Putting The Fun in Funding

Shain Shapiro's muses and analysis on the world of music export and popular music funding

[shainshapiro]

MusicTank Finance Day + Generator = UK Going Mad

One thing I would never say is that, by coincidence or not, two full focuses on popular music funding are happening within a day of each other in the UK.  The first is MusicTank's 'Show me the Money' day at the Portico Rooms in London, on Tuesday October 22nd.  It's a very hands-on seminar structure, featuring people across all forms of funding, from Pledge Music to VCs, PRS for Music and others.  This is, as far as I know, the most wide-reaching set of delegates that have participated in a programme focused exclusively on finance.  I wonder what's in the water.

The second is in Newcastle and hosted by Generator, featuring the legendary Keith Harris, myself, Laura Whitticase from PRS for Music Foundation and others.  Again, this is a 'demystify funding' sort of structure, run by arguably the best UK organization at demystifying this landscape.  It'll be my first trip to Newcastle minus one night when I was 22.  Exciting.  

This morning, I had a meeting at the BPI with some very friendly people there.  Recently, the BPI announced its £3m export fund, one that clearly has been influenced by Canada and Australia.  Its first application deadline is on November 18th, around the time our Momentum fund moves into its third round of funding.  

So what prompted this sea change of activity?  Well, it has been coming for a long time.  Slowly but surely, new forms of investment (such as the state, other subsidization) has been seen in a more objective light in the UK, outside of the standard 'good vs bad' value proposition.  There's been state intervention in the UK (concerning popular music) for 40 years now, so I believe it was only a matter of time.

I feel this may have been the feeling that occurred in Canada in the mid 1980s, where excitement and trepidation were met by the creation of new funding programs.  Or in the early 1990s in Australia.  Suffice to say, I am watching as a relative outsider, and it's very exciting.

[shainshapiro]

MusicTank, Remi Harris and Funding...

About six months ago, Remi Harris and I went for a coffee in our old offices.  We went up to the roof and chatted about a topic most people rarely find interesting - funding.  Turns out, Remi was contracted by MusicTank, the music policy organisation coordinated by the University of Westminster to write a guide to funding in the UK.  And by funding, this included VC, bank loans, public support and trusts, among other things.  

I had been working with a number of talented people on the Momentum Music Fund and we had a great conversation about the breadth of available support in the UK, and the sheer difficulty most people faced navigating the spectrum.  Even in the current financial times, under this current government, there is lots available;  And this was before Momentum and the announcement, by the UKTI, of a new fund worth £5m to support independents, administered by the BPI.  

I read one of Remi's chapters before the book was submitted.  Now it's out, and I encourage everyone to go out and grab a copy; possibly at the a symposium that is being held on October 22nd by MusicTank to promote the book their new mission.  

Here's the book -> http://www.musictank.co.uk/resources/reports/funding-guide-2013 

And here's the day -> 

http://www.musictank.co.uk/events/finance-convention-2013

At the same time, well on Oct 23 rather than 22, Generator, in Newcastle, will be organising their own funding symposium.  I'll be attending both the MusicTank and the Generator ones, participating on panels.  To be honest, I should be working on the submission of my own PhD, but this amount of debate concerning music finance - be it public or private - is a terrific sea change in the UK.  Let's hope for more of it. 

[shainshapiro]

MIDEM!

It looks like I'm speaking at the MIDEM Academy concerning the research of my PhD! 

More soon... 

[shainshapiro]

Summer Holiday and Music Funding News

Hi all.

I am back from my summer holidays.  I know I haven't updated this blog in a little while.  Instead I went to Sicily.  It was terrific.  In addition, I'm been chugging away at my PhD, aiming to submit it this side of Christmas. Unfortunately, the amount of hours in the day makes updating this difficult. But, there's news!

FIRST IN THE UK:

The UKTI, in association with UK Music and the BPI has announced a £3m injection of funds to support the export of "small and medium sized music companies".  Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, stated:

"“The British music industry is a real success story,” said Vince Cable. “We are world leaders in creative talent and our music has been exported all over the world. It’s not just about enjoying the music. This worldwide success means jobs and economic growth back in the UK, so the Government must do all we can to back our winning sectors and ensure their future success. Today’s money will do just that by helping hundreds of small and medium sized businesses to export more.”

