[en] As the pursuit of ‘fairness’ has become a central concern for a variety of actors and
stakeholders in the music industry, a key challenge is to understand what ‘fairness’ means
for the EU institutions and to explore the distinct ways in which ‘fairness’ has been
diachronically conceptualised as a term in the EU policy related to the music sector in light
of other key EU concepts and principles. This report provides a thorough analysis of a large
corpus of EU legislative and policy documents related to the music sector. The aim is to
understand the emergence and evolution of ‘fairness’, against the backdrop of the
governance of digitisation and online platforms in Europe and the latter’s implications for the
music sector as a whole. Such an analysis is strongly needed to explore the origins, nature,
breadth and degree of policy changes towards the music industry and the policy conditions
that have driven the emergence and incorporation of ‘fairness’ in the EU policy related to
the music sector. The main research questions that guide our work can thus be summarised
as follows: (i) In what ways do EU legislative and policy instruments define and deal with
‘fairness’ in EU policymaking related to music and how has the notion of ‘fairness’ evolved
over the years? (ii) How have digitisation, the ‘platformisation’ process and the COVID-19
crisis influenced the notion of ‘fairness’ in EU governance related to the music sector?
Disciplines :
Political science, public administration & international relations
