John Smith, FIM President

Benoît Machuel , FIM General Secretary

John Morton, President emeritus of FIM

Brief description



The International Federation of Musicians founded in 1948 is the international organisation for musicians and is now counting 72unions throughout the world.
Recently FIM has created two regional groups; one for African countries and the other for Latin America countries.
The Federation’s main objective is to protect and further the economic, social and artistic interests of musicians organised in member unions. This leads to such activities as:
Furtherance of the organisation of musicians in all countries,
Federation of unions of musicians throughout the world,
Furtherance and strengthening of international collaboration,
Promoting of national and international protective legislation in the interests of musicians,
Making of agreements with other international organizations in the interests of member unions and of the profession,
Obtaining and compilation of statistical and other information referring to the music profession and provision of such information to member unions,
Moral and material support of member unions in the interests of the profession and in accordance with the objects of FIM,
Furtherance of all appropriate efforts to make good music a common property of all people,
Holding of international congresses and conferences,
Close collaboration with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the International Labour Office (ILO) and UNESCO, and the maintenance of continuous relations with all international organisations which could be of service to FIM.
As a non governmental organisation, FIM has a permanent relationship with major inter-governmental organisations such as UNESCO, the ILO, WIPO. It is recognised and consulted by The Council of Europe, the European Commission, the European Parliament, which enables it to participate in crucial negotiations on the protection of performers and to make the voice of musicians heard.
The Federation is also member of The International Music Council (IMC). It collaborates with all national and international organisations representing workers in the media field. It has close working relations in the framework of the International Arts Entertainment Alliance (IAEA) with the International Federation of Actors (FIA) and UNI-Media and Entertainment International (UNI-MEI).
FIM works closely with collecting societies administering performers’ rights.
FIM activities



1. The International Federation of Musicians (FIM) was established in 1948. The objectives were to represent and defend music performers’ interests at an international level. It is the only body which represents musicians’ unions worldwide and its members include over 65 national organisations which cover all regions of the world.

2. The FIM Secretariat is located in Paris. The General Secretary is responsible in particular for administration and implementation of decisions taken by the FIM governing bodies as follows:
- The Congress which determines general directives and activities. It meets every three years and its last meeting took place in London in December 2004;
- The Executive Committee which, in liaison with the Secretariat, ensures that the provisions contained in the FIM Rules and the guidelines decided by Congress are implemented. It is made up of a President, four Vice-Presidents and twelve members who are designated by member unions. It meets when necessary but at least once a year;
- The Presidium is made up of the President, the four Vice-Presidents and the General Secretary. It meets on a regular basis in order to further the Federation’s activities.

3- For many years now, FIM has been recognised as a NGO (international non-governmental organisation) in the eyes of diverse international authorities operating in its field of activity, and in particular WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organisation), UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation), ILO (International Labour Office) and also the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of Europe.

4- FIM plays an important role in international negotiations concerning the development of performers’ rights. Thus it was one of the driving forces in the adoption in 1961 of the Rome Convention which was the first international treaty to recognise intellectual property rights to the performers. FIM subsequently took part in the negotiation over a succession of European Directives in this field together with the revision of certain national legislation. It drew up the founding principles of the collective management of performers’ rights and initiated, alongside unions, the setting-up of numerous collecting societies managing performers’ rights. More recently, FIM has taken an active part in negotiations over the WPPT Treaty (WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty) adopted by WIPO in December 1996. This Treaty, also described as "Internet Treaty", was drawn up with the objective of developing the protection for performers in the context of digital technologies. Its main difference from the Rome Convention is to recognise certain performers’ rights which, up till then, had not yet been internationally accepted. Thus article 5 recognises a moral right concerning performances fixed in a phonogram, article 8 provides an exclusive right of distribution of the phonogram, article 9 provides an exclusive right of rental of the phonogram, and article 10 provides an exclusive right of making interactively available the phonogram. It is on the basis of such article 10 that uses of recordings in the digital context can be regulated. However, the WPPT Treaty does have one serious loophole insofar as governments decided to exclude audio-visual fixations from its field of application, which therefore precludes any uniform protection of performers’ rights.
In the context of ever-intensifying international and regional negotiations, FIM has to take part in an increasing number of meetings, particularly with regards to the implementation of the WTO/TRIPS Agreement (Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights), of the WPPT Treaty, or to the possible revision of the Rome Convention, but also for the drawing up of the new European directive related to the rights in the "Information society".
FIM is also involved as an expert in certain works being carried out by the International Labour Office. In this capacity, it has been consulted on the proposed ILO Convention covering “contract labour”, which aim is to create certain minimum rights which would enable millions of workers throughout the world to obtain basic social guarantees. FIM is also taking part in works which ILO is carrying out in the field of "informal" or "atypical" employment to which a certain number of musicians, particularly in the developing countries, might be covered. In more general terms, FIM is involved in works on the protection of casual and free-lance workers.
FIM has also taken part in UNESCO initiatives towards the recognition of the status of the artist. It therefore participated in the drawing-up of the Recommendation on the status of the artist adopted in 1980 in Belgrade by the UNESCO General Conference, then in June 1997 in Paris at the UNESCO World Congress for implementation of this Recommendation. In addition, FIM cooperates with UNESCO in the framework of the Global Alliance. The purpose of this UNESCO programme is to develop projects on the basis of partnerships with public, private and civil societies for promoting the cultural industries in the developing areas and ensuring copyright enforcement.