This is great news, whichever way one spins it.  While it is questionable that the BPI, the trade association for majors (none of them British owned) is administering this with the BPI for indies, its efficacy will be revealed. This will help a lot of British acts, so theoretically I support it. 

Furthermore, the first bands that succeeded in our Momentum Music Fund have been announced.  They are: Brolin, Dutch Uncles, Esco Williams, Floating Points, Hacktivist, Hannah Peel, Kindness, Teleman, Thumpers and The Wytches.  There's a Deezer playlist of the acts, as Deezer has partnered with the fund to add more cash into it. 

AUSTRIA NEWS:

I haven't written much about Austria in the past, but there's some interesting things occurring there in the world of popular music funding.   25 acts have been selected to be funded over the coming few years in a project titled "The New Austrian Sound of Music."  This is a novel approach, where five acts from a set amount of stock genres are picked and guaranteed funding for two years.  Here's some info:

Austrian Funding News

There's also a focus on 'increased funding for international performances'.   Food for thought indeed.

SAD CANADA NEWS:

I would like to express my deep condolences re: the death of music industry and popular music funding legend Brian Chater.  I met Brian many times but didn't realize how important he was.  He was part of every decision in the history of Canada's music funding system and without him, the industry as we know it wouldn't exist.  He will be missed. 

Here's a Lovely Article:

Ta!

[shainshapiro]

Summer Holiday...

Hi all.  I promise to post more this week.  It has not been a holiday for me. I'm working on an edit of my PhD.  But in an effort to stay current, here's an interesting interview from 1975, concerning the value of Canadian content on radio.  I can't embed the video, but it's really worth a listen: 

http://www.cbc.ca/player/Digital+Archives/CBC+Programs/Radio/As+It+Happens/ID/1739000627/?page=14&sort=MostRecen

[shainshapiro]

Summer Holidays

I have just returned from trips to Israel, the Faroe Islands and Devon. While Israel was for work, it has been nice to be away.  In Israel, I delivered a presentation as a 'call to arms' for a better and stronger music export.  The link is here:

  Have a look at it.  I will be writing more about it this week. 

[shainshapiro]

Funding and Faroe Islands

It has been a little while since I have posted here.  It is difficult to maintain the 'one a week' rule I gave myself in the summer, as with colleagues away the workload has increased considerably.  Saying that, lots of things to discuss.  I went to the Faroe Islands for the wonderful G Festival last week.  This takes place in a village of 400 people, in one of the most picturesque countries in the world.  The G Festival has an interesting history.  In 2007 I went and a substantive effort was made to internationalize the event.  As a result, the event was over budget and went bankrupt.  Since it has been slowly resurrected, through bad weather, rain and floods and emerged this year for the first time in the black.  One of the reasons that financial difficulties were encountered was that funding for the festival was reduced, after its initial success spawned a number of new events in the country (of only 49,000 people) that competed for the minimal state resources.  However, the G Festival is much more than a music festival to the nation - it is an opportunity to introduce, promote and brand the nation, through culture and music.  

I know I sound very 'Arts Council' writing this, but it brings up an interesting point in festival funding.  How important is a festival in a country's soft-power branding?  I know when we think of British summertime, we think of Glastonbury, right?  But few people know of the massive Festival D'Ete, one of Canada's largest held over ten days in Quebec City.  For G, it has come full circle, it seems.  The state and the national airline (a source of funding for many festivals) are once again supporting the festival but allaying some of its costs, and instead of a number of copycat festivals propping up, more internationalization of the brand is occurring, through the new Music.fo and the work being done by terrific German consultancy, Factory 92.  We even received a tour of the capital, Torshavn, from the CEO of the national airline, Atlantic.  

I don't know how much the festival received this year (I can ask, but people are on holiday), but when one assesses the economic impact of the festival on a local economy, one must also look at the macro impact on national branding a festival can bring, and its impact on how the state adjudicates and distributes cultural and other associative funding.  

