APCOE launched

The official inauguration of the first European grouping of songwriter organisations was launched on Monday 22nd January at the Café Plage Royale in Cannes during the annual MIDEM music Festival.

APCOE, the Alliance of Popular Composer Organisations in Europe initially comprises songwriter organisations from Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom, with others expected to join in the coming months.

APCOE is the third pan-European composer group and network to have been set up over the past twelve months, following the launch of the media composer based Federation of Film and Audiovisual Composers of Europe (FFACE) and the arts music based European Composers Federation (ECF) during 2006. All three composer groups are aiming to join together in establishing an “umbrella” body, the European Composers & Songwriters Alliance (ECSA) to represent their collective voice on major cross genre issues. It is hoped that the “umbrella” organisation will be launched in Madrid in early March 2007.

Speaking at the launch of APCOE, its newly elected chairman David Ferguson (from the British Academy of Composers & Songwriters) said:

“It is no accident that these three new composer groupings have been established at more or less the same time. Continuing threats to authors rights and copyright through technological change and globalisation, doubts about the future role of collective management societies in relation to an increasingly less favourable working environment have forced all those who write music in Europe to come together and speak with one voice.”