“Music Moves Europe: A Boost for European Music Diversity and Talent” – three years of testing targeted EU support to music
This funding action has delivered some 60 projects and five study reports and been instrumental in laying the groundwork for the EU’s sectorial support for the music sector.

The 2018-2020 Preparatory Action "Music Moves Europe: Boosting European Music Diversity and Talent" has come to an end, with the completion of its last funded projects.
The objective of the preparatory action was to experiment on targeted support for the music sector.
Over the course of the preparatory action, with an overall budget of €7 million
- a total of 7 calls for proposals were published
- approximately 60 small-scale projects were co-financed
- 5 studies were commissioned
Projects covering a wealth of topics
The 60 projects cover an impressive breadth of topics, encompassing
- online and offline distribution
- professionalisation and training
- small music venues
- music education and learning
- co-creation and co-production in the music sector
- an innovative support scheme for a sustainable European music ecosystem known as MusicAIRE
MusicAIRE a standout project
MusicAIRE, which organised its closing event on 29 November, was a standout success story.
It redistributed €2.3 million from the total budget of €2.5 million in the form of small-scale grants, financing 51 small projects. It did this through a cascading grants scheme aimed at supporting the sector’s green, digital and just recovery.
Its closing event showcased several of these projects and confirmed the music sector’s interest in this cascade-based approach.
Studies with important findings on the state of the music sector
EU studies, another important component of the preparatory action, focused on
- the development of a European music export strategy (EMES)
- the feasibility of establishing a European Music Observatory (EMO)
- a market gap analysis of funding needs for the music sector
- the health and wellbeing of professional musicians and music creators in the EU
- the implementation and development of European music export (EMX)
Next steps
The preparatory action has paved the way to the specific support to the music sector under the Creative Europe programme. Lessons learned from the different studies and calls for proposals will be very useful to improve the way the EU supports the music sector, and will feed the upcoming discussion on the future programmes.
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