Digital concerts raise new legal questions

As digital concerts move toward personalized formats, the legal landscape grows increasingly complex. The research project KonsertX has examined the challenges of the legal conditions and challenges for digital live broadcasts. 

“We need new ways to balance interests,” says Aurelija Lukoseviciene postdoctoral researcher in law and technology at Lund University, one of the project’s leading voices.

Modern technology is reshaping how we experience culture. Live concerts and performances, once accessible only to those present in the room, can now be shared with audiences far beyond the venue. Audience participation will take on a more personalized, co-creative form.

For artists, this shift opens new revenue streams, new audiences and fresh channels for creative expression. For companies, it sparks innovation in services and tools that make digital live experiences ever more sophisticated. But this transformation also raises pressing legal questions: how to protect intellectual property and handle data in ways that keep pace with a rapidly changing cultural landscape.

UNPRECEDENTED POSSIBILITIES

The KonsertX project set out to map the biggest legal aspects in the fast-changing world of digital concerts. Its goal: to guide the development of Kalaudioscope, a new technology for personalised interactive streaming, in a way that respects both artists’ rights and audiences’ needs. Kalaudioscope intends to give a kind of sandbox or playground to the streamed concert experience. When the audience become their own conductors it opens up unprecedented possibilities to make own choices when observing the concert – comparable and even surpassing the choices we have when participating in a live concert sitting in the concert hall.

Unlike many research initiatives, KonsertX did not stop at legal theory. Alongside traditional legal analysis, the team introduced an unusual twist — using games as a method to engage stakeholders. Through role-playing and negotiation exercises, musicians, tech developers and rights holders were invited to test scenarios and debate possible futures.

“It wasn’t about experts telling others what the law says,” says researcher Aurelija Lukoseviciene. “It was about creating a space where those most affected could shape the direction of the research and influence the recommendations.”

The project showed that we are moving into uncharted waters where copyright and data protection law alone cannot solve all tensions.

KEY ISSUES IDENTIFIED

The main issues identified through workshops with artists, lawyers, and tech providers include:

• Compensation for authors and performers in streaming environments that differ from traditional platforms.
• Integrity and moral rights, especially when performances are manipulated or personalized through algorithms.
• Licensing complexity, as rights must be secured across territories for highly individualized streams.
• AI training and data use, including who controls and benefits from the datasets.
• User co-creation, which raises questions about copyright and ownership when audiences actively shape performances.
• Datafication, where personal data generated by concerts—listening behavior, preferences, and even co-created content—becomes a valuable but sensitive asset.

“These issues are not just legal puzzles,” Aurelija Lukoseviciene stresses. “They cut into the very trust relationship between artists, audiences, and platforms.”

RESPONSIBLE INNOVATION

The findings point to a need for responsible innovation: developing technology alongside legal and ethical frameworks, rather than retrofitting regulations after problems arise.

Among the project’s recommendations are:

• Developing a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) of Kalaudioscope to begin testing rights management in practice.
• Establishing a multi-stakeholder licensing lab where artists, collecting societies, and tech providers collaborate on solutions.
• Creating mechanisms to measure value contributions from different parties and share revenues accordingly.

A BALANCE ACT

KonsertX emphasizes that digital concert environments must balance intellectual property rights with audience rights, including privacy and fair access.

Each of these legal issues raises important questions, but for now, there are no clear answers on how they might be resolved.

“We are aiming, however, to identify the directions which need to be followed and can already conclude that formal legal compliance in many cases will not be enough,” says Aurelija Lukoseviciene.

Building trust and supporting the responsible development of the Kalaudioscope technology will require compromises and a better balance of interests—something current copyright and data protection laws do not yet provide.

”This means building systems that handle data transparency, clarify how personalization algorithms work, and ensure that audience co-creations are not unfairly appropriated.”, concludes Aurelija Lukoseviciene.

The journey has just begun for the project KonsertX. The final report calls for continued stakeholder engagement, testing of legal solutions in real-world settings, and a willingness to innovate not just technologically, but also legally and ethically.

https://ekipengine.eu/reinventing-the-live-music-experience/