The small room filled quickly and people were standing along the walls. The panel forms an almost ceremonial half circle, the silence spreads and moderator Jakob Sørensen (The Bank) is ready.
The session ‘Let’s Talk Germany’, we are about to witness, is about the German music market. Moderator Jakob Sørensen closes his intro with the words: “We don’t talk about Germany so today we do that.”
The point of this seminar is to talk about the unused potential of the German market. If you set out the time, money and focus to give it a go south of the border it can really pay off. Tom Weber (Radio PR) explains how Germany is a different market. A market which is divided into regions which have an impact on how to approach it. Weber emphasizes that it is a big market but that you can break it down if you understand the network of radio stations.
“Even though radio is old school it’s still very much used in Germany,” tells Weber and follows up with a statistic that shows that 94 pct. of all Germans listen to radio everyday. It means that it can be important to get on a playlist or in rotation so the artist can reach about 3,5 million listeners everyday with one single hit.
It is not an easy task, though. It’s a long journey and Christoph Pancke (Selective Artists) emphasizes: “It takes three to four years to establish a career in Germany.” And with that said, it took Tina Dickow nine years.
Pancke points out that you need to understand that the German market is focused on import. Germany doesn’t use the energy to export German music to other countries – they focus on getting music from other countries into the German market. And this is where the opportunities arise.
Jan-Erik Stig (Warner) says that their interest in Germany started because they saw an opportunity – and grabbed it. This has resulted in more artists playing concerts and getting success in the country and Stig tells us it is all about building a trust between nations. “If we can run the first miles they [edit. Warner Germany] are willing to run the rest of the marathon”.
Moderator Jakob Sørensen playfully closes the session with the words: “If you get success in Germany you can get a comeback”. Here he refers to artists like Dua Lipa and Rag’n’Bone Man who didn’t get a breakthrough in their home country first but came back strong after a breakthrough in Germany.