01
Transparency
Every author honestly declares the tools used and their own contribution. The process sheet is an integral part of the work: not proof of how much was done by hand, but a conscious account of how the track came to be.
The Festival Charter
Five principles.
A clear stance.
Generative AI applied to music opens up possibilities once unthinkable and raises complex questions: authorship, copyright, the data these systems are trained on, the future of those who make a living from music. This festival is founded on the conviction that such questions should not be avoided, but set out and discussed in public, together with those who greet them with enthusiasm and those who experience them as a threat.
02
Human centrality
The festival rewards human artistic direction, not automated generation for its own sake. One question guides everything: what makes the track yours?
03
Respect for artists
No deceptive imitations of living artists, no recognisable voices used without authorisation, no protected works without consent. The most uncomfortable question remains: what music these systems are trained on, and what they owe to those who wrote it. No author can answer for the tools they use, and often not even those who build them disclose it. The festival commits not to avoid the question, but to bring it on stage.
04
Experimentation
AI is treated as a new language, not a production shortcut. We welcome experiments that look for something not banal: impossible voices, unexpected hybrids, errors that become form.
05
Educating the audience
The festival does not speak only to insiders. Talks, workshops and masterclasses are not an add-on: they are an essential part of the project. A cultural event leaves those who take part with a new way of thinking.
Application
The principles live in three distinct moments.
At the application stage
Through the rules and the process sheet. Filling in the sheet truthfully is a condition for admission to the contest.
At the selection stage
Through the jury’s criteria, which weigh not only the musical quality of the track but also its consistency with the principles of the Charter.
At the event stage
Through the way each track is presented: with its process, the jurors’ reflections, the cultural moments of the evening.
This Charter is not a manifesto against artificial intelligence, nor in its favour. It is an attempt to hold together creative enthusiasm and cultural responsibility, in the belief that the new generative music deserves a public space in which to be heard, discussed and, where appropriate, rewarded.
Festival Charter, Edition Zero