| dc.description.abstract | In 2015, the Commission introduced Music Moves Europe. The new sector-specific component of the EU’s Creative Europe program aims to “strengthen the strong assets of the European music sector: creativity, diversity, and competitiveness.” While much has been said about EU cultural policy, less is known about this recent addition to the family of EU culture programs. Considering that the increasing involvement of the EU in the domain of cultural policy has consequences for citizens, music professionals, and scholarship, research on the topic is crucial. In this thesis, I shed light on Music Moves Europe as the first music-oriented program in EU cultural policy. By analyzing four different phases of Music Moves Europe’s policy process, I explore how the initiative balances different interests and ideas about the values of music (industries) in its initial stages. Chapter One contextualizes Music Moves Europe within the broader field of cultural policy. By connecting George Yúdice’s theorization of the expediency of culture to EU cultural policy, I show how dynamics of agenda-setting allowed for the emergence of what Annabelle Littoz-Monnet terms the creativity frame. With a reasoning that explicitly builds on Richard Florida’s notion of the creative economy, the Commission used this frame to position music as a source of creativity, competitiveness and economic growth. Chapter Two reveals how this creativity frame informs decision-making in the earliest phases of Music Moves Europe. I analyze how the problems and solutions addressed in the four dimensions of the program – policy, funding, legislation, and dialogue – relate to the various goals put forward in the phase of agenda-setting. Chapter Three follows a case-study design, with an in-depth analysis of the Music Moves Europe Talent Awards. Using James English’s economy of prestige as the point of departure, I examine why the EU invests in a European music prize for as part of its new strategy and how this award exemplifies broader Music Moves Europe objectives. I ultimately bring the thesis full circle by comparing my findings to the various goals of EU music policy as articulated by different music industry professionals and policymakers. The main finding to emerge from this study is that while Music Moves Europe appears to center and provide targeted support to the European music industry, it simultaneously disregards the heterogeneity of that same sector. I ultimately suggest that addressing this challenge in the evaluation phase of Music Moves Europe would contribute to the program’s effectiveness in the long run. | |
