About
Danish Artist Association
Empowering artists and musicians' rights and labour
Dansk Artist Forbund is a trade union and professional community for music and physical performing arts. As a union, we represent artists working in the music, performing arts and entertainment industry.
Members range from poster-carrying music artists, to producers and musical sidemen, to self-producing dancers and actors, to hospital clowns and specialised disciplines in circus, magic and drag performance.
Dansk Artist Forbund is available to all members with specialised advice. We defend the rights and working conditions of artists and musicians, both collectively and individually, against employers, contract partners, legislators and other authorities.
All members of the association's board are performing and creative artists themselves - musicians, performers or producers - and know from their own working lives what it takes to run their own artistic and commercial endeavours.
Music and performing arts growing in importance and economy
The Danish Artist Association works hard to secure artistic rights and the ever-increasing value that musical and physical artists create, both economically and socially.
The union is politically active in a wide range of organisations in Denmark, and in the European organisation IAO, as well as the international artist association FIA.
Equal access, mental health and well-being, gender balance goals and safe work environment
- Together with several music organisations, we have set 11 gender balance goals to ensure greater gender equality by 2030. See the goals here: 2030_Gender balance target
- The union is one of the initiators of the Music Industry Partnership for Sustainable Development, which works towards a more sustainable music industry.
The Danish Artist Association has endorsed the partnership's code of equal access: MusicLife Code of Conduct for Equal Accessand work with the recommendations to increase mental health and well-being in music: Music_life_Summary of the interim report_recommendations - The Danish Artist Association is part of the Safe Space Network, which aims to create a respectful and professional working environment in the music industry.
The network offers a helpline for anyone in the music and culture industry who has experienced inappropriate behaviour, sexual harassment or harassment. Read more about the helpline here.
The Safe Space Network has also created a guide to good behaviour in the music industry. View it here: Safe Space_Handbook
The voice of artists for over 100 years
Dansk Artist Forbund was formed in 1918 to secure finances and rights for the individual artist on stage.
Entitlement funds
Dansk Artist Forbund administers copyright royalties. We distribute the royalties both via applications for cultural and educational purposes and as individual payments to music performers and circus artists.
Read about the organisation's management of rights funds here.
Key tasks
- Securing the rights of performers
- Ensure proper payment for artistic work
- Creating more recognition of the artistic disciplines and their broad significance
- To work for quality education for the artistic labour market
- Working for equal access to education, work, career and pay