Seminars: Denmark on the European map of music
Eurosonic zoomed in on Denmark and Danish music this year, and seen from our end the event was a great success even if we were also affected by the severe storm, which posed problems in most of Holland. Among other things it prevented Lydmor from taking part in our streaming debate. However, even though her views would have been interesting, the rest of the panel consisting of Anders Wahrén from Roskilde Festival, Jakob Sørensen from The Bank, and Stefan Cristopher Petersen from Phlake Mansion still gave the international industry and media people good insights into how the Danish players work with both artists and festivals in a streaming market.
Afterwards we hosted our “Meet the Danes” speed meetings with an expanded roster of Danish music business people, who met a number of international agents and professionals involved ind festivals. The Eurosonic organizers have also expressed their satisfaction with the collaboration and our seminars, so hopefully it is not the last time we get to promote Danish music at ESNS. And, of course, we hope to meet a lot of the internationals again, at the SPOT 2018 and SPOT+ in May.
Read what a number of international music business people had to say when they attended the Danish seminar programme and speedmeetings.
Hannes Tschürtz, manager, Ink Music (AT)
Yes, there is still an interest in Danish music in Austria. We still have JaJaJa concerts going very strong – coming from the SPOT On Denmark nights we started doing in 2010. In fact, the whole image of Nordic/Scandinavian music in general is still around but it’s getting more and more competitive. There’s not room for an infinite number of Scandinavian bands, but there are certain advantages if they are from Denmark, because we have had so many good and successful bands down there, that proved to be right for that audience. The Lucas Grahams of the world will not be known for being from a certain territory, but it’s different for Phlake, MØ og Velvet Volume.
Cecile Communal, agent, ATC Live (UK)
I work with one Danish band, Lowly – they are signed to Bella Union. I have been given tips from everyone here to know which Danish bands I should take on tonight and tomorrow. I’m here for both reasons. I’ve been meeting with Thomas from Roskilde Festival pitching him some of my bands to play the festival and taking tips about bands that I should take out, really. Ellis May – I’m quite excited about this. And Myrkur: The description sounded quite fun: medieval metal but with folk songs. Yes, Danish acts do have a chance in England. I mean Lowly are a really successful band… We have got really great press, we have got them on BBC6 Music. We have done some great festivals with them. We did Latitude Festival, End of the Road, Electric Picnic, so really great festivals, and we finished the tour with a sold-out show in London in November. So it has been a really successful campaign. There’s a lot of love for the band, and there’s definitely a lot of love for Danish Music at the moment.
Jeff Burns, Youbloom conferende/festival & Sad Opera Entertainment, (EI)
The reason I’m here is to meet the bookers of The Northside and to see if there was a collaboration of us having artists that play on our festival of emerging artists in Dublin in June, to maybe send over some names that may be able to play the festival in Aarhus. Yes, I know of the Danish scene – the big names mostly, but here I’ve met with We Like We, and I’m going to see them tonight, and I think that there will be a lot more due to the fact that I’m here at Eurosonic and the host country is Denmark. Is there a room for Danish music in Ireland? Yes, absolutely. There’s lots of music out there, and the Irish people can consume a huge amount of music. And they probably can consume a lot of Danish acts that aren’t well known.
Michel Bloem, Boomerang Booking (NL)
I run a booking agency from Amsterdam for Australian artists mostly. We work in the GAS territory, the Benelux, the UK – and then capitals like Paris and Barcelona. But for some reason Scandinavia is quite a hard nut to crack for us. We can book one-off shows, but a tour or festivals is for some reason difficult, so I’m here to get some inside in the Danish or Scandinavian scene and see, how I can make them see the potential that I see – so we can make a tour instead of only the odd job. That’s the goal. And if there’s some good talent that would like to come in our direction, that would be cool as well. I’m basically looking to exchange good music with like-minded people.
Olaf Furniss, director, Born to be wide (SCO)
I’m really interested in the new business-models with streaming. We often get the impression that streaming across the whole of Scandinavia is absolutely massive. You get the impression that streaming is generating the funds to reinvest in developing and signing artists. One of the reasons why I’m here is to see to what extent this is true – about the revenue from streaming. I think that the jury is still out. It might be the case with some singles stuff, but that is not really necessarily developing artists’ careers. It’s for people who can write hits or perform hits – it’s not necessarily for people who want to have long-term careers, so from what I can gather, it’s helpful because it’s used in the overall mix, but it’s still not like what it is if you sell a hundred thousand albums. So I got some answers, and I also find it very interesting to hear how they operate – I’m always interested in different approaches, and new models.
