Summary 👇
- Some data from the Annuary of the SGAE 2022
- Brief news: Sébastien Laussel, new director of Zone Franche
- Brief news from the media, charts and sister projects
- Open calls and more news from professional events 💼
- Meet me at ✈️
I came back from WOMEX with a mix of feelings of motivation, urgency and exhaustion. Nothing a red lipstick can’t fix.
I have yet to draw conclusions on many things of the last weeks in the Fira Mediterrània, the English Folk Expo and WOMEX. By the way, next year’s annual meeting of the European Folk Network with be hosted by the English Folk Expo in Manchester.
Every conversation has been a gift. Every discussion has put a rung on the ladder of knowledge.
One thing has become quite clear to me. That this open window is one of my highlights of the month. That it is doing good to some people and to me as well. Once again I remember when I thought of starting a newsletter. Scheherazade thought it was a great idea. Sherazade, my right-hand woman, from whom I was separated by the virus and whom I am now finally going to get back. It seems that everything is finally back in place, but let’s see what the yearbook of the SGAE, the Spanish Society of Authors and Publishers, published today, has to say. Will my particular impression be supported by the data? I hope that information and the rest of the contents will be useful and interesting for you.
For the next edition I am planning to make interviews again, after all this frenzy time.
As always, if you have any news of interest for our community, let me know. Thank you very much for your attention.
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Do you want to share any useful experience or call relevant for our community of the world musics? Let me know.
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ANNUARY OF THE SGAE 2022
The SGAE has presented today the Yearbook of Performing, Musical and Audiovisual Arts 2022. The SGAE is the society of authors and publishers of Spain and is in charge of managing the rights of music both recorded and broadcast in the media and public environments (such as bars or weddings) as well as live music. It also manages other artistic disciplines, but here I will only talk about music.
The complete yearbook is here: http://www.anuariossgae.com/anuario2022/home.html It is in Spanish, sorry, but it can be translated automatically on the web.
The data is for 2021 compared to 2020 and to 2019 and earlier. In a year’s time I hope they will publish the 2022 data, because it will be very interesting.
On popular music (all non-classical music), between 2019 and 2021 “we find losses of 29 % in the number of concerts held, 58.3 % in the number of attendees and 62.1 % of the revenue”. And it continues with very interesting information: “The Autonomous Communities of Madrid, Andalusia and Catalonia accumulate the best indicators. Catalonia, which ranks third in terms of number of concerts and attendance, surpasses Madrid and Andalusia in revenue, accumulating 25 % of the total“.
I think it has been commonplace in Spain, and certainly throughout Europe, that this summer there has been a lack of professionals. As far as I know, there has been a lack of sound technicians to such an extent that at some of the festivals I have been to, the same company has provided half the staff for the same needs as in previous years. I was told (this is totally anecdotal knowledge) by the technician who provides the equipment for Vigüela that they were offering him 500 euros plus expenses just to go to another province to mix. This is just a little less than what he charges us to bring all the equipment and set it up and mix the concert. This situation may be the results of these 2021 data, of course.
More on popular live music, on page 5 of that section there is a sad graph showing the number of spectators from 2008 to 2021. In 2020 it dropped by more than 20 million viewers (from 28 million in 2019 to 7,300 k in 2020) and in 2021 it didn’t even reach half of 2019 (not even 12 million).
On recorded music, compared to 2019, the digital market has grown every year on record, from 2016 to 2021, while the physical market declined in 2020 and in 2021 it still hasn’t recovered to 2019 figures, but it may never do so and this may not have so much to do with the pandemic, despite the boom in vinyl records. I’m from the cassette generation…. Well, these facts are on page 7 of that section.
As a curiosity: “The album “El Madrileño” by C. Tangana leads sales in 2021, followed by “Mis manos” by Camilo and “Future Nostalgia” by Dua Lipa”. I’m listening to C. Tangana now as I write these letter. No wonder people like it because it’s pornographic on many occasions and in others he puts words in a symple and clear way to thoughts that everybody has had. The album is here. A good part of it would fit in the concept of world music. The link is addressed to the song “Cuando Olvidaré”, on purpose.
