Reykjavík Grapevine - 13.07.2007, Side 11
info.
Magnús Pálsson Friday Butterflies Outdoor Concert at Ingólfstorg Sigríður
Níels Family-inspired Installations Mínus Reviews the Past Snapshot Pho-
tography LungA Young Artists’ Festival Classic Toys Return Food Reviews
Shopping Music, Art, Films and Events Listings
REYKJAVÍK_GRAPEVINE_INFO_ISSUE 10_007
(retro stefson)
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
B6
The Icelandic music industry may be small, but the lo-
cal scene is vibrant. Icelandic artists have repeatedly
proven that worldwide success is possible, the Sugar-
cubes, Björk, Sigur Rós, GusGus, Quarashi and múm
are good examples.
The scene, has grown steadily since the eighties,
and an increasing number of bands play at interna-
tional festivals and tour extensively around the world.
Local music events are gaining worldwide attention.
The environment is more favourable now than ever
before and efforts have been made in recent years
to strengthen the music trade. The Reykjavík Loftbrú
travel fund, sponsored by the City of Reykjavík and
Icelandair, and the establishment of the Icelandic State
Music Fund in 2005 can be named as relatively new
projects aimed at supporting the scene, locally as well
as internationally. The Trade Counsel of Iceland has
also increased its cooperation, most recently by estab-
lishing the Icelandic Music Export Agency.
But, is there something still missing? If the goal is to
create a thriving industry that can be profitable for the
artists and the country’s economy, should we perhaps
look inwards, instead of outwards? The Grapevine
contacted several insiders to see what conditions need
to be met to boost the industry and make Iceland a
serious music exporter, and found out that while steps
have been taken to help artists reach larger audience,
less has been done to foster the grassroots.
Icelandic Music Export
“I think that there are plenty of opportunities in ex-
porting Icelandic music. The Sugarcubes, Björk, Sigur
Rós and Emilíana Torrini have all proved that in the
past. We also have many fine producers that are quite
successful and today there are about 20 to 30 bands
and musicians that are succeeding in some way or an-
other and are moving on to bigger territories. Here I
can for example mention Trabant, Jakobínarína, Lay
Low, Garðar Cortes, Sign, Amiina and Reykjavík!. The
scene seems to be pretty strong and its fan base is
steadily growing, which can be seen by how many in-
dividuals want to work with us and help promote Ice-
landic music,” says Anna Hildur Hildibrandsdóttir, the
managing director of the Icelandic Music Export.
Established in November 2006, The Icelandic Music
Export (IMX) is a newly founded partly governmentally
funded body initiated by Samtónn (a joint copyright
organisation for authors, performers and producers),
the Trade Counsel of Iceland, privately sponsored by
Landsbankinn Bank. Its goal is to be a service centre for
musicians and industry members by providing inves-
tors and media personalities with access and informa-
tion on the music scene. The office supports musicians
with connections and resources and collaborates with
event organisers, attends and hosts conferences and
organises artist participation at international showcase
festivals – all with the aim of promoting Icelandic mu-
sic, festivals and music labels abroad.
Hildibrandsdóttir has copious experience work-
ing within the industry. She started as a manager for
Bellatrix in 1998 and later became a PR representative
for the Iceland Airwaves festival in Europe, set up and
managed the UK branch of record label Smekkleysa
(Bad Taste) as well as managing various music related
projects in Reykjavík and London.
“When I started in the business, The Sugarcubes
and Björk had been so popular that I was certain that
the hype would soon decline, but the interest is mas-
sive and has only been increasing. […] Compared to
ten years ago, there are more investors supporting
musicians today, the private companies have increased
its funding and artists today are provided with more in-
formation and contacts. The Reykjavík Loftbrú project
has been successful and the State Music Fund has in
many ways worked out well, but certain aspects could
be scoped for development. No one said it would be
easy. It all comes down to getting the right support at
the right time, use the opportunities and strengthen-
ing the network.”
Here comes Iceland!
As a former Sugarcubes member, co-founder of record
label Smekkleysa and one-half of the experimental
electro band Ghostigital, Einar Örn Benediktsson has
been a leading figure in the local music scene for much
longer than most of his peers. When asked about the
export of Icelandic music he replies:
“I have never been in the business of exporting Ice-
landic music. I have made music and I have performed
in other countries. It has always been a basic element
in Icelandic music that you need to go abroad to play
to reach new audiences. I have nothing to say about
the Icelandic Music Export in particular, but it is prob-
ably good to have an office that distributes informa-
tion.”
He goes on to say that the environment today is
completely different than when the Sugarcubes were
branching out:
“A lot of pioneering work has been done to make
it easier to play in foreign countries. It no longer re-
quires the difficulties that it used to entail. Also, trans-
portation is easier, people are not afraid to try to break
new ground. It is a different culture; Icelandic musi-
cians know they are on par with what is going on in
other countries.”
