I am very well. I started this year by confirming some concert dates that make me very happy. Others I can even announce now. For instance, Ali Doğan Gönültaş with his trio in Urkult.I am sending you this letter from Brussels. Tomorrow I will attend a meeting in Gent of the board of the European Folk Network (EFN). By the way, the EFN has been granted in the program MusicAIRE, for the project of the European Folk Day. It has been publicly announced in the latest newsletter of the EFN. I invite you to be updated about this organization by signing up for that monthly newsletter (just fill in this form). Its latest edition is somehow connected with this one of Mapamundi, but it is just by chance. The featured artist of the month is Balogh Kálmán, the fantastic Hungarian Roma cymbalonist. There you will find a small tribute to him and some brief memories of those times, 23 years ago, when I had much more difficult access to this musics than I do now.

And our protagonist for today is also Hungarian. One of the aims of this newsletter is to understand the events, paths and passions that lie beneath the delicate fabric of cultural management related to the activity of the kinds musics that Mapamundi Música work with. We see who is where, who does what, but I often wonder how that person came to be responsible for the decisions that shape the circuit of world, traditional and folk musics. I really enjoyed it and I am very grateful to András Halmos for revealing some of the keys to his development to become the head of programming at the House of Music Hungary. A position that sounds fascinating as well as a great responsibility. My path and his are very different, but there is something about what he explains that I understand very well and that many who read this will surely understand too: this need, this impeliment, to create spaces for the dissemination of the music we love.

I won’t go on any longer and I’ll give way to him. And under the interview there is some other information that I hope will be of interest to you.

My first approach to András Halmos has been through his role as head of programming of the House of Music Hungary (Magyar Zene Háza, in Hungarian)”. It is a building which is itself a work of art designed by Sou Fujimoto and which opened a year ago, in January 2022. Here is a photo below, which I have taken from the Facebook page of the organisation, and here is a gallery of impressive photos of the building outside and inside.

But András’ profile, like that of many of the people who appear on these pages, is not monolithic. He is also a musician. You can listen to a playlist about the albums he has played on while you read the interview. Moreover, years before assuming his role at the Zene Háza, he was already artistic advisor and concert booker for the MÜPA. But it is he himself who will explain his professional path.

I am very grateful to András for his generosity in answering all my questions.

Mapamundi Música: Your website enumerates your activities as a drummer and as a concert programmer but, could you tell us a bit more about your background? How did you start in music? 

András Halmos: I started playing the drums at the age of 17 and I got into it quite intensively. Soon, I joined various bands, and I was lucky enough to play with more advanced players than I was at that time.

At the beginning, my main inspiration was the music of the 60’s (singer-songwriters, psychedelic rock, blues, etc.), then I began to be influenced by jazz and Indian classical music. For the latter, my entry point was a concert by Sultan Khan and Zakir Hussain, that was a revelation to me. Later on, while I was playing in a jazz big band (organised by Mediawave Festival for 3 consecutive years), I had the opportunity to play and learn from drummer Hamid Drake and double bass player William Parker, they also had a huge impact on me. They drew my attention to Moroccan Gnawa music, also to the African origins of jazz. By that time, I had become interested in traditional music from all over the world.

I was listening to amazing bands and musicians who had never played in Hungary, and I also saw many while I was on tours abroad, so I decided to find a part time job as a music programmer. It took three and a half years of searching and applications before I won the trust of the director at the Trafo House of Contemporary Arts and became their concert programmer in 2004. This venue is mainly for contemporary dance, but they had 2 concerts each month, and I was given the freedom to experiment in new territories. I’ve focused on music that had only rarely or never been heard in Hungary before. These were really good times. As it turned out, there was a demand for these kinds of concerts and somehow this music profile gained a reputation in some local circles.