Regardless, I recommend everyone attend at some point.  Here's a video: 

How to fly to G-festival - Faroe Islands from Andreas B. Heide on Vimeo.

[shainshapiro]

G! Festival in the wonderful Faroe Islands. (at G!festival)

[shainshapiro]

Tel Aviv! (at Park Plaza Orchid Tel-Aviv)

[shainshapiro]

A Kosher Update

Hello Hello.

Welcome to summer.  At least in London.  The sun is out and shining.  Great day to be in the office.  Cheers to all who joined us at the largest event my company programs, Canada Day in London, on July 1.  We had over 100,000 people attend throughout the day.  Thanks for that. 

Next week I'm heading to Israel to speak at the Tel Aviv Music Conference, an event put on by Oleh Records / Israel Music Export and Globes, an Israeli newspaper and media company.  I'll be giving a keynote about the value of music export, in order to work with the Israeli industry to develop more tools to facilitate content export and marketing.   This is an exciting project.  The same questions that are banded around the table in the UK, Canada, Scandinavia and other countries are being grappled with in Israel.  How do we facilitate music export?  What is the best way to intervene?  Israel, as we have seen with Eastern European countries in the past, heavily support classical music and do not fund, for the most part, popular music.  This traditional approach is being questioned at this festival, as Israel Music Export has produced showcases in London, at Reeperbahn and other places, showcasing music that sounds as much 'London' as it does 'Tel Aviv'.  It is a challenging debate when you juxtapose classical music with popular music in the funding debate.  To me, one has nothing to do with another.  Instead, the argument should centre on cultural and economic goals, and what those are in terms of policy development.  In many countries we have seen classical and other forms of music funded at the expense of popular music, as this is the traditional notions of music intervention.  However, one should not compete with another; Canada has separate systems, as do Finland, Norway and now, Austria.  At the conference, I will be giving a 20 minute keynote - I've been told that statistics are key (always) and anecdotes about support structures' success can change minds.  Who knows what will come of this; I already feel positive, as the fact the debate is happening there (and not only there as we know) is encouraging.  

I will blog from there.  Afterwards, holiday.  Better pack the sun cream.  To celebrate, here's a video from one of my favourite Israeli acts, Acollective. 

[shainshapiro]

Busy Week and Canadian News

Hi all.

Sorry for the week long silence.  This is one of the busiest weeks of the year for my company.  I am off to Norwich today to deliver a Hootup for HootSuite.  Tomorrow, we're presenting a showcase of Israeli music in London, titled Tune in Tel Aviv.  I am off to Canada on Wednesday for 24 hours, followed by New York on Thursday for an inaugural Canada Day New York, on Saturday.  Back to London on Sunday for Canada Day London, which happens on Monday.  Sleep on Tuesday.  

I am going to dedicate this post to some news in Canada, alongside a few previews of the guest blogs I am lining up, including Remi Harris, Alan Davey and Jamie Gilmour from the Scottish Music Centre.  I am hoping by September to have that section introducing one blog every few weeks.  I still owe the terrific Live Music Exchange a blog - great I have 10 hours on a plane to think about it. 

OK, Canada.  Well, not Canada as a whole actually, but Ontario.  Canada's most populous province, in quite a big move, announced a $45m, 3 year music funding program for the region's music companies.  I mentioned it in a blog previously, but I did not discuss it much.  Well, this is an interesting development, for a number of reasons in Canada.  Firstly, the fund was announced with minimal consultation from the entire industry.  While presented formally in good faith, it caught the music industry lobby by relative surprise.  The amount of money and time period allocated to deliver the funds, $45m in three years, is significant.  The Canada Music Fund, as a whole, distributes around $23m per year after administration costs, and this is the 'mother' fund in Canada.  FACTOR has a budget of around $16m per year, half of it coming from the Canada Music Fund.  $15m per year, for a region in Canada that isn't Quebec (as their subsidy system is, in some ways, equally significant), is new.  

The first point to note about this fund is that major labels do qualify as beneficiaries of it.  The fund is meant, as far as the official wording released thus far, to cover the entire music industry.  However, it was the major label body and its executive that lobbied fiercely on behalf of the fund.  Now, what will it be used for?  Incentivizing major recording artists to record in Canada?  Provide stipends for venues?  Export programs?  All of this is under consultation now, and many of these questions remain unanswered. 

