Freemuse report: Artists worldwide face deepening crisis - Freemuse Freemuse’s State of Artistic Freedom 2026 report, Courage is Contagious, documents what Freemuse describes as some of the most alarming conditions facing artists and cultural workers.

Today, Freemuse releases the State of Artistic Freedom 2026 report – Courage is Contagious.
www.freemuse.org/freemuse-rep...
@freemuse.bsky.social

Looking forward to contributing to the 11th National Cultural Forum in Vilnius on May 14. This year’s theme, “Creativity: talents in focus,” invites an important shift—from celebrating outcomes to… |... Looking forward to contributing to the 11th National Cultural Forum in Vilnius on May 14. This year’s theme, “Creativity: talents in focus,” invites an important shift—from celebrating outcomes to un...

Looking forward to contributing to the 11th National Cultural Forum in Vilnius on May 14.

This year’s theme, “Creativity: talents in focus,” invites an important shift—from celebrating outcomes to understanding the conditions that make them possible.

www.linkedin.com/posts/alfons...

I am honored to be joining the first-ever @Arts Dynamics Impact Summit on March 19th.

📍 Join me at @Elements Stockholm - luma.com/2wki78lh
#ArtsDynamics #CulturalRights #CreativeEconomy #ArtsDynamicsImpactSummit2026

How to Steal a Whale Maybe that isn’t quite the right description of what I’ve been asked to explain lately, but bear with me. It has to do with a concern and curiosity I see more and more among colleagues.

Check out my latest article: How to Steal a Whale www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-st... via @LinkedIn

The future of music should not be built on forgetting who created it. AI Music at the Olympics Exposes the Copyright Gap The controversy over Czech ice dancers using AI-generated music at the 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympics highlights a major challenge for the creative eco...

Check out my latest article: The future of music should not be built on forgetting who created it www.linkedin.com/pulse/future...

When Tradition Becomes a Liability The UK as a warning sign? For decades, the UK music industry was a global benchmark. Songwriting craft.

Check out my latest article: When Tradition Becomes a Liability linkedin.com/pulse/when-t... via
@LinkedIn

If You Don’t Speak the New Gatekeepers’ Language, How Will You Ever Be Heard? - Alfons Karabuda AI assistants are quietly becoming the new gatekeepers of music discovery. Yet for most of us, creators, it’s as if we simply don’t exist. If AI doesn’t know who we are, it cannot recommend us, cannot...

If You Don’t Speak the New Gatekeepers’ Language, How Will Anyone Hear You? www.alfonskarabuda.com/2025/12/03/i...

The Inevitable Arrival When Autonomous Agents Rewrite the Architecture of Creative Ownership Thank you for the thoughtful engagement on my previous post on FB. It’s evident that many within the creative and publishing commu...

The Inevitable Arrival and the Rewrite of the Architecture of Creative Ownership www.linkedin.com/pulse/inevit...

Today is International Music Day! I cannot think of a better way to honor this day — and the importance of music in our lives — than by highlighting the winner of the Music Rights Award 2025:
Gaza Sings: Voices of Steadfastness and Hope from Palestine. imc-cim.org/imc-honours-...

What Matters More Than a Headline? - Alfons Karabuda When STIM announced what they described as the world’s first AI license, it wasn’t surprising that the claim generated a lot of questions. It certainly raised eyebrows. To be fair, it may indeed be th...

Great to see collective rights organizations, like Stim, starting to engage with AI. The headlines are exciting, but what really matters is how these licenses can work in practice:
www.alfonskarabuda.com/2025/09/10/w...

Thrilled to see the Nordic Day programme for Nordic Tech Week published. On Sept 19 = wrap up week in Kungsträdgården, Stockholm, with full day dedicated to what makes the Nordics unique and how we can build the future together. Full programme: lnkd.in/dAnJ8m-4

New release! And this one is a true first:
A heartfelt, bittersweet song written and composed entirely in Turkish.
Full of heart and pain—just the way it should be.

open.spotify.com/track/1rcanB...

Ever Felt Like Suing Yourself? - Alfons Karabuda I didn’t think so either. Yet that is precisely what the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal suggested when it dismissed the landmark case Rowntree v PRS, concerning up to £200 million in so-called Black B...

Songwriters suing themselves?
That’s the paradox in Rowntree v PRS, a case about £200M in “Black Box” royalties.
As a creator + witness, I reflect on what the Tribunal’s dismissal reveals—and why the future lies in tech, not endless litigation.
👉 www.alfonskarabuda.com/2025/08/28/e...

How to (Re)Claim Creative Rights A bump on the road toward long-established goals? Or the systematic theft of creative value? The answer depends on how we analyze the situation—and our success in countering the challenges with the ri...

How to (Re)Claim Creative Rights www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-re...

The Missing Link Between Capability and Advocacy Recent policy setbacks in the United States and the United Kingdom are exposing a critical gap in how the creative industries advocate for artificial intelligence (AI) regulation. While technology com...

The Missing Link Between Capability and Advocacy linkedin.com/pulse/missin...

Spooky Action at a Distance Albert Einstein famously used the phrase “spooky action at a distance” to describe quantum entanglement—a phenomenon where interconnected particles influence each other instantaneously, regardless of ...

Just published:
“Spooky Action in Business” — a reflection on how emerging ecosystems are challenging linear value models, especially in the creative industries.
From near-instant royalties to real-time copyright visibility, there is a better way forward.