• The Balkan World Music Chart has announced the annual chart of 2022.  In the previous edition I announced that the album Throisma, by Antonis Antoniou, released by Ajabu! was #1 in World Music Charts Europe. Well, it is the #1 in the Balkan World Music Chart too. The Bosnian band Divanhana, with their album Zavrzlama, released by CPL Music, is #2. And the aforementioned, Ali Doğan Gönültaş, with his self-produced debut album Kiğı, is #3. Check the top 20 on the website.

• Fira Mediterrània de Manresa, open call for showcases. DEADLINE SOON. It will take place from 5 to 8 of October in Manresa, Catalonia. The call for artistic proposals is open here until 19th of January at 24h. The participation rules are available here.

• Babel Music XP has announced the artistic program. You can check it here. The registration of stands and the accreditations is open. The long-awaited fair in Marseille is finally approaching. “From the 23 – 25 March 2023, BABEL MUSIC XP will make Marseille the economic and cultural epicentre of the music industry. With its professional trade fair at the Friche La Belle de Mai and world music festival open to the general public at the Dock des Suds, BABEL MUSIC XP is firmly at the heart of the Mediterranean hub on the world music map.”  For now and until February 01st, the small stand (3m2) costs 500€ and includes 2 accreditations, 1 table, 2 chairs, light and electricity, wifi, trashcan. The standard unit (6m2) costs 670. The price will be increased on February 2nd. The accreditation for a person costs 129 euros and I don’t see any deadline or date for an increase of cost. Check the official information on their website.

• »FolkHerbst« (Folk Music Autumn), open call. 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.

It is not easy to define Daryana in the context of a particular organisation or initiative because she has several lines of activity. She is a regular in the global world music community. She is the initiator of the Russian World Music Chart, but she is also a musician, she is also a panellist of the Transglobal World Music Chart, she has her background in media… so I will just mention her by name and let her explain her professional framework. Like many other Russian cultural figures who have been able to leave, she is now out of the country and exposed to great uncertainty. I find her statements courageous and I am very grateful to her.

Mapamundi Música: Your activities in music are both as an artist and as a disseminator. What was first?

In the previous edition I talked with Davide Mastropaolo about Italian World Beat and about Napoli World, the second showcase and conference organiced by them, after the edition in Pistoia in 2021.

From Wednesday 7th to Saturday 10th we attended 19 showcases (the complete program is here) and two panels. I enjoyed specially the showcase by Alessio Arena, who performed in a trio, with a Portuguese guitar player and a cellist, and him singing and playing the guitar. And in a totally different style, Ars Nova Napoli.

Another of the highlights was this kind of spontaneous performance at the door of the theatre. Indeed they were some of the musicians that would play that night and it was a very nice and unexpected moment of popular music and dance in the street.

One of them was by Gigi di Luca, director of the festival Ethnos, who gave a very meaningful lecture about the vision of the festival, which goes far beyond generating entertainment or aesthetic enjoyment. He explained some situations in which the festival has responded to complicated events that have taken place in and around the Naples community. He explained for example the two occasions when Miriam Makeba performed at the festival, in a decision specifically against racism and the camorra, and that the second time, she ended the concert early because she felt unwell and shortly afterwards died in Castel Volturno, a town 30 minutes from Naples. Gigi explained how 10 years later, at the tribute concert to Nelson Mandela and Miriam Makeba, a dove was present the whole time on stage, suggesting that the soul of the South African artist was accompanying them on this occasion.

The whole programme took place as planned by the production team and I hope it will give them a lot back. If nothing unforeseen happens, the next year, Napoli World will take place again.

In addition to the concert programme, the city is undoubtedly also picturesque and the planning allowed for a few moments of sightseeing. I invite you to take a look at my four photo collections: first, second, third, forth.

And here we are, almost all the international delegates (some left earlier that day) with Fabio Scopino and Davide Mastropaolo, the main forces behind Italian World Beat:

• Transglobal World Music Hall has announced the inductees for 2022: 

ARTISTS
The Artists category honors solo and ensemble living artists who have achieved lifelong artistic and technical quality or historical significance in the field of world music.

