Music Moves Europe: the EU supports the European music sector
By: Max Bülow Lassen // Photo: Line Svindt
Under the title ”Music Moves Europe”, the EU actively supports the European music sector each year with millions of euros through the Creative Europe Programme. Music Moves Europe supports all sorts of areas of European music. From actions to rebuild the music industry after the pandemic to worldwide monitoring of radio airplay – and much, much more. All these projects have one common denominator: An emphasis on international cooperation.
This year’s SPOT+ conference was kicked off at 10:00am Friday morning in Radisson Blu’s meeting room three. Here, four figures affiliated with the international collaboration Music Moves Europe were present to talk about the program’s funding opportunities as well as share their successes (and failures) with it. The seminar was headed by Saxe Lomholt from Creative Europe Desk Denmark who had the pleasure of introducing the international panel consisting of Lene Ingwersen (DE) from the European musical collaborative network Music Cities Network, Chloé Nataf (FR) of the non-profit organization Trempo, and finally Jeppe Rasmussen from the Aarhus-based networking center Promus.
The panel was initially asked whether it’s fun to coordinate international projects to which they burst into laughter. After a moment’s silence, Chloé Natal simply replied, “no it’s really hard work” to further laughter from both the panel and audience. Clearly, it’s no walk in the park creating musical projects across country lines that are dependent on a trip through the EU-machine to see the light of day. A feat that’s been further complicated by a pandemic that has made borders more obvious than they’ve been in years. But when it works and the project comes to fruition, the panelists all agreed the sense of accomplishment made every inch of struggle worthwhile. And they even admitted that some fun moments do occur underway.
Why would anyone dedicate themselves to such really hard work then? Jeppe Rasmussen from Promus said that it’s about learning from other countries. Everywhere you go there are different conditions and practices, which results in things getting done a little differently in every single country. Therefore, it makes sense to build bridges and initiate international partnerships that benefit both the individual countries as well as the European music culture as a whole.
However, it can be very difficult – not to mention time-consuming – applying for funds through the EU. Luckily, each of the panelists had prepared a handful of tips and tricks for any would-be applicants. Firstly, Lene Ingwersen insisted that it’s necessary that one’s application speaks an “EU vocabulary”. There’s a certain type of communication that fares best in EU-applications, while Chloé Nataf added that keywords – which she called “EU lingo” should also be present. It’s also necessary that the project be “European in its essence”, meaning that project should have a European angle in its core identity. In other words, the projects must influence and benefit more than just a single country.
To this end, Saxe Lomholt and the Creative Europe Desk can be of assistance. Creative Europe Desk has been created to aid projects, for example by adapting them to a European context. Moreover, they assist with finding suitable partners and give general advice to applicants.
Returning to the panel’s advice to applicants, Lene Ingwersen explained that you learn a lot underway. Applications typically have to be around 70-75 pages in length. That may sound like much, but when you have to meticulously explain all your ideas, you’ll quickly run out of pages. Very quickly, in fact. Lastly, Ingwersen explained that she had also learnt that you shouldn’t do your accounting in Word. That’s a mistake you only make once, she assured us.
The seminar was concluded with a quick Q&A-session. Here, the panel was asked if they’d ever had an application be rejected. Lene Ingwersen had. ”It’s a pain, but you move on,” she told us and further explained that you find new interests and meet new people, and suddenly you get new and exciting ideas. Furthermore, you receive a detailed assessment of your application so you know exactly where to improve, and even a rejection can turn into a learning process. Chloé Nataf subsequently revealed that she had never, in fact, been rejected when applying for funds through the EU. She was quick to add though that she wouldn’t be showboating as she had just that morning finished yet another application, so her perfect record was once again in jeopardy.