For over two decades, a company responsible for the collection and distribution of music creators’ royalties (AEPI) run by a single family, named Xanthopoulos, gypped dozens of lyricists, composers and singers of their rightful revenues. The family pocketed an estimated 40mn euros in just four years of their management, leaving some of Greece’s most famous artists with a pittance.
Artists’ lawsuits by and large came to nothing, until the case received broad media publicity. The company’s license was revoked and a Greek prosecutor charged top management with running a criminal organisation and fraud. General Manager Demetrios Xanthopoulos was handed down a 12-year jail sentence, reduced to nine, and is now free pending appeal. Over 50 important artists and heirs were prosecution witnesses.
Finally, the defunct AEPI was replaced by an artists’ cooperative with a nine-member board (The Union of Beneficiaries of Musical Works – EDEM), with creators managing the collection and distribution of their own royalties.
After several postponements, the court decision on the AEPI case was issued in April, 2025, acquitting two of the three defendants, while the general manager of AEPI, Demetrios Xanthopoulos, was convicted on three counts and sentenced to nine years in prison (after consolidation, seven years were to be served without suspension). He filed an appeal and was released pending appeal.
In an interview with To Vima International edition, EDEM’s General Manager, Louka Katseli, a former Pasok Minister best known for a law passed during Greece’s economic depression protecting debtors’ first home from seizure by banks and creditors, explains how a veritable cesspool was transformed into a fully transparent, effective organisation that fully protects the rights of composers, lyricists and singers (and their heirs).
Why did legislators in a 1993 law allow such a huge loophole for financial mismanagement without any oversight, and why did successive governments ignore the pleas of artists for their basic rights to be legally upheld?
AEPI, founded in 1930, was a private company that by 2017 managed the copyrights of approximately 15,000 Greek creators and rights holders. For decades, Greek creators had no real alternative but to sign contracts with AEPI in order to collect their royalties. The company operated as a de facto monopoly.
Although Greece’s first copyright law (Law 2121/1993) formally offered strong legal protection to creators, it included no effective mechanisms for supervising collective management bodies.
The absence of oversight gave AEPI unchecked financial and institutional discretion, while the substantial state revenues generated by the company’s high turnover dissuaded successive governments from intervening.
In 2015, following sustained protests by artists, Culture Minister Nikos Xydakis ordered a financial audit of AEPI covering 2011–2014. A new copyright bill, introduced the same year, sought to curtail AEPI’s dubious practices.
Despite AEPI’s attempts to evade scrutiny by relocating its headquarters to Cyprus, the audit’s findings led to the revocation of the company’s license in 2018, followed by its bankruptcy.
Between 2016 and 2018, creators demanded decisive government action to protect their rights. In early June 2018, their pressure resulted in the creation of EYED, a special unit within the Ministry of Culture, tasked with the emergency management of copyrights of AEPI’s former members for an interim period (2018-2020).
Enter EDEM. In 2020, when you became its general director, you and its Administrative Board, consisting of well -known music creators, aimed to mobilise users, beneficiaries, listeners and the competent ministries to protect music rights and to prod radio stations to include the work of contemporary Greek artists. To what extent have you succeeded in that and what were the obstacles along the way? What has the government done in the past three years to help out, and what remains to be done?
After long and difficult negotiations, well-known music creators succeeded in 2018 to convince both the Syriza and the New Democracy Ministers of Culture to opt for the creation of a new Collective Management Organization (CMO), which was constituted in 2019.
I accepted the Board Members’ offer to head the newly established CMO (Collective Management Organisation) in the spring of 2020.
EDEM started its operations in July, 2020. It had to set up its offices, hire staff and develop an IT system under extremely challenging conditions.
These were shaped by the Covid pandemic’s devastating impact on the public performance of music, and a highly competitive market. The first modest distribution of royalties to rightsholders in December 2020 was a source of pride for all of us.
Since 2020, EDEM has grown and has built a reputation as a dynamic organisation which protects rights and operates with full transparency. It has secured agreements with all major music user associations and digital content providers, thus expanding its revenue base and laying the groundwork for more stable and fair royalty distributions to creators.
It is actively engaged in strengthening the national repertoire, with a primary focus on promoting Greek music creation and safeguarding and highlighting the country’s intangible cultural heritage. It actively participated in the 2024 public consultation on strengthening Greek-language use in songs. The adoption of a law that year marked a positive step in that direction, leading businesses to incorporate more Greek-language songs into their repertoires as part of their commercial strategy.
Major challenges lie ahead with AI use changing market conditions. Effective oversight of digital platforms and digital transformation of EDEM’s infrastructure and procedures are top priorities. The government must also take additional steps to support national music creation, especially young creators, with the introduction of appropriate incentives and stronger investment in music education.
To what extent does EDEM interact with music companies – what are its overarching requests, and are the companies usually receptive?
EDEM interacts actively with music companies, primarily on matters of licensing the musical works of the creators it represents and ensuring fair compensation for its members.
In most cases, companies are cooperative. However, their responsiveness depends on the size of the company, and its practices and its strategy vis-à-vis the Greek market.
What guarantees have you established to ensure the full transparency of EDEM?
Operating under the provisions of a 1993 law and a 2017 law, EDEM complies with the international standards and Professional Rules of CISAC (International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers), of which it has been an associate member since 2022.
Royalty distributions (there are 4,200 members) take place twice every year with members receiving personalised notifications for the corresponding amount of royalties accrued to them. The Supervisory Board reviews all financial data and prepares a report submitted to the annual General Assembly, which approves the financial statements for each fiscal year. The annual Transparency Report makes public royalty collections and distributions, deductions and administrative costs.
Last but not least, all members of EDEM and the wider public are informed by newsletters and announcements of all recent developments and news.