• Salif Keita
• Debashish Bhattacharya
• Danyèl Waro
• Oumou Sangare
• Milton Nascimento

INDUSTRY AND MEDIA EXCELLENCE
Industry and Media Excellence celebrates influential music industry and media individuals and organizations who have provided increased visibility and recognition to world music and its multiple subgenres.

• Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM) (& director Dr. Ahmad Sarmast)
• Ian Anderson
• Ben Mandelson

IN MEMORIAM
In Memoriam includes posthumous inductions that honor historically inventive and influential artists or industry professionals who passed away in previous years or decades.

• Paco de Lucía
• Djivan Gasparyan
• Mariem Hassan
• Fela Kuti
• Miriam Makeba

All the credits of the pictures are on the website.

• The World Music Charts Europe (WMCE) has released their chart of the year 2022, with 854 nominated releases. You can check the list of the first 200 here. Throisma, by Antonis Antoniou, released by Ajabu!, is on the #1. Thank you for the great work, Milan Tesař as coordinator of WMCE and all the panelists of WMCE!

• Fira Mediterrània de Manresa, open call for showcases. NEW IN THE NEWSLETTER. It will take place from 5 to 8 of October in Manresa, Catalonia. The call for artistic proposals is open here until 19th of January at 24h. The participation rules are available here. If you are thinking of submitting a proposal, it is very important that you read this page because it gives a very good orientation of what the Fira’s areas of interest are. Also, bear in mind that they do not only programme music, but also performing arts and popular culture and associationism proposals. The Fira will be 26 years old in 2023 and has a well-developed vision and objectives, so it is important to understand this to assess whether your proposal can fit in.

• Babel Music XP has open the registration of stands and the accreditations. NEW IN THE NEWSLETTER.  The long-awaited fair in Marseille is finally approaching. “From the 23 – 25 March 2023, BABEL MUSIC XP will make Marseille the economic and cultural epicentre of the music industry. With its professional trade fair at the Friche La Belle de Mai and world music festival open to the general public at the Dock des Suds, BABEL MUSIC XP is firmly at the heart of the Mediterranean hub on the world music map.”  For now and until February 01st, the small stand (3m2) costs 500€ and includes 2 accreditations, 1 table, 2 chairs, light and electricity, wifi, trashcan. The standard unit (6m2) costs 670. The price will be increased on February 2nd. The accreditation for a person costs 129 euros and I don’t see any deadline or date for an increase of cost. Check the official information on their website.

• For artists settled in the USA.   Applications are open for the 2022-23 cycle of the Performing Arts Discovery (PAD) Showcase program — an international virtual showcase opportunity for U.S.-based performing artists who are ready to tour internationally. “Applications are open to music, dance, and theater artists/ensembles with a demonstrated capacity to tour internationally. 25 artists/ensembles will be selected for this year’s cohort by a diverse panel of peers from across the country“Applications will close on January 6, 2023 at 11:59pm PT. Learn more and apply, here.

• »FolkHerbst« (Folk Music Autumn), open call. 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.

Last WOMEX I was invited to Napoli in December. I really didn’t know well what was it about but as I trust Davide and Fabio Scopino, I was sure it would be interesting so I accepted. Now I know that the event is Napoli World.

The website of the city council of Napoli explains that: “The first edition of Napoli World, the showcase festival that brings together the artistic directors of the most prestigious international world music festivals, will take place in the Quartieri Spagnoli.
The first major b2b event by Napoli Città della Musica – a project for the development of the music industry desired, promoted, and financed by the municipal administration – is Napoli World 2022 […]. The general organisation is entrusted to Italian World Beat, under the artistic direction of Davide Mastropaolo and Fabio Scopino, who have chosen Naples, after the 2021 edition in Pistoia, for the second round of the itinerant Music Connect Italy event. […]. Napoli World 2022 is in partnership with RAI Campania and RAI Radio Live.“

On the website of MusiConnect Italy you can find more information and the call for artists from the region.

