Music, Society, and Politics

Where does music fit in European social life – and what policies could best support it? These were some of the questions explored by the European Commission-funded project OpenMusE (Open Music Europe), which brought together music researchers and sector stakeholders from 11 EU countries and Ukraine. This factsheet is based on our population-representative survey of 4,985 respondents in France, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Spain.

Music in everyday life

Music is woven into ordinary social life across Europe: 71% of respondents across France, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Spain say music is important to their overall quality of life, with 55% reporting that it is an important part of their family life and 45% saying the same of life in their local community (Spain and Italy rank the highest on both measures). Around half of respondents often share new music with people they know, and 33% report having met close friends through music — rising to 41% among amateur musicians and 55% among professional and semi-professional musicians.

Music and sense of belonging

Music also shapes identity and belonging. Most respondents feel connected to their own country through music, though this varies considerably across the countries surveyed.

Feeling connected to Europe through music follows a similar pattern: highest in Poland (50%) and Spain (43%), lowest in Germany (28%) – the OpenMusE team plans to publish on why this might be the case. Over half of respondents believe in music’s capacity to connect people from different cultural backgrounds, rising to 62% in Spain and 60% in Poland. Music is also a powerful conduit for values: 56% of respondents say that the music they listen to says a lot about their ideas, values, and beliefs.

A right to musical expression

Cross-nationally, music is seen as both a personal right and a public responsibility. The chart below shows agreement with a set of rights- and policy-oriented statements, echoing Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Opposition to government censorship of music is similarly strong: 77% in Poland, 74% in Spain, and 66–69% in France, Italy, and Germany.

Cultural policy: A cross-partisan bridge in polarised times?

Support for redistributive cultural policy is strikingly cross-partisan. For instance, 58% of respondents support social protection (health insurance, unemployment cover) for self-employed artists — backed by 67% on the political left and still a majority in the centre and on the right (55% and 54%, respectively). A minimum income guarantee for artists draws 51% support overall (61% on the left, 48% centre, 48% right).

Platform regulation also finds broad backing: 50% support requiring streaming services to invest in local artists (52% on the left, 47% centre, 51% right), and 51% support requiring large ticketing platforms to support local live music scenes (56% on the left, 49% centre, 51% right). Outright opposition to all such measures is very rare: it never exceeds 15% for such redistributive and regulatory measures in any political camp.

As the full dataset shows, some cultural policy aims are more hotly contested: for instance, support for tying public funding to “diversity, equity, and inclusion” criteria or environmental sustainability shows sharper left–right gradient. However, broad-based support for artists’ social and economic rights shows that despite increasing polarisation in most domains of life, most Europeans still think creative culture is a public good that deserves robust political protection — including from platform monopolies.