The organisations Musicautor, Filmautor and Artistautor have joined forces in Bulgaria to form an ‘Alliance for the Development of Creative Forces’.
Its aim is to “support the responsible institutions and contributing to Bulgaria’s economic development while also ensuring transparency, fairness and better conditions for creators”.
The coalition comes in response to the damages the creative sector has witnessed over the years due to the lack of any vision for the future of the creative industries and the inability of the state to create an environment for professional growth of artists. According to Viktor Bozhinov, chairman of the board of Filmautor, a key point in this is the tolerance of piracy. He also highlighted that the purpose of this alliance is not seeking financial support, but rather an implementation of well-focused and purpose-oriented state policy that reflects the rights and interests of all participants in this process: “We are creating music, movies in spite of the imbalances in relations between all participants in the creative environment”.
Meanwhile, according to Maria Palaurova, MD of Filmautor, Bulgaria collects the lowest amount of royalties for music and movies – lower than those in countries like Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and others. “Royalties for authors in the audiovisual sector in 2020 represent 0.0010% of Bulgaria’s GDP, which means that Bulgaria spends €0.09 per capita for the whole year. The situation is similar in the music industry – 0.007% is collected as a percentage of GDP in Bulgaria, and as an absolute amount it is 0.65 euros per capita in 2020”.
According to the results of survey conducted in 2021 by Gallup International on authors of films and series from the previous five years, only 12% of authors receive subsequent remuneration, different from the lump sum received with the signing of the production contract. Furthermore, 89% of authors whose films were available on the internet did not receive remuneration for them. As for the remunerations from TV broadcasting, they are mainly from public television (BNT – Bulgarian National Television) – 76%, or from abroad – 17%. Almost all (95%) the authors believe that collective management is more efficient for protection of their rights.
