we create price and volume indexes of streaming markets; we tell you about price developments and selection probabilities in different cities and countries; we understand the biases of the Spotify and YouTube algorithms; and we measure (meta)data problems and offer scalable solutions.
• For music export offices: we measure domestic and foreign market shares in streaming; we create actionable key performance indicators; and we do geographical targeting.

Data Coverage

Our research project contributes to all of the expected outcomes of the call. Our ambition is to develop an open science and open data service which complements the existing statistical service of Eurostat. In partnership with key music industry and policy partners, we are going to fill approximately 41 data gaps within the policy context of Music Moves Europe, as identified by the Feasibility Study for a European Music Observatory, with about 120 high-value indicators. We will develop key performance indicators for music businesses and policy indicators to “better detect the performance of the European music sector and its contribution to economic and social development, as well as to sustainability.”

We believe that existing data availability is better than that described in the Feasibility study. As stated in this final report, the 2019 Open Data Directive further extended the availability of re-usable public sector information (PSI) with open science data. In PSI, open government data, and open science data, there is a huge potential to fill in the data gaps without new data collection—the fact that data can be reused instead of being recollected is the main aim of the directive. These open data sources are legally open but are not accessible without further investment; our Consortium wants to make this investment, and produce about 50% of all the data needs of the future European Music Observatory.

The Digital Music Observatory, which was called CEEMID at the time of the creation of the Feasiblity Study, has 7 years of experience in filling in data gaps with open data. It has created metadata maps to more than 1000 indicators, covering almost all of the data gaps in the Feasiblity Study. We know where to locate data, and now we have to invest in processing, validating, documenting, and making it available for the European music sector.

Pillar 1: Music Economy

In the case of Pillar 1 – Music & Economy, we are usually able to locate the source of the data, and we have some experience in processing the data and bringing it to light. We have mapped many perceived data gaps to the various data harmonization projects of GESAC and CISAC, and we will seek cooperation with these organizations and their members to find a secure and voluntary way to retrieve the data.

In other cases, we will rely on on the 2019/1024/EU Open Data Directive to access, process, document, and disseminate the data.

The only data gap that we do not intent do address is the “impact of the non-profit sector”.

Pillar 2: Music Circulation & Diversity

We will address the music circulation problems with our WP big data. Together with our leading statistical experts, data scientists, and reproducible research experts we will create sampling techniques that allow to make representative indicators from streaming data. Streaming data is largely accessible, but not in a representative manner. Using advanced statistical methodologies like inverse reverse sampling—which is often used in quantitative finance to analyze large problems—we will create representative data following our pioneering work made in the Central European Music Industry Report and later the Digital Music Creators’ Project initiated by the UK Intellectual Property Office.

We will address diversity issues with recycled and harmonized surveys.

Pillar 3: Music & Society

We will mainly rely on the integration of existing, but fragmented and not well-formatted data, and existing, but not processed and not published data to create pan-European indicators for the music and society section.

Pillar 4: Music & Innovation

1. We will connect to several innovation topics in music by providing research, data, and evidence. Building on the work of the Blockchain & Society research project of our Consortium member, the Institute for Information Law IViR at the University of Amsterdam, we will address issues related to NFT and blockchain technologies in music.

2. Connecting to the work of various music stakeholders in Finland, we will experiment with the safe data sharing of confidential data, avoiding the extreme pitfalls of ‘radical openness’ and ‘closed data’. With the University of Bologna, and eight years of experience in sensitive data sharing with the Digital Music Observatory (formerly: CEEMID), we will create various statistical methods to create anonymized and synthetic datasets that do not endanger business or private data.

3. We are going to design indicators and carry out a landscape mapping with Music Tech Europe, a new organization that aims to become the representative of music startups and music ecosystems in the European Union.