5- FIM regularly intervenes via its members with governments in order to ensure respect of musicians’ social and intellectual property rights and, more generally, to promote cultural policy. This triple concern is perfectly illustrated by the many interventions made in support of permanent orchestra musicians. In between that, salaries should match the technical and artistic qualities required for the position of a professional orchestra musician. Working conditions should be such that one should be able to evolve in a context of security and minimum comfort. Finally, musicians should be able to benefit from a system of social protection. Moreover, respect of intellectual property laws implies that musicians’ recorded performances should not be exploited without their consent or at least without financial compensation. Promoting a cultural policy means mobilizing people on an international scale so as to defend the preservation of permanent orchestras whose existence could be in jeopardised.

6- FIM regularly carries out studies and adopts recommendations on topics such as musicians’ health, preservation of live performances opportunities, orchestra musicians’ salaries, international norms on music scores and, more generally, questions relating to musicians’ working conditions.

7- As part of its extension of activities and its regional approach, FIM, which represents a number of organisations in developing countries, set up in 1997 two regional groups: in Africa, the CAF (FIM African Committee), and in Latin America and the Caribbean, the GRM (Grupo Regional de Músicos). In 1998, it submitted a detailed report to the International Labour Office on the social status of performing musicians in Asia, Africa and Latin America. In 2001, the ILO published the updated version of this study in a working paper. In the conclusions of this study, FIM recommended the development of a training programme for musicians’ unions in these regions. Following this recommendation, in 1999 FIM and ILO undertook a union training programme called “the SYM programme” aimed at organisations belonging to FIM regional groups.

8- FIM has also set out to draw up standard legal provisions and standard contracts with an aim to helping regional committee members to promote efficient protection for musicians compatible with international legislation and regulation, and adapted to developing countries.

9- In 1999, the FIM Executive Committee decided to implement new means for actions concerning long term issues. The principle is as follows: one or several FIM member unions are delegated by the Executive Committee to act on behalf of the Federation on the basis of a long-term programme.
FIM, together with several of its members, have made the following agreements:
- the setting-up of a data base and an international network concerning musicians’ health (programme delegated to the British Musicians’ Union).
- action programme concerning promotion of live music (programme delegated to the Dansk Musiker Forbund and the French National Musicians’ Union).
- action programme concerning music education and employment (programme delegated to the Koninklijke Nederlandse Toonkunstenaars-Vereiniging).
- action programme of creation of an international network of orchestras (programme delegated to the American Federation of Musicians)
- action programme concerning promotion of musical education at school (programme delegated to the Musicians’ Union of Japan).

10- FIM has working relations with non-governmental international or regional organisations involved in the performing arts. It is a member of the IMC (International Music Council) with whom it regularly organises events in Europe but also in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

11- Ever since the two international artists’ Federations have existed, they have worked in close relationship and permanent on-going co-operation. The FIA (International Federation of Actors) is the historical and natural partner of the FIM and the two organisations pursue the same objectives of safeguarding and developing the interests of performers from economic, social and artistic points of view. By defending in their respective countries the interests of performing artists with similar conditions of employment, their member unions are often tightly bound together.

12- Another important partner who regularly collaborates with the FIM is UNI-MEI (UNI-Media Entertainment International), a non-governmental international trade unions organisation representing technicians and specialist workers in the audio-visual and performing arts spheres, as well as authors (writers, script-writers, film-makers, photographers, authors of graphic works etc.). UNI-MEI is a division of UNI (Union Network International), an organisation originating from the merger of MEI (Media Entertainment International), FIET (Fédération Internationale des Employés et Techniciens et cadres), CI (Communications International) and IGF (International Graphical Federation). In 1995, FIM, FIA, UNI-MEI and IFJ (International Federation of Journalists) set up ICEMU (International Committee of Entertainment and Media Union) with a view to developing international strategies on topics of mutual interest.

13- In the same way, FIM and its two sister Federations, FIA and UNI-MEI, created in 1997 an entity called IAEA (International Art and Entertainment Alliance) with a view to developing common projects, particularly at a regional level.

14- For this reason, the three federations set up in parallel for their Latin Amercian members a group called CREA (Coordinadora Regional de Espectáculo de las Américas), made up of the FIM-GRM, FIA-BLADA and UNI-MEI-PANARTES.

15- Similarly, for their European members, FIM, FIA and UNI-MEI created an entity called EAEA (European Art Entertainment Alliance) made up of the FIM, Euro-FIA and UNI-Europa-MEI. EAEA is a member of the ETUC (European Trades Union Centre). The European Commission invites the EAEA to attend its meetings as sole representative of performing arts workers in the Committee for social dialogue founded for those professions in the performing arts sector. In the framework of this Committee, the social partners have commissioned a study on the identification and promotion of "good practices" which might possible foster live performances in Europe.
In 2001, EAEA has made two important studies respectively devoted to employment and social protection schemes of performing arts workers in the European Union and to obstacles which prevent the free circulation of artists and cultural productions in the European Union.
In Autumn 2002, EAEA and ETUC have submitted two additional study proposals to the European Commission: the first on the consequences of the implementation of the European Directives on the sectors of art and entertainment and the second on the status of workers in European media, arts and entertainment sector in five applicant countries.

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