The year 2013 will be especially rich in anniversaries of famous composers. Thanks to EBU Radio Members’ contributions, a compilation of 35 recordings of operas by Giuseppe Verdi and another of 17 operas by Richard Wagner, both born in 1813, have been released. The Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski will be honoured by two live concerts as well as archive programming from Polish Radio on 25 and 27 January 2013

At this first meeting of the year, held at the kind invitation of the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation, the Euroradio Music Group unanimously approved a new policy on supplementary hire fees (money paid to publishers for broadcasts of music performed from a rented score). EBU Members may now choose to make an annual lump sum payment per publisher, rather than per work. This will give them complete use (broadcast and streaming) of all music (current recordings and archives) performed from publishers’ scores. The Group welcomed Mr Cristiano Ostinelli, General Manager of Casa Ricordi, who confirmed his agreement with this policy.

The Group also received good news about the pink offer music exchanges. EBU Radio Members offered 3,696 concerts in 2012, of which 2,732 for Classical music, 440 for rock/pop, 373 for jazz, 82 for folk, and 69 for world music. On average, each concert was broadcast by seven Radio Members and heard by some 1.7 million listeners.