Music Export Denmark – its lunchtime!
Purpose: to get the music business talking.
Since 2004 Music Export Denmark has been working to promote and export Danish music abroad. The organization is a unique institution, supported by the Danish government via the ministry of Culture.
MXD is backed by five organizations: ROSA (The Danish Rock Counsel), IFPI (Danish record company’s business organization), Koda (music right management) Denmark’s National Radio and Roskilde Festival.
While the SPOT festivals young audience, mainly come to experience the grand specter of new and upcoming bands. For people in the music business SPOT is a platform, for working together with new business associates and of course, picking up on new acts.
Thomas Rohde is the current director of MXD and has been developing and working in close confederation with the SPOT festival since 2008S, building and developing a number of new initiatives, to export and introduce Danish music abroad.
Thomas Rohde:
-MXD’s purpose is to support Danish music, we do this in three ways; first of all we financially support the business professionals who are promoting bands abroad.
Secondly we create projects such as the SPOT-festival and have developed the SPOT brand, further creating SPOT on Denmark, which mainly is the SPOT festival abroad (SPOT-Live).
How do you promote abroad?
-We do this by forming juries, and inviting business executives, journalist and other music affiliates from the countries where we are preparing to market Danish bands. The jury is then introduced to different Danish acts, and thereafter choose what bands would interesting to showcase, who they believe have the most potential. Its good in a way, that it creates a kind of co-ownership, the business itself get’s to choose, instead of us force feeding them with what we think ‘might’ be interesting, the market simply decides for itself, it fulfills it’s own demand.
Besides using the SPOT brand gives us a two sided effect, not only do we get to promote Danish bands, they promote SPOT, which strengthens the brand abroad and introduces new business associates to the festivals.
-The third aspect of MXD is how we build and expand knowledge and knowhow in and about the music business. We share this experience with the Danish and foreign associates, by holding seminars and courses throughout the year.
The MXD lunch is being held at a closed down brewery in the centre of Aarhus, this year’s theme seems to be angelic, young girls a bustling about in white gowns and fairy wings, greeting the participants with a scatter of rose petals handing out apples (the forbidden fruit I may guess). There is a steady stream of music officials and ambassadors turning up, many have been here before, while new faces look amazed and happy, a lot of chatting, while the free lunch is being ferociously consumed.
Jan Clausen is from Hamburg and the managing director of the PR Company Queen About Music. It’s his 6th time at the festival, which he first came in contact with first by working with the Danish band Tiger Tunes. This year he is working for the SPOT festival, doing PR for the SPOT-Live concerts and bands performing at Reberbahn festival in Hamburg, Popkomm, and doing PR for SPOT Festival and Roskilde Festival in Germany.
How MXD is unique compared to the German music business?
-Heh, the Germans don’t have any export of music, so not a lot of bands go out of the country, only big bands exported by the big major labels. Of course there are some things electronic wise, like this, but it isn’t much. But if you look at MXD there are a lot of bands in Germany now, and 5 to 6 years ago there started a lot of indie bands, like Figurines and Tiger tunes, WhoMadeWho, Veto, that have played a lot in Germany, so know the Danish music scene is well connected to the German. Talked to some people I heard them say Denmark is the new Sweden, so there is a lot of new and good acts coming out of Denmark, Sweden was always been popular so I think it’s excellent.
What do you use the MXD lunch for?
-Well for me it’s nice, because I get to see a lot of friends and colleagues. But I also have the opportunity to talk to journalists and connect them to the Danish music business.
Spot festival is perfect also in that way, it’s the right city, the right place, very well organized and the people really like it. A lot of journalist coming every year now, they just really like it, the way it’s hosted and stuff like this.
The lunch lasts for about an hour and a half, empty brown packages, cans of soda and downtrodden rose petals scatter the moments before white and clean landscape of the room. There are a lot of smiles, phones ringing, people talking, as they slowly vacate the building and travel towards the festival grounds. The first initial steps towards the days many concerts and meetings has started for the music business associates and officials. MXD is the vanguard, it has prepared them for the coming days, welcoming them in the most angelic of manners.