This recalls many of the long standing questions that are rarely answered when initiatives like this are announced.  First off, why fund popular music?  And if one chooses to do so, where is the investment best spent? In many other sectors, such as mining, oil & gas, biotech and others, the Canadian government heavily subsidises multinationals, to promote economic development and jobs in Canada.  In music and media, the trend is the opposite.  The Canadian public own all airwaves and licenses are only granted to Canadian companies.  Only Canadian owned companies can access support, directly at least, from the Canada Music Fund.  Much of these policies are framed on a sort of cultural protectionism where Canadian content needs to be 'protected'.  Saying that, providing substantial support to major labels to develop Canadian artists in Canada can be seen to develop this as well.  But where are these lines drawn, and for whom do they benefit?  

Some argue this measure was a means to get more votes from left leaning Canadians.  Some believe it's inflate the sector for three years, leading to a bust in year four.  Others have voiced far more sinister justifications, ones I won't mention here.  There is an innocence to all this too, hidden beneath the rhetoric, which states its the artists who benefit the most.  The consultation is going on now, after the announcement was made.  Suffice to say, this $45m has to be pushed out in three years.  $45m is a lot of money.  Expect a lot of activities to emerge from Ontario until 2016. 

So, guest blogs.  Remi Harris is authoring a book on funding for MusicTank, which I am excited to read.  She promised a few hundred words on her experiences researching.  I'm also awaiting blogs from Alan Davey on his experienced developing the Momentum fund and regional focuses on Scotland, Sweden and China.  One day at a time.  Have a good week. 

[shainshapiro]

Examples and Analysis for a Friday

This week, I exchanged emails with a friend in Adelaide, Australia, concerning a new set of state intervention policies put in place to encourage artist and business development.  You see, as far as I know (as I have never been and won't profess to know fully when I don't), Adelaide is miles from anywhere, so it experiences the same brain drain and export challenges as any city not in a close proximity to larger markets.  Canada is a terrific case study as we have many cities in the middle of nowhere, so representatives from the Arts Council (and now a great colleague) began researching ideas for intervening to assist talent development.  A few example they looked at are the regional music industry initiatives in Nova Scotia and Manitoba.  Both provinces in Canada are fairly isolated, with their major cities, Halifax and Winnipeg respectively, an eight-hour drive from the next large market.  Both are substantially supported by local government and have robust music industry associations, who actively campaign and provide export support (and money) to their constituents.  In South Australia, this was research and eventually trialled.  One strata that the state (and the Arts Council) have initiated is a 'Thinker in Residence' program, led by Martin Elbourne, who programs a few stages at the Glastonbury Festival.  I'm sure some of my ten readers know Martin.  He's an inspiring guy (who I'm lucky to work with on some projects), so he's spent a few months down there listening, learning and researching in order to prep a report on how to proceed with intervention strategies.  This idea was be controversial, and it has yet to be proven to work, but it is an interesting example of taking a very dyed-in-the-wool arts intervention strategy and applying it to contemporary popular music.  In addition, they reviewed their programs and made them simpler to access, prompting a 60% uptake in applications since the Spring.  These statistics need to be corroborated, but the qualitative evidence is compelling.  For smaller cities and regions to compete, they brand, intervene and support cultural objectives.  I know colleagues who travel to North Russia or Iran to discuss cultural and creative economic development.  And this example, of taking traditional funding structures and applying them to non-traditional applicants is worth keeping an eye out for.  

Here's the briefing on Martin

Now, as I listen to the terrific Ewert and the Two Dragons, I sit here thinking about all the changes that have occurred in popular music funding policy in the past few months.  The FACTOR system in Canada has been redesigned and relaunched.  In the UK, the PRS for Music Foundation has launched Momentum.  In South Australia, they have a 'Thinker in Residence.'  In Uganda, a foundation is discussing setting up a music development initiative.  Further discussions are occurring in the Netherlands, Uruguay, Mexico and of all places, China.  As I write this, I am editing the conclusion of my PhD, one of the most difficult sections to write (other than the introduction).  When I wrote a draft, much of this hasn't happened, so I have to re-write it.  It makes me believe that if and when I ever submit (and I hope to soon), a year later much of my research will be moot.  Them's the brakes.

