The Final Note – Feb 2026
As the Music360 Horizon Europe project approaches its grand finale at the end of February 2026, it leaves behind a blueprint for a fairer, data-driven music ecosystem. For three years, a consortium of researchers, tech innovators, and Collective Management Organisations (CMOs) has been on a mission to answer one deceptively simple question: What is the true value of music?
As we close this chapter, we aren’t just looking at a set of finished reports. We are looking at a fork in the road for the European music industry. The data collected from our “Living Labs”—from retail shops to oncology wards—has revealed a landscape full of both daunting challenges and transformative opportunities.
The Challenge: A System Out of Tune
The modern music economy has long been criticized for its “winner-takes-all” dynamics. While streaming grabs the headlines, Music360’s research highlights a massive, undervalued sector: Background Music.
- The Valuation Gap: Currently, many venues pay for music based on square footage rather than the music’s actual impact. Whether ten people or a hundred are listening, the artist’s compensation remains the same.
- The Metadata “Black Hole”: Without precise usage data, royalties often fail to reach the local or independent artists whose tracks actually filled the room, instead flowing toward global superstars via “pro-rata” distribution models.
- The Visibility Crisis: In a world where 60,000+ tracks are uploaded daily, independent European creators are struggling to be discovered by their own local communities.
The Opportunity: Data as a Bridge, Not a Barrier
The “futures” envisioned by Music360 are built on transparency and interoperability. Here is what the next decade of the music ecosystem could look like:
1. From “Rent” to “Value-Based” Royalties
Imagine a future where a coffee shop or a boutique pays for music based on the real-world value it creates—measured through customer dwell time, brand sentiment, or even sales uplift. Using fingerprinting technology and the experimentation toolkits developed by Music360, CMOs could move away from “flat fees” toward a system that rewards the artists who actually drive business success.
2. Music as Medicine (The Therapeutic Frontier)
One of Music360’s most groundbreaking facets was its study of music in healthcare, specifically for cancer patients. The future holds an opportunity to integrate music into non-monetary value chains. By proving that music reduces the need for painkillers and improves patient recovery, we open doors for music to be funded as a public health asset, creating entirely new “career paths” for specialized creators.
3. A Decentralized Data Commons
The project has championed a distributed architecture for music data. In the “possible future,” creators will no longer be “data-poor.” Through a unified platform, artists can see exactly where and when their music is played—be it a gym in Berlin or a bar in Valencia—empowering them to make evidence-based decisions about where to tour and how to market their work.
The Road Ahead: Policy and Resilience
The end of Music360 is actually a beginning for European policymakers. The project’s insights provide the “evidence-based” ammunition needed to:
- Harmonize legal terminology across EU borders to support mobile artists.
- Protect cultural diversity by ensuring algorithms and royalty models don’t just favor the “big players.”
- Build Resilience: Data is the best defense against future disruptions. If another crisis like COVID-19 hits, we now have the tools to measure exactly how much the loss of live and background music impacts our economy and soul.
Conclusion: The 360-Degree View
The music of the future isn’t just about “better audio” or “more streams.” It’s about an ecosystem where the value of a song is recognized in every setting—from the shop floor to the hospital bed.
As the Music360 project concludes, its legacy will be the Platform and Experimentation Toolkits it leaves behind— tools for creators to claim their worth, for venues to understand their atmosphere, and for Europe to remain the world’s most vibrant and fair stage for music.
The project may be ending, but the data-driven revolution of the music industry has just found its rhythm.
*** For more information on the final results and the experimental toolkit, contact us here ***
Music360 