Davide leads the record label Agualoca Records, that has released albums by quite appreciated artists like Maria Mazzotta or Fanfara Station. Don’t miss a visit to the link. And on this occasion we will talk with him about Italian World Beat.

Mapamundi Música: When was the Italian World Beat Network born?

Davide Mastropaolo: Italian World Beat has been an idea of Fabio Scopino, my friend and colleague. We were as world music professionals (I was leading my label Agualoca Records at that time, Fabio was involved in the management of a couple of Italian artists) at WOMEX in Santiago de Compostela in 2016, and we realized that every country was represented EXCEPT Italy.

Our friends from Puglia Sounds lead a stand – but dedicated to they regional proposals – and the other Italians around were there as single delegates. Our institutions at that time were not interested in supporting us so we decided kind of a DYI: we started with a website and we proposed to all the Italians to be under an umbrella stand for the next fairs (Babel Med in 2017 has been our official debut). We did a budget to have a stand big enough, a catalogue and some people working actively to make connections, and we started going around the world promoting out idea

MM: What is its legal form? I am not sure if you are a not for profit or a business.

DM: We have intended this as private investors since the very beginning, as we realized that our function was basically to create opportunities for Italian professionals in the world music environment. Apart from a small fee covering catalogues and stands costs, Fabio and I carried on all the expenses with our resources. Just last year for the first time, and in partnership with a cultural association we got our first public fund, and we did the first Musiconnect Italy showcase festival in Pistoia, Tuscany

MM: For your About website, I see the objectives are very concrete and focused on business. Do you guys have any other objectives that are not explained there?

DM: In the last year a lot of thing are changing. Now there is a public office helping Italian professionals in some activities – Italia Music Export – and this year at WOMEX for the first time there were an Italian stands area (including Puglia Sounds, Emilia Romagna Music Commission, Italia Music Export and us) together with an offWomex Italian night. We are proud to have been a start up for this networking approach and we are going further this way organizing our second edition of Muisconnect Italy in Napoli. This is gonna be our main activity in the next future.

MM: I see there are some criteria for the selection of the artists and the promoters. I am not sure if I understand you right. It is not an association based on membership, is it?

DM: It’s mainly a virtual space where you can find Italian professionals linked in some way to the world music environment in its widest sense. It’s quite smart. we don’t ask any fee, we just offer a space an our contacts and links in order to encourage the growth of the Italian world music scene.

MM: On the page of Contacts of the website I see three people: you, Davide, who are the management and label director, Fabio Scopino (General Management) and Sara Gigante (coordinator for Balkan and Middle East Area). On the Catalogue there is also Eric van Monckhoven, as referent for Nordic and Baltic countries. Are you four all the structure or do you have more collaborators? If so, which is the current structure? How do you organize between yourselves?

DM: As we started in a very spontaneous way, all our long terms friends were invited to play a role following their skills and natural approach. At the moment I am mostly in charge of the label (we released 2 albums so far but we have more releases in our plans for the future) as it’s what I did for years with Agualoca Records, while Fabio is more oriented into networking and management issues. Everything is in transformation but we believe in collaborations and sharing as best practices to be done. 

MM: How are you economically supported?

DM: Our own investments, and sometimes (recently) public and private support.

MM: What is going to happen in the event that you are organizing in Naples in December?

DM: Our showcase festival, based in Napoli and supported by the local administration, will offer 17 free concerts by Neapolitan bands in 3 wonderful locations plus 3 guests from Spain, Morocco and Capo Verde following our established partnerships with MUM (Extremadura), Visa For Music and Atlantic Music Expo. We have 30 International delegates plus local professionals. It will be amazing and I am working together with Fabio to make it happen properly. 

MM: As I will be there, I will come back with more information, of course, but, at the moment, do you want to share any ideas, information or insights?

DM: We launched recently a call to select 5 local projects to perform in front of our delegates. In the next days the official program will be shared via internet and socials. 

On the previous edition of this newsletter I already talked about Sébastien Laussel and his incorporation as the director of Zone Franche.