Have a good weekend all.  Now to write a blog for the Live Music Exchange. 

[shainshapiro]

Gaining Momentum...

Hi all. 

I know it's been a little while since I've posted.  It's quite crazy at work right now.  I'm actually due to write a blog post for the Live Music Exchange as well, which I'm hoping to complete next week.  And contribute to an amazing book being written by the equally amazing Andrew Dubber.  And mark papers.  And work on my PhD.  That's what the weekend is for. 

This blog post is dedicated to the fund that I've had a minor part to play in, the Momentum Music Fund.  Upon launching the fund at The Great Escape a few weeks ago, its architect Alan Davey (CEO of Arts Council England and future guest blogger here) went on the Today Show to promote it.  For those non UK readers, the whole four of you, the Today Show on Radio 4 is the main Current Affairs show for the UK.  On the show, Alan said that ""want talent to be delivered to them ready made and they're not prepared to take a risk over a long period of time investing in talent."  What happened next was a rebuttal from the BPI, essentially the trade association for Britain's major labels.  This is well catalogued by Paul Carey in The Huffington Post.  Geoff Taylor, the CEO of the BPI, disagreed with Alan claiming that the new fund, which is worth £500,000 over two years, represented a "drop in the ocean".  

Now I do not want to enter this debate, arguing for or against Alan's claims on the Today show.  Instead, I want to explore the theoretical framework behind this argument, to try and expand on what it says about the industry in the UK right now.  Geoff Taylor and others are right to say that major labels, all multinational, multi-disciplinary companies, invest in music.  This to me, is irrefutable.  However, in 2012, less UK artists sold more than 100,000 than in the years previous, proving that while some artists are receiving investment, the scale itself may be skewed.  I don't believe that Alan meant to compare major label investment versus no investment at all, although in the aftermath and twitter conversation occurring since this debate began last week, the argument falls in a sort of 'either/or' camp.  Either music is not being funded at all, or those that are happen to be the most suitable ones for the support.

Now, not all artists deserve support.  Making music as a career is different to doing it recreationally, and not all musicians, bands and singers that plug in, so to speak, should succeed.  But the speed in which the UK functions in introducing, developing, judging and monetizing new artists is one of the fastest in the world.  It has never been quantified, as perhaps it is impossible to do so, but the age-old 'NME' rule of having 'six weeks to break' is commonplace here.  The keyword that Alan referred to when he announced the fund, and did so again in the interview, is talent development.  I believe that major labels are terrific talent incubators, in many cases.  But they can only go so far, resources wise and want wise.  Alan mentioned the Canadian singer-songwriter Justin Rutledge, whom is on his fifth album, all supported in one way or another by the state, as an example of talent development.  Instead of stardom, it is about sustainability.  In an export study I wrote for Music Nova Scotia, my co-author Steve Hignell and I discussed developing the concept of a 'Music Mittelstand', where we envision a slower pace of music making and development, where artists are given more time to write, record, tour and develop.  This costs money and not all artists that deserve such investment have access to it.  The majors provide the bulk of it, but only to a finite number.  And there are more that need it, or possibly, deserve it.  I think the fund needs to be seen more in tandem with the structures in place at major labels.  It isn't 'this or that' in the sector.  And this to me reflects the nature of the arguments I've read online after Alan was interviewed. 

The deadline for Momentum, the first round at least, is on June 28th.  I hope every artists, representative or band that feels they need a little support applies.  If anything, this public debate has been excellent PR for the fund, which the entire industry must learn and make their own minds up about. 

I'm sure Alan will have more to say when he blogs for me in the coming week.  

Next time, probably this weekend, I'll be writing about the new $45m, 3 year music industry fund announced in Ontario, Canada.  And more about The Netherlands.  Until then. 