I imagine there is equivalent data in many other countries. I share these with you, which are from where I am and I think they can be compared with almost any other country. Except for C. Tangana, of course 😊.
BRIEF NEWS: SÉBASTIEN LAUSSEL, NEW DIRECTOR OF ZONE FRANCHE
I stole the portrait from his Facebook profile.
Sébastien Laussel began his career as director of social and cultural centres in the field of popular education, where, through and in the service of social work, he developed an artistic programme centred on World Music, directed a music school, created a compilation of emerging groups, etc. He then created Prestacles Prod, whose purpose was to ensure the delegated production of professional performing artists and companies; at the same time, he was in charge of the administration of Balthazar, a regional professional training centre for the circus arts in Occitania.
Sébastien Laussel moved to the Paris region in 2016 where he has since held positions within NGOs that have reinforced his professional experience of the international cooperation dimension and his knowledge of institutional and associative actors in the sector. He is a member of SACEM and SACD.
And now since September he is the director of Zone Franche.
According to their website “The Zone Franche association was created in 1990, when the meeting between traditional oral music and the sounds of globalisation was creating new languages and soundscapes. Today, there are about 180 structures that are federated around professional and political issues. The diversity of our members finds its unity in the shared values set out in the World Music Charter, and constitutes a rare wealth in that it allows for daily interaction between different professions, different legal statuses, and different territorial locations, in the service of an abundance of aesthetics, practices and musical inspirations.” Learn more about the association and access the World Music Charter on their website.
I am planning to make some questions to Sébastien for a future edition.
BRIEF NEWS FROM THE MEDIA, CHARTS AND SISTER PROJECTS
- #1 for Transglobal World Music Chart in October 2022 is: Al-Qasar’s Who Are We? (Glitterbeat).
- Mundofonías: our three favourites are Shadi Fathi & Bijan Chemirani’s Âwât (Buda Musique), Purbayan Chatterjee & Rakesh Chaurasia’s Saath saath (Purbayan Chatterjee/Believe) and Afrosound of Colombia, vol. 3 [V.A.] (Vampi Soul).
OPEN CALLS AND PROFESSIONAL EVENTS
If you have anything to share in this section in a future edition, let me know.
»FolkHerbst« (Folk Music Autumn), open call. NEW IN THE NEWSLETTER. FolkHerbst “is a series of folk music events that culminate in handing out the only European Folk Music Award of Germany, the »Eiserner Eversteiner (the Iron Eversteiner)«. The promoter Malzhaus e.V. bestows this award upon folk musicians living in Europe as he/she has for the past 30 years. He/she will do it again next year at the 31th FolkHerbst. We anticipate the best, most accomplished and inspired musicians competing for this prestigious award.” “Musician/ artist must be a European resident. The performance/ music must be derivative of or influenced by folk music. This includes both the broadest interpretation and most specific, as a traditional folk music“. It is open until 01th March 2023. I have received the complete information with the procedure and conditions from Christian Dressel (kultur(at)malzhaus.de) and I don’t see them on the website so I suggest you to ask him. Their website is this.
Tallinn Music Week 2023, open call. Artist submission will close at 23.59 (CET) on 12 December 2022. Dates: “Music festival: Thu, 11 May – Sat, 13 May. Around 150 artists from various genres and scenes from all over Europe and beyond in Tallinn’s best venues play to an audience of around 15,000 people and to 1,000 music industry professionals from international markets and Baltic-Nordic region.” Check their proposal and apply here.
MEET ME AT
Will we meet? Drop me a line!
- IMSF – Israel Music Showcase Festival, in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, November 22rd-27th, 2022.
- Proffesional event by Italian World Beat / Musiconnect Italy. The truth is that I don’t know much about what will happen here or where it is, other than that I will be flying to Naples and I trust in the people from Italian World Beat so I will be there! I will give more detailed news in November’s edition.
- And in March 2023, Babel Music XP, of which I have talked several times in previous editions.
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