Submitted by Peter Åstedt
It’s pretty clear that today we are talking about the music industry from a local view and a global view. The national view is fading out with accelerated speed. Only large countries like the USA will have a national industry but it will be also put down to the state level. Canada will also be divided into smaller territories.
The national level is just too small to survive on. The industry today with all its tools for global marketing makes it possible to be global. You have to start locally of course to build a fanbase, but the next level, the national level is soon unnecessary. When I speak to many frontline export offices they have already started to change their operations to fit this new change in the music industry. Gone are the initiatives that you want to sell your artists to another country, in our collaborations and exchange of knowledge and network.
It’s all good that we already are doing these changes since it will help us in many ways to get to a more sustainable music industry along with the touring. The problem I see is that the local scene is not ready at all for this big change.
The local scene is always run by some local heroes. The term local hero is about people that work locally in a way it affects the locals. It can be a local record label that gives out music or a club or a festival that arranges many concerts that the local community can attend. Unfortunately in the past, these positions haven’t been lucrative enough so they are often run by grants from the government. By doing that, you have created a safe haven for failed musicians to still work with music and really don’t have to adapt to any changes, you just do things like you always did.
Since we are dealing with the government subsidizing these people’s salaries it often becomes hard for professionals or people that want to develop a region a hard time to get into the market. The local heroes really don’t want anything in their region to happen without their control, since it’s that control that gives them access to the money. It’s in their interest to keep everything as it is, even though it actually doesn’t bring anything new to the local community.
Right now, there are many really good development places that are just standing still just because the local hero is in charge and has no knowledge of the global industry nor have the connections or the understanding of what would benefit the region. The global industry scares them, and the contacts they usually deal with are the national contacts that are now getting weaker and in many cases are the ones that will disappear in a short while, they feel threatened that even their position will disappear.
Maybe that is the way that you should get rid of the local heroes. Still, I think you might lose good knowledge. What is needed is to look over organizations so the local hero doesn’t have too much power just because they feel everything should be the same. Try to educate the local heroes to understand the big new market. Take some of the national players and put them to be local heroes instead.
When I speak to many frontline export offices they have already started to change their operations to fit this new change in the music industry. The initiative wants to sell your artists to another country, in our collaborations and exchange of knowledge and network.
Since we are dealing with the government getting these people their salaries it often becomes hard for professionals or people that want to develop a region a hard time to get into the market. The local heroes really don’t want anything in their region to happen without their control, since it’s that control that gives them access to the money. It’s in their interest to keep everything as it is, even though it actually doesn’t bring anything new to the local community.
Right now there are many, really good development places that are just standing still just because the local hero is in charge and has no knowledge of the global industry nor have the connections or the understanding of what would benefit the region. The global industry scares them, and the contacts they usually deal with are the national contacts that now getting weaker and in many cases are the ones that will disappear in a short while, they feel threatened that even their position will disappear.
Maybe that is the way that you should get rid of the local heroes. Still, I think you might lose good knowledge. What is needed is to look over organizations so the local hero doesn’t have too much power just because everything should be the same. Try to educate the local heroes to understand the big new market. Take some of the national players and put them in to be local heroes instead.
At the same time it’s perfect timing to open up for new players, new companies that maybe work both global and local, getting some new fresh blood into the system. You have plenty of new people coming for a great education, you are no longer forced to employ a failed musician to run the local scene.
Editor’s Note: Peter Åstedt has been working in the music industry for over 35 years. He has started record labels, distribution systems, and publishing companies. Peter also runs several major showcase festivals and is an advisor for INES and co-founder of MusicHelp/Discover Sensation. He has worked with the Top Ten most streamed songs and had music on both the Olympics and Super Bowl. Peter has currently taken up the seat of Station Manager of Cashbox Radio, working with MD, PD and station owner, Sandy Graham. In 2021, he worked as the European Consultant for Heal the Earth – An Earth Day Celebration. His latest venture is a new Showcase Festival in Sweden, Future Echoes futureechoes.se/. Peter is a Managing Partner and Editor of the newly launched Record World International.