[shainshapiro]

Primavera Sound and Spanish Thoughts

The last few weeks have been entertaining and full of music festivals.  In our business, the busiest times of the year are usually April/May and October/November.  Looking at our schedule for October and November right now, it is going to be a challenge just staying awake all the time I feel.  It felt the same the last little while.  From Uganda I went straight into The Great Escape, launched my company in London and then headed down to Barcelona for Primavera.  I am there now, recovering from what was a terrific festival.  CIMA produced a wonderful networking event there, featuring delegates from seven countries, including Poland and Israel (as well as Canada, Spain and others).  And the bands were terrific too.

It turns out that in Spain, there's a history of city halls and municipalities paying substantial fees for artists to play large open-air free festivals for the public.  I went to one of these once, where Russian Red performed in the main square in Vic, where Mercat de Musica de Vic takes place.  This has been common in Spain for over two decades, friends told me.  City councils and entertainment units became large-scale talent buyers, offering artists significant sums to perform for free to the public.  This was, apparently, the way it was for a while.  Certainly, on the face of it, the public got what they wanted, right?  A free gig.

Well, now that Spain is going through a crisis (and it very much is), this policy of paying artists vast sums of money to perform in these situations is creating unintended consequences.  These fees - supported through taxation and in the end, public money - often subsidised artists to the point where not only their fees were subsidised, but the crowd was as well.  This means tens of thousands of people got used to seeing these acts for free, rather than buying a ticket to see them.  Such intervention, now that it has disappeared, has created a situation where a lot of these acts are now unable to tour profitably, because their crowds had gotten used to seeing them for free.  In essence, the public funding inflated the popularity of an artist, and when they were forced to tour independently, no one was buying tickets. 

In Spain, this is coupled with the rise of VAT on tickets to 21%, up from 8% last year.  In Germany, it is 5%; France is 8%.  So here we are in a situation where staging large scale events using public funding has in turn destabilised a portion of the sector.  Those large-scale free shows still exist, but they are fewer and further between.  And customers of live music in Spain, used to seeing such bills for free, now have to pay for one or two acts a time, with a 21% surcharge.  In essence, the state is recouping the losses it made from staging such events, in theory. 

To me, such foreshadowing is difficult to assess, but it provides a lesson for the future.  What is the impact, not only now but in the future, on all the stakeholders of large scale free festivals?  Has the Hackney Weekend impacted the London (or UK) festival circuit?  Has it impacted London festivals one year on?  Can this be predicted?  All good questions for a sonic futurologist I'm sure.

But for now, despite the economic problems here, the food is terrific.  And of course, there is sun.  Back in London later this week.    

[shainshapiro]

And we're off!

[shainshapiro]

Gaining Momentum, Live Music Exchange and The Great Escape

Yesterday was the launch of the Momentum Music Fund, the first fund dedicated to contemporary popular music development in England.  The £500m fund, of which I sit on the external reference group of, is officially live, so if any artists or managers are reading this, please do think about applying at some point.  It was a wonderful day, filled with chances, surprises and good friends.  Alan Davey, Chief Executive of Arts Council England (and future guest blogger here) gave the keynote, followed by an explanation of the program from the administrator, Vanessa Reed of the PRS for Music Foundation.  Alan referenced an album he purchased in the UK by Canadian singer-songwriter (and Six Shooter Records' alumnus) Justin Rutledge as the influence to think about Momentum, proving how small the world is sometimes, especially in popular music.   There is a long and frankly unentertaining story that influenced the creation of the fund, including separate but equally important lobbying by Jim Mawdsley from Generator, PRS for Music Foundation themselves and a host of other industry bodies.  I hope this is the start of a new normal in the UK, where artists and their representatives can develop a more sustainable (and frankly easier) relationship with public bodies, for both sides interests.  Exciting.  