Read it: www.linkedin.com/pulse/spooky...

When Silos Burst and Bridges Are Built – The Fair Music Project and UNESCO’s Vision for Responsible AI Isn’t it great when silos finally burst — not into chaos, but into bridges? As someone who’s spent a career navigating both the creative world and the emerging tech landscape, I’ve become a strong adv...

Check out my latest article: When Silos Burst and Bridges Are Built – The Fair Music Project and UNESCO’s Vision for Responsible AI linkedin.com/pulse/when-s... via
@LinkedIn

Music World News #13/2025 - 2 JULY 2025 From 11 – 12 June 2025, over 100 music sector stakeholders came together in Brussels for the 13th edition of the European Forum on Music with the theme “Celebrating Musical Diversity”.

The Music World News—brought to you by the International Music Council—is your bi-weekly passport to what’s really happening in music across the globe. From groundbreaking artists and AI breakthroughs to policy shifts and powerful education stories, it´s all here.

When Friends Lead, Everyone Grows | Alfons Karabuda When Friends Lead, Everyone Grows In any group of friends, there's always someone who shines in a particular area—and inspires the rest to level up. That’s the beauty of good collaboration. Over ...

Denmark’s EU presidency puts AI & copyright in the spotlight—and it's exactly the momentum we’ve been preparing for in the Fair Music Project.
Here’s my perspective on what’s unfolding and why it’s a defining moment.
🔗 www.linkedin.com/posts/alfons...
#FairMusic #DigitalRights

En visselblåsarfunktion specialanpassad för kulturorganisationer och bolag. Följ länk där du kan läsa mer och delta aktivt med din återkoppling i utvecklandet av denna, för kulturen, specialanpassade visselblåsarfunktion. vissel.se

Honored to be included in Laurence Cuny’s vital paper on protecting musicians at risk, through the legacy of Pau Casals. A powerful call for action on artistic freedom.
👉 globalfreedomofexpression.columbia.edu/wp-content/u... #ArtisticFreedom #HumanRights #MusicMatters

Who’s With The Band?: Labour of Care for Musicians  - Freemuse The case of banned Indonesian punk band Sukatani This music censorship case demonstrates censored artwork’s tenacity: banned music always finds its way to reach its listeners. However, while a song mi...

Who’s With The Band?
While a song might ironically – go viral thanks to the censorship, the musicians — especially women — often suffer severe consequences. This raises the question of what resources are needed to care for the artists? @freemuse.bsky.social www.freemuse.org/whos-with-th...

Queen, Herbie Hancock & Barbara Hannigan Named 2025 Polar Music Prize Laureates British rock band Queen, American jazz great Herbie Hancock and Canadian soprano Barbara Hannigan are the 2025 recipients of the Polar Music Prize.

Today, we proudly announce this year’s
Polar Music Prize laureates: Queen, Herbie Hancock, and Barbara Hannigan. We look forward to welcoming them to Stockholm on May 27, where they will receive the Prize from His Majesty the King of Sweden. www.billboard.com/music/awards...

Music World News #2/2025 - 29 JAN Ghanaian music legend and saxophonist Teddy Osei, who founded the Afro-rock band Osibisa, has died aged 88.

The International Music Council brings you yet another overview of what’s up in the global musical ecosystem. You’ll learn about local news from all over the world instead of just the usual global trends reaching local level.
Enjoy!

Emc Imc

imc-cim.org/index.php?pa...

Securing Copyright in the wake of recent AI policies in the USA and UK While I am pleased to see that the future challenges for music and culture, with AI as a top priority, are being widely debated and largely agreed upon in panels around the world, it is likely that po...

Securing Copyright in the wake of recent AI policies in the USA and UK www.linkedin.com/pulse/securi...

Equal Economic Opportunity in the Creative Industries Background As a creator and cultural rights advocate, I’ve often been struck by how parts of the creative community resist thinking outside the box—even in an industry built on imagination and innovat...

Equal Economic Opportunity in the Creative Industries www.linkedin.com/pulse/equal-...

Global economic study shows human creators’ future at risk from generative AI Policy makers must safeguard creators’ rights and implement transparency rules

I participated in an in-depth interview for Cisac´s “Study on the Economic Impact of Generative AI in the Music and Audiovisual Industries.”
Existing advanced technology can provide the impact necessary to tackle the challenges and harness the opportunities ahead. www.cisac.org/Newsroom/new...

Double Standard Spotify's recent Web API changes introduce significant restrictions that impact third-party developers, innovation, and the competitive landscape. While these changes are presented as necessary for da...

Check out my latest article: Double Standard www.linkedin.com/pulse/double... via @LinkedIn

I’m not sure why this is showing up in my newsfeed now, as the article dates back to 2014…

What I do know is that, among the many titles and positions I’ve held over the years, this was the one I neither expected to assume nor aspired to:
Acting CEO of STIM in 2014.

All eyes on deck! Time for another weekly update. This past week, my focus has been on security—particularly cybersecurity.

All eyes on deck! www.linkedin.com/pulse/all-ey... #MusicIndustryCybersecurity #AIBlockchainMusic #DigitalAssetProtection #MusicTechInnovation #IntellectualPropertySecurity #CyberThreatPrevention #MusicRoyaltyProtection #DecentralizedLicensing #QuantumSecurityMusic #FutureOfMusicIndustry