WSA Film Music Days - Creators’ Talks - Negotiating in The Dark: The Composer’s Contract

Composers are increasingly pressured to sign away their rights in exchange for a one-off payment - a deal that may leave them without significant future royalties and with little control over how their music is exploited. In this Creators’ Talk, Valerie Dobbelaere, Johan van der Voet, and Harriet Moss enter into a debate, moderated by Sarah Glennane, to come to grips with what is at stake for individual composers and the broader ecosystem involving publishers and producers. What can composers do to better protect their rights? This talk is organised in collaboration with the European Composer and Songwriter Alliance (ECSA) and supported by Creative Europe.

Panelists:

Valerie Dobbelaere is the founder of Strike A Score, a screen composers agency that represents Belgian screen composers and promotes EU-based Screen Composers, Film Music Events & Labels. With her agency, she builds bridges between composers and the audiovisual industry, creating opportunities for both established and emerging talent.

Harriet Moss is Commercial Rights Director at Faber Music. Before, she was Managing Director of Manners McDade Music Publishing and Composer Agency. She serves on the MPA Futures Group and the UK board of shesaid.so, and co-founded the mentorship programme she.grows. Moss is also the founder of ComposHER and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Johan van der Voet has been working as a media composer, a manager of various bands, DJs, and a teacher in A/V and copyright and contract law at the InHolland University of Applied Sciences in The Hague. He has been a board member of the Music Institute MultiMedia, is co-founder and former chairman of the Professional Association of Composers MultiMedia and active in the members council of BumaStemra. In 2025, Johan joined the Board of the European Composer and Songwriter Alliance (ECSA) as Vice-Chair of the audiovisual committee.

Aisling Brouwer is a Dutch/Irish film composer, producer and artist. She recently wrote the score for Apple TV’s new drama series The Buccaneers with her award-winning duo AVAWAVES. She also composed the soundtrack for Rubika Shah’s BIFA-nominated, Berlinale & Grierson Award-winning anti-fascist punk hit, White Riot. As a performer, she has collaborated with bands such as Jasdeep Singh Degun and Nitin Sawhney CBE.

Moderator:

Sarah Glennane is CEO of the Screen Composers Guild of Ireland, the representative body for Irish and Irish-based composers of original music for Film/TV/Advertising and Games. Most recently, Sarah worked as an independent music supervisor for Film and TV productions to source and clear licenced music including for 2024 film Small Things Like These. She has developed expertise in music publishing, music rights and contracting for music in visual media, authoring Music for Film in Ireland report for IMRO and MCPSI.

Accredited visitors can attend this event for free, without registration. Other visitors are required to present a ticket.

Language: English