This is not the only thing that happened yesterday at The Great Escape.  Not only did we produce another Canada House structure (17 bands this year) but I enjoyed by friend Remi Harris launch her new project, a book about access to finance in the music sector with MusicTank.  In addition, I sat on a panel with colleagues from Poland, Norway and Scotland discussing music funding initiatives, to celebrate, compare and contrast activities happening in England.  My Norwegian counterpart, Jonas Vebner, discussed how Music Norway, a new state-sponsored body in Norway, is introducing ad-hoc funding, as a response to demand from their sector.  Poland, whose structure is financed entirely by their Ministry of Culture, spoke of a need to lobby their government to support popular music more (and where have we heard that?) and Scotland, a complex micro-structure of funding initiatives that have been supporting Scottish artists for over a decade, discussed the change from the Scottish Arts Council to Creative Scotland, where sector-specific support structures were replaced by general 'arts applications', in essence, confusing applicants in the process.  Each system is soul searching right now, it seems, including Canada.  FACTOR has experienced the most profound changes in its history in the last few months, while Scotland, Norway and Poland (as well as England) is researching, questioning and reforming their practices.  It is compelling to see these discussions being had collectively, as comparative analysis is significantly lacking in these debates.  Vanessa Reed mentioned her admiration of programs in Sweden as well - a future topic of analysis in this blog.  

The night concluded with a meeting a few gigs, including Aufgang and Ewert and the Two Dragons.  Both terrific, I might add. 

In addition, this past Tuesday I joined one of Sound Diplomacy's advisors, Will Page, and one of my PhD supervisors, Dave Laing at the Live Music Exchange day conference at City University in London.  The discussion focused on live music promotion and the health of the industry during recession and a panel was dedicated to funding.  This featured Will, Bryn from the Barbican, Ian from Songkick, Jazz Services and Professor Martin Cloonan, a huge influence on my research and a lecturer at Glasgow University.  To be honest, I felt the panel could have approached a number of avenues it didn't, but that's true of most panels.  Live music has been funded in the UK for over forty years in one way or another, as chronicled well in Martin's book Popular Music and the State, mainly through festivals and venue support.  Ian Hogarth, the founder of Songkick and new platform Detour (which encourages fans to invest in future gigs from their favourite bands) discussed using available data to better target where and who to fund, which was further discussed by Will through statistics he developed at the PRS that questioned the longevity of UK artist successes.  Of over 40 artists that sold over 100,000 units in 2010 (correct me if I'm wrong Will), only a handful sold 40,000 of their third album and festivals, conscious of a lack of headliners, are feeling the results of such statistics.  This brings it back to Momentum to me and the concept and theoretical framework of talent development.  Will Momentum assist in developing more longevity in the English (and UK) sector?  How do we build structures that slow down the artist development process, so acts have more time to develop their sound, business strategies and infrastructure.  Is funding the answer?  My belief is that funding is one of many answers, and it has to work in tandem with better research and understanding of revenue generators in music, the impacts on the artist and the ecology of music in the UK, or anywhere else for that matter.

Suffice to say, like yesterday, it was a wonderful day.  A wonderful week.  And we have one more day at The Great Escape before officially launching Sound Diplomacy on Tuesday, followed by a trip to Barcelona for Primavera Sound.  Life is interesting right now.  

Here's a cool video.  Been a while since I posted one. 

[shainshapiro]

Uganda and Music Export Offices

Hello.  Apologies for the delay.  As I write this, I am sitting at the 'Moet and Chandon' Bar at the Dubai Airport.  I have just flown from Entebbe in Uganda and am awaiting my flight to London.  I also just wrote a terrific blog piece and accidentally left the page, reseting it.  So I'm hoping this one is as good.  Joy.

So why was I in Uganda?  Well, I was attending the Doa Doa Music Conference in Jinja, Uganda.  How did I get there?  Well, I met the head of the event at the Atlantic Music Expo in Cape Verde and we got to talking.  It turns out that in addition to running Doa Doa (and a host of other initiatives), he had a plan to set up an East African Music Export Cooperative, titled Doa Doa Music.  The plan is for the office to represent, in a variety of ways, the music sectors within Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, as well as Ethiopia.  This is a mammoth task, and I will talk more about it below, but I was immediately keen to hear more.  He then asked if I would be part of the team compiling, researching and developing the strategy for this office.  I said yes and agreed to come to Uganda to join the conference.  The conference was terrific.  It was co-organized by UnConvention and featured a number of talks, workshops and sessions.  I gave a session on 'The Value and Impact of Music Funding' and sat on a session announcing the idea to begin to strategise and develop the export office.  Amazingly, the room was packed (about 70 people) for my talk, all of whom stayed until the end.  The articulate questions and clearly researched attendees was inspiring.  In addition, I have to say that Uganda is a special place.  I absolutely loved it, especially Jinja.  And thanks to the other attendees who welcomed me in even though I was quite late - Steve from Ear to the Ground, Sid from Shambala, Andrew Dubber and others.  They are all still in Uganda drinking, I'm sure.  Thanks to all of them.  

