About

CEEMPC – ABOUT

WHAT US CEEMPC
CEEMPC stands for the Central and Eastern European Music Publishing Conference.
It is an annual conference of music publishers of the Central and Eastern European countries, which addresses and deals with issues specific to the region, founded by Peter Gyorgy, Damian Slonina and Jolana Zemanova.

HISTORY
The first conference was held in Bratislava in 1999 and brought together 14 members who saw a need to meet and discuss common problems and issues which, as affiliates of Majors, they all experienced since opening their offices 2 years ago.
The initial area of focus were the Societies in the region and the need for improving their transparency as well as distribution and collection systems.
The CEEMPC has since been held in various countries of the region, including Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
In the 10 years since the first conference, the number of attendees has greatly increased, now also including participants not only from the recent member states of the EU, but also from the ex-Soviet and ex-Yugoslav countries.
An important early achievement was clearing the path towards creating a dialogue between the Societies and the Publishers. Members of the regional societies now regularly attend the conference to discuss and analyze annual reports, identify areas that need improvements and exchange practices with publishers and each other.

ACHIEVEMENTS
The CEEMPC has also been recognized as a good platform for the exchange of business models that are specific to the region. Publishers from Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary, who have undergone the changes in the publishing industry earlier on, share their the knowledge and help the countries currently undergoing the developments to more adequately deal with the processes and anticipate any potential problems that emerge along the process.
With the Central and Eastern European publishing industry becoming a more regulated and transparent environment, the future of the CEEMPC lies in finding solutions towards creating a more intense dialogue with both music rights users and the positioning of the former “Eastern Block” as a fully recognized member of the world publishing community.

FUTURE
The CEEMPC has greatly contributed towards transforming  Central and Eastern Europe into a dynamic and striving music business environment.
Public awareness of copyright has been vastly improved, and new streams of revenue have been created.
A transparent and identifiable distribution system as well as Music publishers sitting on boards or taking over an active role as consultants of Societies are becoming a standard in the region. Moreover, the region has experienced a drastic increase in revenue derived from the exploitation of individual rights, reaching levels soon to be comparable to Western Europe.
The last 10 years have shown the industry an unprecedented growth, with further potential that can even surpass the developments in the current markets of focus, such as Asia.  

But while the remaining industries have, within the last 10 years, turned towards this region as the emerging new market, the music industry is still overlooking the region's potential for growth.

The first 10 years of CEEMPC's work successfully laid the foundations for creating a healthy publishing market.
The next period should focus on placing the CEE Music publishing market on an equal ground with markets of Western European and the rest of the world.
 
There are 3 core tasks ahead:

1.    Making CEE a priority for the Majors
Most of the developments have so far been achieved on a local level, with little intervention from the remaining publishing community.

However, the region is increasingly becoming an important stream of revenue for the Majors. Further investment is vital if the market is to realize it's full potential. The CEEMPC should focus on bringing in the publishers from abroad to discuss the potentials that lie in the future.  

2.    Insisting on greater intersociety cooperation.
Creating a more open dialogue between local societies and »major« ones is essential. In addition to a greater share of information, the societies of the region are in need of technical and practical guidance. The growing demands for transparency and fair distribution practices of  publishers and authors are creating a heavy pressure on the regional societies.  By enticing practical workshops and inviting members of non CEE societies such as Gema, Sacem, ASCAP, BMI and others to the CEEMPC, publishers of the region will be able to take a an active role in speeding up the development process.

3.    Placing the Central Eastern European region on the publishing map.

The ability to make such drastic improvements in such a short period of time has shown that the CEE publishing market has matured into an important member of the world music business community.

Part of the CEE success lies in it's adaptability to change and ability to incorporate it's own models into global trends.
These trades can be of a huge asset to the rest of the publishing community in trying to find new models that could successfully cope with the emerging digital movements.
Publishers of CEE should stand on an equal ground with their Western colleagues when deciding on and integrating solutions that would embrace the technological advancements today.
An open discussion with the remaining members of the world publishing community should address issues such as:
- the position of CEE Publishers towards central licensing
- the effects on the local publishing industry when making decisions made by majors
- the CEE Publishers right to be actively involved in decisions that affect the global market  

CEEMPC’s 10th Anniversary
To Celebrate its 10th anniversary, CEEMPC decided to join forces with the Weekend Media Festival, a festival which brings together the media industry of the region of Central and Eastern Europe.
CEEMPC hopes this collaboration will prove to be a great opportunity for participants of both industries to gain a more in-depth knowledge about each other and hopefully, create a network of contacts throughout the region.