Although newly established, the Icelandic Music
Export has arranged trips and presentations at large
showcase festivals and music markets in two con-
tinents, such as MIDEM in Cannes, Great Escape in
Britain, SXSW in Austin, Texas, SPOT in Denmark, Eu-
rosonic in Holland and ByLarm in Norway where Reyk-
javík!, Lay Low, Pétur Ben, Amiina, Jakobínarína and
Benni Hemm Hemm have been among the perform-
ers. The next project is organising a country stand and
an extensive promotion at the PopKomm industry fair
taking place in Berlin in September, where Lay Low is
already scheduled to play.
The purpose of these fairs is to present new talent
with the hope of being discovered by promoters, dis-
tributors or booking agencies. Icelandic acts are well
received, Hildibrandsdóttir tells me, but turning that
into something fruitful requires patience and takes
years of hard work.
“Of course it won’t happen with one showcase.
But what I can say is that the bands are being noticed
and we see a good turnout at the concerts most of
the time. Afterwards, it’s a question of continuity, and
that’s what this office is trying to do, to support the
bands to move on and make one thing lead to anoth-
er.”
Kári Sturluson, manager for Lay Low, Ampop and
Mínus, has attended several of these trade festivals, in
particular with Lay Low. He agrees that these show-
cases can be a good start for those reaching out for
new opportunities. After Lay Low released her debut,
Please Don’t Hate Me, last October, she played at the
Iceland Airwaves festival. That led to an invite to MI-
DEM and from there to ByLarm and Great Escape, af-
ter which she played in the U.S. and was offered to
tour Britain at the end of the year, fully sponsored by
the Contemporary Music Network (CMN) in the UK.
“Opportunities like these come along because the
artist has played on a regular basis. It isn’t enough to
perform just once in a while. What is fortunate [with
Lay Low] is that things have been going well in Iceland,
not only in radio programs and record sales but also in
ticket sales. The profits of sold concert tickets the art-
ists use to invest in themselves and pay the expenses of
touring abroad and keep the ball rolling. Usually there
are no actual salaries to talk about though,” he ex-
plains.
Investing in Music
Few musicians can earn their living simply by creating
music. Going abroad can be tough if you don’t have
someone to back you up to begin with. Reykjavík Loft-
brú and the State Music Fund aim to make that process
easier. Established in 2005, the Music Fund has a yearly
budget of 50 million ISK to support several projects.
Jónatan Garðarsson, the Fund’s chairman, says that
the counsel evaluates each project thoroughly before
deciding who should get funding and how big the
amount should be. He also explains that there are two
application deadlines per year and the largest grant so
far, 5 million ISK, was used to establish the Icelandic
Music Export.
Sturluson, who has years of experience in the busi-
ness both as a concert producer and manager, is still
not satisfied with the environment musicians have to
settle for today.
“In my opinion, the Reykjavík Loftbrú is a fine proj-
ect. Musicians can apply for tickets on a monthly basis
and the process is both fast and efficient. The same
can’t be said about the State Music Fund though. There
are only two deadlines each year and the maximum
amount you can get is usually only about a million ISK.
The Fund doesn’t make it much easier to pursue op-
portunities, which can sometimes happen almost un-
expectedly. Personally, if we are thinking about export-
ing music, the State Music Fund is in my view totally
useless. The 50 million ISK budget is ridiculous and
small amounts are being offered to artists only so the
government can pretend to be supporting the music
scene. The budget also includes all parts of the scene,
regardless of music style or the type of the projects. A
small part of the budget is used in real music export
and promotion of musicians abroad. What I would like
to see is a new model similar to the Icelandic Film Cen-
tre, which provides decent financial support to finance
film projects and promote Icelandic films internation-
ally. The Film Centre, [which has around 400 million
ISK budget to fund various projects] is an independent
government sponsored body while the Music Fund is
a small committee. The difference between the sup-
port given to the film industry and the music industry
is simply outrageous.”
He adds: “I also see it as a certain anachronism
that the fund is a part of the Ministry of Education and
not a part of the Ministry of Industry. Music is simply
an industry and should be respected as such. It is an
investment and nothing less and has proved to be a
profitable export. That can clearly be seen by the suc-
cess of our national pride, Björk. Supporting music as
culture but not as an industry isn’t inspirational for the
artists. There needs to be a good institutional support
if we are to go full force in exporting music and create
a growing industry.”
Sturluson goes on to say how profitable it is for the
economy to have a thriving music scene in the coun-
try:
“The scene has such great snowball effects. It’s
quite embarrassing how obvious it is and easy to cal-
culate how profitable it would be to invest greatly in
the music industry. That investment will multiply itself
and have great effects on other trades, most obviously,
the tourism industry.”
Hyperactive Tourist Attraction
Many musicians and industry moguls share Sturlusons’s
view and point out that when local acts set out to play
internationally, exposure in global media hasn’t been
lacking. The attention isn’t only an encouragement for
the music scene but has proven to be a boost for the
tourism industry.
It’s no overstatement that Icelandic musicians are
drawing more positive attention to the country than
most other industries nowadays and few deny that
its cultural importance is significant. That can be seen
by the turnout for recent festivals such as Aldrei fór
ég suður (an annual music festival in small Westfjords
town Ísafjörður) where IMX took ten international
journalists to experience the two-day extravaganza,
who returned to their homes with positive reviews, in-
terviews and articles. Even greater publicity surrounds
the annual Iceland Airwaves music festival, which al-
ways sees good coverage in international media. The
growing number of tourists attending the festival as
well as promoters and industry representatives, who
arrive with the sole purpose of discovering new talent,
is just one example. In 2006, 1700 of the party-thirsty
audience were foreign attendees. This year’s festival is
bound to be bigger than ever.