I would like to dedicate this blog to the discussion of music export offices.  Music Export Offices, to me, are a confusing and interesting set of structures.  In the blog I lost, I feel I wrote a really strong analysis of them, which I will try to replicate.  The first thing to remember is that the music export office, as a standalone, singular structure, doesn't exist.  For example, I have worked for the Canadian version of the music export office for a few years, even though Canada has never had a music export office.  Instead, it is an initiative within a series of initiatives coordinated by CIMA, the independent label association.   It is supported by a number of organisations - federal, provincial and private.  Just look at the bottom of a Canadian Blast poster and you'll see the number of organisations involved.  And Canada is one example; not only is each export supported and structured differently - some as industry initiatives, some as state initiatives, some as mixture of the two or some as private initiatives - but also the concept of the music export office, how the industry as a whole (if that can be defined) view export offices is very different.  Some view them as banks, other de-facto A&R structures while others see export offices as promotional tools and others have no clue what it their functions are.  

The definition of a music export, as a whole, has yet to be defined.  This is due to the hybridity of how they are structured and what they do.  And this is made more worse by the newness of the concept of the music export office and global politics.  For example, the first one, France, was established in 1993 and in Spain, another interesting case study, the Catalan government is more active than the Spanish.  As a whole, defining this structure is still in a 'finding its feet' time.  Yet, music export offices and subsequent 'music week' festivals are growing.  Many South American countries are discussing export office structures (some already have them) while in addition to my new project in East Africa, lots of initiatives are ongoing in Europe and Asia as well.  As I was in Uganda, a friend of mine was at Tbilisi Music Week in Georgia.  And I learned that there is a Kenya Music Week as well (for 10 years no doubt) in September, in Nairobi.  The concept, however difficult to define, is expanding organically - and it is interesting.

One must question the role of the national brand in the promotion of music, both to consumers and the business.  In addition, there are places that have been criticised of opening up structures without the proper infrastructure at home to 'bring up' music that can be exported.  And the term 'export' needs fleshing out.  Does exporting from Vancouver to Toronto suffice?  Or Melbourne to Adelaide?  

These are all the questions that I am grappling with while researching such a project.  There are lots of questions to answer and research to embark on, to understand what is feasible and what isn't - and most importantly, what is most needed.  Being in Uganda showed me that domestic infrastructure, respect of copyright and regional opportunities was key to the attendees.  And I'm sure there's dozens of other complex issues that need to be fleshed out as well.  Very cool to be a part of such a project. 

So, what is a music export office?  Is it a better way of injecting state support into popular music?  Does it have anything to do with funding?  Should it?  How should it interact with the business?  What research, educational and business development responsibilities should it have?  Are these questions even answerable?  Food for thought indeed.

So, I would like to end this blog on some housekeeping:

1.  I am in touch with the Dutch promoter loss subsidy fund.  I will be reporting on this.

2.  I'll be profiling some of the people who select what gets funded in Sweden.  Sweden is a terrific example of how to do a lot of things right in this context.

3. I will be at The Great Escape next week.  For the eight readers of this blog, get in touch if you want to meet.  The Momentum Music Fund is being launched.  This is a big deal.  

And unfortunately, some very sad news.

My friend Paul Gourlie passed away yesterday at the age of 37.  He was an agent at The Agency Group in Toronto.  I met him a long time ago when I was managing my friend Kae Sun, through a mutual friend.  He was always kind, forthright and honest in work and great fun on a night out.  We worked together on a few bands, including In Flight Safety and partied many times, the last memorable one being at Nova Scotia Music Week.  He was kind hearted, great fun and a true gent.  I will miss him dearly.  RIP Paul.  Have fun wherever you are brother. 

Billboard Obituary