Forfatter: Cecilie Feldvoss

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.

In the Danish music industry there is 43 % women and 47 % non-binary who have experienced discrimination. In itself the numbers are disturbingly high and compared to the 9 % of men who have experienced dicrimination, it doesn’t get better. No matter if the statistics are categorized by ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation – it is always the minorities who are overly represented.

The music industry has to seek out information from scientists and organizations like Another Life. Representation is not some god given right – it is something we need to work at together. And it is something that the panel at the seminar ‘How do we change the representation’ points out multiple times: you have to change a lot to make sure that you have a balanced representation of employees. 

The room was filled and most of the audience were young people. In a matter of only 45 minutes the panel ranged wide and far and noted that as a community diversity and representation is a complex affair. But that shouldn’t stop us from talking about how we improve the industry. 

The organization Another Life are the ones behind the seminar. The two founders, Sofie Westh and Rosa Lois, launched the project in March 2021. At the seminar Sofie Westh told about Another Life’s rapport: “There are structures which don’t accommodate minorities in the music business. We’re talking about an existing toxic culture.” The entire room nodded recognizing and the debate turned to what concretely can be done in a fluffy and fleeing industry. 

Tess S. Skadegård Thorsen is a scientist and has among other things looked into discrimination in the film industry. She explained that in Denmark there is a tendency to understanding discrimination in a way where is it up to the individuals to lift the challenges in the industry. We think that we have to be more empathetic but it is more about understanding the power positions that decide and act. You have to investigate who decides what and which positions in the industry they have. 

All panelists agreed that change needs to happen from the top. The genre organization SNYK and the business Live Nation make actions and educational processes towards information about discrimination and how to avoid it. But if change is to be made it is important that the leaders in the industry also participate. 

In the music industry most employees work their way up which also means that when you one day reach the top, you don’t have an actual leader education. So you can consider whether it would be smart to set up some sort of mentorship program or continuing education – just to point out a few suggestions from the debate. 

And as a closing thought it was funny that when you think about how male dominated the music industry is, you wonder where all these men are when a theme like this is a topic at the only music conference in Denmark.

Photo: Malthe Roland

Spotify’s 10 year anniversary in Denmark was celebrated at this years SPOT Festival with a seminar where the business gathers to discuss the streaming service’s effect on the industry, the listeners and the music

The seminar on Friday was yet another crowded room where the music business gathered around to discuss Spotify on the occasion of their 10th Danish anniversary. The focus was on the money and how Spotify has changed the music industry.

There has been a change in the music industry and moderator Jesper Bay presented some hard numbers which showed that today’s digital turnover constitutes 92,7% of the Danish music market (IFPI, 2020). Spotify has had a massive influence on the users music consumption and the music companies turnover. Their income is halved in relation to what they traded for 20 years ago. The decline has forced the business to rethink distribution, how music is created and how it can be sold. 

“Spotify has changed everything about what music is – or they are changing it now. Today there’s a new way of creating music,” said Anders Reuter, Ph.D in Music Science and explained further how digital platforms do so the music is never really finished. You can always correct, re-upload and so on. 

This also means that you can test the market in a different way than before. An album doesn’t have to be complete and to be sold physically. Today we see Kanye West releasing an album from one day to another while he continues to edit the music. There can always be an extra artist added to give the song new life – like Beyoncé does on Megan Thee Stallions  ‘Savage’ and Ariana Grande on The Weeknd’s ‘Save Your Tears’.

Spotify and the streaming services have had an immense impact on the industry and Reuter further elaborates that “there has been a change in the way we listen to music. We don’t listen to specific genres anymore, we listen after the connection.”

The change has happened along with the music being more accessible. We listen to music all the time. While we walk, ride our bikes, are at a restaurant and so on. That is why we chose a playlist which matches our activities and mood. And by that Spotify also has the power to choose which songs get on which playlists – and thereby who get the opportunity for success. 

Photo: Allan Niss

The speed meeting koncept was a part of SPOT+ for the 7th time and the participants waited with excitement outside the double doors. The Music Supervisors were already in the room, ready to get some new contacts and find talents. 

Small, tall cocktail tables filled the room, everybody standing, ready on their feet. Each 15 minutes a bell would ring and half of the people in the room would move on to the next table and the next opportunity. 

The dynamic was of course different from table to table since each round was a new setup of people with new things to bring to the table – a real speed date situation. But the common thing in all the meetings was great respect for each other.

Terese Gustafsson, Creative Manager (Pusher), works closely with Music Supervisors. Marcus Faal (One Seven) played 30 seconds of a number and Terese Gustafsson commented with “cool bass”. In the matter of a few minutes they knew what each other stands for and what they can offer. Their meeting ended with an exchange of emails and a deal to meet in Copenhagen the following weekend. 

It’s a bit like a speed date. They take turns presenting themselves, what they do and what they seek in a potential business partner. Most meetings end with an exchange of emails which is probably the reason why this session is so popular year after year.

Lynn Fainchtein, Music Supervisor (casete.com), had one of her meetings with Jeppe  Kaltoft (StereoRoyal). She doesn’t like to listen to the music in the busy room where the buzzing sound of talk fills every part of the soundscape. 

“When I listen I like to sort the music into files, use them later and have it in the back of my head,” said Lynn Fainchtein. She elaborated that it doesn’t make sense for her to listen to music in the moment because she will forget it in the sea of other songs. The primary reason though is because she wants to use the music she listens to, and adds: “If I like it, I download it immediately,” Lynn said with a smile while you’re not doubting whether she means it. 

They end up agreeing that Kaltoft should send her two albums which she will listen to. After this Kaltoft said that it’s not always you end up with something concret after a 10 minute meeting. “But it maybe indicates that it could be a great match,” said Kaltoft. 

Photo: Malthe Roland