Svanhildur Konráðsdóttir, director of Culture and
Tourism at Visit Reykjavík, says that it is hard to mea-
sure the effects of the music scene on the tourist in-
dustry in the country but adds that they know they are
immense.
“In 2005, we participated in a Nordic survey where
we examined the economic benefits and impacts cer-
tain events have on the economy. We chose to study
the Airwaves festival, which is an event that attracts
plenty of visitors who are active, go to museums, on
excursions and visit the swimming pools, shops and
restaurants for example. The result of the survey was
that the festival alone injects about 300 million into
the city’s economy,” Konráðsdóttir says, adding how
important these concertgoers are for the tourism in-
dustry, especially as the festival is held off-season in
one weekend in October.
The Constant Lack of Facilities
“The connection between Icelandic culture getting
attention abroad and the increase in tourism is enor-
mous,” says Viddi, bass player for the electronic-punk-
dance group Trabant, which recently returned home
after touring Britain extensively. “Our tour will prob-
ably end up in 50 to 100 media reviews and interviews.
And that’s just one band. Add Mínus, GusGus, múm,
Björk, Sigur Rós and all the other ones on the road and
you will have great publicity,” he adds.
When asked how he sees the musical environment
today, he points to the fact that before talking about
any government intervention in music export, there
needs to be a strong domestic infrastructure and fa-
vourable working conditions for the artists to develop
their sound.
“Today, musicians are creating their own music
without being supported by a big body, but of course
it would be good to have some sort of a system that
would be encouraging, but that would have to be
thoroughly thought through. What I would most like
to see change is the possibility of getting good practice
facilities. I’m getting tired of seeing only temporary so-
lutions but no long term plans. It shouldn’t be a ques-
tion about supporting that part of the process” he
says, and points out that many bands that have been
touring immensely in recent years have to settle for a
lack of housing today.
“I would like to see the prices go down so bands
will actually have a reasonable option to rent a practice
space instead of having to pay the ridiculous amount
Kaupþing Bank and Glitnir Bank have decided on. To-
day, I see Reykjavík moving in a totally different direc-
tion, heading towards becoming a business city instead
of a cultural city. In 10 years, I can’t see many teenage
bands renting a small practice space for 80,000 ISK. I
will not be seeing any growth in the scene. […] If we
are talking about building a music industry, we should
start by creating a good environment for that industry
to evolve.”
Benediktsson shares a similar view on the govern-
ment intervention:
“I am not sure that people should necessarily be
supported to make music. But the trend in tourism has
been that culture sells vacation trips. Icelandair has
noticed this, that is why it established Loftbrú. These
parties know that there is a correlation between the
music industry and the tourism industry. If there are
people with fresh ideas, creating fresh music, there are
many out there who are willing to support that. The
image-industry and the money-industry go hand in
hand. There are so many people who come to Iceland
today because they heard the Sugarcubes as teenagers
all those years ago. Today, these people have money
and they want to travel.
He adds: “It is most important to take care of the
infrastructure, and focus on what we are doing here.
You can’t really just decide to export music like any
other commodity. All you can really do is make infor-
mation available. The main thing is that the music is
good. Where there is good music being made, where
there is a creative scene, I think people will always take
notice.”
New Marketing Opportunities
When asked how she sees the future of the music in-
dustry, Hildibrandsdóttir is positive that things will turn
out in favour of the scene.
“I think that the opportunities are plenty but they
are also very sparse. The number of musicians mak-
ing record deals is growing and the record companies
have strengthened their position. Smekkleysa now has
a worldwide distribution and 12 Tónar has expanded
to Europe. Individual musicians have also succeeded in
assigning contracts” she says.
“The opportunities also consist in understanding
the breakthrough in technology we have witnessed,
for example, distribution on the web and through mo-
bile phones and how the digital world will change op-
portunities in an exciting way. As the situation is today,
if you have the technical understanding and knowl-
edge, you can reach out to an incredible number of
listeners without having millions to back you up,” Hil-
dibrandsdóttir adds.
The Iceland Music Export has several plans to tackle
this new technology. “We are organising a conference
where we will look into the possibility of Iceland be-
coming a test-market for a new business model in digi-
tal distribution. One of our biggest projects this year is
also to establish a good web page for musicians and
those working in the music sector” she explains, but
the site already features Podcasts, downloads, music
videos, information on musicians, producers and stu-
dios and a list of music events and festivals.
“All in all, I have expectations for the future,” Hil-
dibrandsdóttir says. “But we shouldn’t forget that the
industry is small in Iceland and we have less money
than the neighbouring countries. […] There doesn’t
necessarily have to be so much financial support to
move the grassroots to a professional level, just the
right support at the right time.”
Text by Steinunn Jakobsdóttir Photo by Gulli