Habib Achour advises governments, collective management organizations (CMOs), copyright offices, cultural institutions, and private or public stakeholders in the creative industries. His work covers copyright and neighboring rights, the creation and structuring of CMOs, cultural policies, regulation, and the development of creative ecosystems, particularly in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.
Drawing on 20 years as a music industry operator, he trains artists, managers, labels, and publishers across the entire music value chain: management, production, live performance, publishing, international development, and rights management strategy.
Thinking about law and cultural policies through the lens of real-world field experience.
Copyright and cultural policies, the music industry, and knowledge transfer: few professionals bring together these three areas of expertise, and even rarer are those who approach them as much through hands-on field experience as through strategic understanding of policy. This combination is what structures the three pillars of his work.
Habib combines a strategic understanding of cultural policies with operational experience in the field: artist management, production planning, live economics, publishing and repertoire flows, international mandates, stakeholder alignment, market education, and the concrete realities of emerging creative economies.
Founder of Kameleon Music and CEO of Le Taxi Prod: management and booking of artists such as Erik Truffaz, Anouar Brahem, Dhafer Youssef, André Manoukian, and Kyle Eastwood; over 1,200 concerts produced worldwide; executive production of around ten albums on EMI Blue Note and Warner. Deputy Director of New Morning (~220 concerts/year). Director of music and urban culture programming for Marseille-Provence 2013, European Capital of Culture (€8M budget).
Director of International Development at SACEM for 8 years: regulation, copyright, collective management, and cultural policies in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Supervision of the SACEM branch in Lebanon, CCI market studies in Saudi Arabia, creation of the first music CMO in the UAE, back-office support for the Egyptian CMO, management of multicultural teams.
From legal frameworks to implementation, for governments, collective management organizations, and cultural institutions, well beyond music alone.
Legal frameworks, protection, and remuneration of rights holders across all repertoires: music, audiovisual, literary, and visual arts.
Supporting governments in drafting and revising copyright laws, implementing decrees, and statutes for collective management organizations.
Design and launch of collective management organizations: governance, membership, licensing models, documentation and IT, rights distribution, and implementation roadmap. Field experience in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Southeast Asia.
Day-to-day operations: repertoire flows, documentation, distribution, and fair remuneration of rights holders.
Negotiation of agreements with streaming platforms and reciprocal representation agreements between collective management organizations on an international scale.
Design and implementation of policies to support CCIs, value chain structuring, and capacity building for public and private stakeholders.
Supporting emerging markets: from data — market studies — to investment and impact assessments.
Advising governments and agencies, advocacy, and dialogue with institutions: WIPO, CISAC, IFPI, Expertise France.
Twenty years of experience across all music industry functions, serving artists, managers, touring agents, labels, and publishers, with practical mastery of rights and contracts that secures every decision in the value chain.
Positioning, career architecture, release priorities, role alignment, and decision-making frameworks for artists and their teams.
From creative residencies to release schedules: budgets, deliverables, split sheets, metadata discipline, and coordination between creative work, label, and publishing.
Concert economics, routing, technical costs, sponsorship, ticketing, and tour budget simulations through dedicated configurable templates.
Market entry strategy, showcases, international mandates, regional partnerships, and export readiness.
Publishing strategy, splits, membership and CMO relations, documentation, rights protection, and optimization of artist remuneration.
Understanding how generative AI and DSPs work and measuring their impact on artist revenues and rights.
Field expertise combined with top-tier academic training, transformed into transferable skills: university teaching, masterclasses, long-term mentorship, and large-scale professional training, particularly in Africa, the Gulf, and the MENA region.
Courses and modules on copyright, CMOs, publishing, streaming revenues, and music economics. Notably at Berklee Abu Dhabi ("Protect Your Rights" course), Paris-Dauphine (Tunis campus), and the American University of Beirut.
Intensive sessions for artists, producers, and professionals: public performance rights and mechanical rights, neighboring rights, streaming revenues, the role of publishers and CMOs.
Taking under one's wing, over the long term, artists and music business operators: close guidance, almost a mentorship, to help structure their choices and trajectory.
Designing and delivering large-scale training programs. During his leadership at Sacem, numerous training programs were created for the 9,000 members based in Africa and the Middle East, one of the largest programs of its kind on the continent.
Bootcamps for artists and managers, modules for universities, incubators, and institutions, built around real decisions and adapted to national or regional realities.
Habib Achour holds a Master II in Management of Cultural Organizations from Université Paris-Dauphine - PSL.
A career built by working through every link in the chain, from artist management and concert and album production to copyright and cultural diplomacy.
Study on the music industry and legal framework in Ivory Coast, funded by the IFC (World Bank), the Institut français of Ivory Coast, Universal, UNDP, and Global Citizen.
Missions to establish collective management organizations, mandated by the French Treasury (INPI), via the French Embassy in Singapore.
CMO creation project in Saudi Arabia (tender won in 2021), co-creation of the CMO in the UAE with IFPI, representation of Sacem at WIPO and on the CISAC Africa Committee, negotiation of agreements with platforms and between CMOs, government advocacy, supervision of the Lebanon branch. Projects conducted with Expertise France and the French diplomatic network: Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Lebanon, Palestine, etc.
Leading the founding consortium of the Emirates Music Rights Association, the first music CMO in the Gulf.
Artist management and booking: Erik Truffaz, Anouar Brahem, Dhafer Youssef, Kyle Eastwood, Youn Sun Nah, André Manoukian, Orchestre National de Jazz. Over 1,200 concerts produced worldwide. Executive production of around ten albums on EMI Blue Note and Warner.
Programming of approximately 220 concerts per year at one of Europe's most iconic venues.
Musical programming for the European Capital of Culture (€8M budget) and cultural policy consulting for local authorities.
Artistic direction and programming of the European Union delegation's festival in Morocco, coordinating 27 European cultural institutes.
Promotion of classical, jazz, and world music repertoires: EMI Classics, EMI Jazz, EMI Arabia, and Blue Note Records.
Flexible engagements that can be scaled as diagnostics, training programs, artist development roadmaps, tour budget simulations, recurring advisory, and workshops.
Rapid assessment of a collective management initiative or existing organization: governance, licensing models, operations, and stakeholder alignment.
A comprehensive strategic program for governments, cultural agencies, copyright offices, and rights organizations building stronger infrastructure for creator protection and remuneration.
Practical modules for artists, managers, labels, publishers, students, and institutions: copyright and neighboring rights fundamentals, CMOs, publishing, streaming revenues, and international development.
Ongoing advisory at the leadership or board level for organizations navigating rights negotiations, CMO launches, regional expansion, or AI strategies.