Composers Rally at World Soundtrack Awards to Tackle Generative AI, Industry Hurdles, and Creative Innovation

At a recent World Soundtrack Awards industry panel, composer Simon Franglen struck a chord that resonated deeply with creative professionals navigating a rapidly shifting technological landscape. Reflecting on his expansive work on the upcoming blockbuster “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” Franglen captured the irreplaceable essence of human collaboration in film scoring. “We had hundreds of musicians in a room, pouring their emotion out in that precise second,” he recalled to an attentive audience. “How can that ever be replicated by AI?”

That pressing question stood at the very heart of this year’s WSA Film Music Days, held from October 8 through 10 in Ghent, Belgium. The annual gathering brought together prominent figures from the global film and television music community for three intensive days of panel discussions, roundtables, and networking mixers specifically designed to address the most urgent professional and artistic concerns facing contemporary composers.

Throughout the event, industry veterans and emerging talents alike examined the multi-faceted challenges confronting modern creators. From the relentless march of generative artificial intelligence and the persistent legal barriers to collective bargaining, to the critical importance of nurturing the next generation of talent and pioneering bespoke sonic palettes, the discussions underscored a unified message: in an era of unprecedented disruption, composers needn’t play solo.

Strength in Numbers

For many creators working in the film and television industries, labor structures remain a significant hurdle. Unlike numerous other key creative roles and department heads on a film production, composers working within the United States and the United Kingdom frequently encounter steep legal barriers that impede unionization and effective collective bargaining. This structural disadvantage leaves individual artists uniquely vulnerable during contract negotiations and licensing agreements.

Fortunately, organizations like the European Composer and Songwriter Alliance (ECSA) help fill that critical gap. By uniting national associations across borders, ECSA actively lobbies policymakers to protect creators’ rights while guiding young and mid-career composers through the intricate mazes of contracts, copyright law, and fair negotiations.

Representing more than 30,000 composers and songwriters spread across 57 distinct member organizations, ECSA maintained a formidable presence during the festivities in Ghent. The alliance hosted an intensive industry roundtable before receiving the prestigious WSA Industry Award in recognition of its tireless advocacy on behalf of music creators.

“There’s still a long way to go and a lot of work to do,” ECSA president Helienne Lindvall remarked while accepting the honor on behalf of the organization. “But one thing is clear: We have become a voice to be reckoned with, giving composers and songwriters a seat at the table. Because, as someone once said, if you’re not sitting at the table, chances are you’re on the menu.”

Art vs. AI

To effectively counter the escalating threat posed by generative artificial intelligence, ECSA has taken a proactive stance, aggressively pushing to shape the European Union’s evolving and landmark AI Act around three non-negotiable core demands. First, AI companies must secure explicit authorization before utilizing copyrighted music to train generative machine learning models. Second, creators must be fairly and adequately compensated whenever their intellectual property is utilized for such training or output generation. Third, technology platforms must maintain full transparency by officially disclosing the specific catalogs and datasets they employ.

“If we want to protect those at the heart of music creation, we must continue to defend the three fundamental principles of Authorization, Remuneration, and Transparency,” Lindvall emphasized during her address. “In other words, our art.”

The rapid proliferation of consumer-facing and commercial platforms like the AI music generator Suno has rendered these demands increasingly urgent. Addressing the assembly of musicians, Lindvall issued a blunt and sobering warning regarding the hidden legal traps buried within the user agreements of such technology.

“Read the terms of service,” she implored the audience. “Anything you upload, even if you think, ‘I’ll just upload my music and see if they can come up with a guitar lick,’ you are giving them the right to use your music and exploit it commercially, without limitation, in perpetuity.”

Star Track: The Next Generation

Beyond the immediate legal and economic battles over copyright, several panelists voiced deep concern that the short-term financial savings promised by AI tools are coming at the direct expense of the next generation of film composers. As automated music factories and generative software increasingly take over entry-level scoring assignments, newcomers risk losing a vital and historic foothold in the profession.

“Hans Zimmer wouldn’t be who he is today without getting a gig on the 1980s British game show ‘Going for Gold,’” Simon Franglen pointed out, illustrating how foundational stepping stones launch legendary careers. “We all start somewhere, and we all have our various steps. It’s essential that those steps exist.”

Darrell Alexander, who runs the prominent composer agency Cool Music, views working in an apprentice or support capacity as the single best entry point for anyone starting out in the competitive field. “It’s still better to try to be an additional composer to a master,” Alexander explained. “We accept applications for jobs, and I think that’s really important, because you can study and learn and see how the machinery of scoring a major project actually operates.”

Working composers are also taking matters into their own hands to preserve these vital pathways. Adiescar Chase, whose acclaimed score for Netflix’s hit series “Heartstopper” earned widespread praise, deliberately pushed production teams to bring on additional hands for subsequent seasons of the show.

“I told production before we started, ‘Just so you know, I’m going to have an assistant this time,’” Chase recalled. “They had to trust me. I hope that in my community, the people I bring on to assist know I’m trustworthy and that they are gaining genuine experience.”

Looking toward the horizon, Martin Phipps, the composer behind the majestic orchestration of Netflix’s “The Crown,” expressed cautious optimism that human creatives will ultimately continue to prioritize genuine human contact—and that algorithms will not consume every single professional opportunity.

“It’s a skill in itself to prompt an AI,” Phipps observed with a touch of dry wit. “You need to employ someone to do that, and that somebody’s got to be there, for a while anyway. Though I do know a few directors who would quite like to write the music themselves, which is a worry!”

Take It to the Bank

Amidst the heavy discussions regarding artificial intelligence and labor rights, panelists also took advantage of the WSA platform to share practical artistic best practices and innovative scoring methodologies. Among these, the deliberate curation of bespoke sound banks emerged as a universally favored technique for establishing originality.

For Kristen Stewart’s upcoming directorial project “The Chronology of Water,” composer Paris Hurley made the unconventional artistic decision to skip scoring directly to the picture. Instead, Hurley spent time creating and collecting unique, organic sounds—frequently utilizing her own physical body as an instrument—before rearranging and remixing those raw elements to fit the emotional contours of each section of the film.

“This is a story that’s only told once, with a director who cares deeply about what’s being made, and it would almost be a disservice to just rock up with a collection of familiar sounds,” Hurley explained.

Daniel Pemberton, the acclaimed composer behind the propulsive score for Apple TV+’s espionage thriller “Slow Horses,” shares that exact creative instinct. “Creating your own sonic palette that’s unique to each project makes such a difference to a score,” Pemberton noted. “So I always try to build fresh palettes. It’s like getting a new instrument each time and working out how it works. There’s a naivety to that, but also a freshness, and the material is fresher because hopefully it’s stuff people haven’t heard before.”

In addition to granting a production its own distinct sonic identity, investing the time to build a custom sound bank can dramatically accelerate the workflow—providing a significant competitive advantage when facing a grueling television production schedule as unrelenting as the one demanded by “Slow Horses.”

“The ‘Slow Horses’ sound bank took a long, long time to get working,” Pemberton admitted. “But now I’ve built all these sounds that are very distinctive to the show. It’s like having a synthesizer with presets that no one else has. And you can be very lazy, hold one thing down, and it still sounds cool!”