There is a Swedish festival (or was, seems they have thrown in the towel since a year back) that was run by an artist. The festival was pretty good in its genre, but it could never grow because the artist that had the festival was of course the headliner each year, so they could never book an artist that was bigger than the artist that held the festival. With that concept they just had midsize or smaller bands to play at the festival, nothing could conquer the lead position of the main artist.

I feel sometimes this is the error around showcase festivals, export offices, and other organizations in the music industry. You can never do things that are bigger than their point of view. If they can’t be allowed to shine and sit on a panel, then they just keep the lid on and try to look the other way as if it’s raining.

At the same time if you start to invite everyone the knowledge levels will be so different that in the end it won’t make any sense and people will start leaving. In the end, you need to have some quality to bring in otherwise it will be pointless.

I see this at many showcase festivals. Since they are designed for a country, they invite all the small players in this country. Then they get the big people from the industry in. The big industry people will have a great time together, but not talk to any of the locals. Mainly because they can’t do any business since they are in such a low level. The few bigger ones from the country will of course hang with the internationals.  Of course, they will tell their government that the local people learned something, but in reality, they are not ready.

What we see right now is that the industry has made a big leap. Before we talked local, regional, national, European (or other bigger areas, Africa, Asia, South America, etc.), then worldwide. Today we go straight from local to European level. The regional or national is not there. Mainly because they are so badly equipped that you can go straight to the local scene and bring those with you. Most national or regional events are a waste of time since they are in the local area of knowledge.

And as long as you can’t be bigger than the regional or national events they just start to crumble more and more. You just see how the business just become a local phenomenon that can’t be exported and the future of the music industry will be pretty much global in many way to be able to make a living.