I bring again this paragraph about the organization: “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.

And I announced I would make some questions to Sébastien and he has kindly answered. So, here you are! 

Mapamundi Música: Your website is very complete and full of useful and inspiring information. There is one thing that is not so deeply explained, that is how it began. Who were the first members, the people who decided to start the organization? Did they have any specific, concrete objectives at that time, that you could share with us?

Sébastien Laussel: The first members were its founders, namely bookers, festival programmers and journalists (Christian Mousset, Frank Tenaille, François Bensignor, etc.). They had known each other well since the end of the 1970s, exchanged information on their practices, and after about ten years, they wanted to formalise these discussions by creating a network in order to make their difficulties heard by the institutions, and to be able to better exchange information on their ways of working within the World Music sector.

Thus, created in 1990, the Zone Franche network was built on the basis of cooperation, seen as a political ambition on one hand, and on the other hand, as a professional practice guided by a set of values.

Its creation was primarily a response to the isolation felt by professionals in the fields of dissemination, production and promotion of world music. Since its beginnings, Zone Franche has been a tool at the service of world music professionals, representing the entire musical ecosystem (festivals, venues, labels and publishers, artist representatives, media, cultural associations, markets, etc.).

MM: Nowadays, Zone Franche has 180 members. Some of your members are not in France. For instance, Crossover Sounds, they are in Dresden, Germany. There are members in Belgium, Morocco, Cameroun, Armenia,… I imagine that there must be a relation of these members with France, is this the case, or can any entity related to world music, from any other country, be associated?

SL: In extenso, the statutes of Zone Franche define the organization’s objective as “bringing together in an international network the professionals representing the entertainment, recording, cultural and media companies involved in the development of world music (traditional and urban music).
In short, the prerequisite to be a member of Zone Franche is to wish to gather around the values of cultural diversity, defined in our ethical charter adopted in 2001 and available on our website. There is therefore no notion of frontier: any foreign structure can be a member without necessarily being linked to a French organisation, the link will be the network! 

MM: If any organization that fulfills the requirements can join, no matter the country it is from, first, are you guys interested in having members from other countries? If so, what would you say to encourage them to join?

SL: Zone Franche is interested in welcoming members from other countries (European and non-European) to encourage cultural openness and exchanges. The networking encounters take place in France for economic reasons and this is probably a hindrance to maintain the international dynamic. However, today, thanks to our webmedia AuxSons.com, this collaboration is facilitated by writing and sharing of articles, playlists, and shining light on the activities of foreign members.

MM: I’d like to tell you that I knew about Zone Franche from before but I had never paid such attention as now that I met you in WOMEX and I feel very aligned with the ideas you explain. For instance, “Ils en sont les artisans parfois sous-valorisés, des “passeurs” entre les artistes et le public. Leur travail est nécessaire aux artistes et indispensable pour le public. Sans leur “médiation”, nombre d’œuvres resteraient inconnues, réservées aux communautés ou à quelques curieux avertis. La formidable diversité des cultures resterait ignorée d’un vaste public.” One of the objectives of this newsletter is to contact a global community that I perceive that exist, that is huge and very diverse, with members who face many different obstacles but that share a common vision in trascendental issues of human life. At some step in the future, I would dream of a global association, similar to yours, for the whole planet. I’d like to ask you if you know other organizations with this similar vision as yours, in other countries. And, if there is any, do you maintain any kind of communication or collaboration?  

SL: Zone Franche was, it seems, the first international network to bring together in a single organisation different categories of actors (festivals, venues, labels and publishers, artists’ representatives, media, cultural associations, markets, etc.) with the common aim of defending and promoting World Music and artists. Today, similar networks are being created. We have identified like-minded institutions, for example, the Belgian Worldwide Music Network, which brings together all the Belgian stakeholders (French and Flemish speakers); alba Kultur, in Germany, or the Music In Africa Foundation (based in Johannesburg, SA). At the European level, the European Folk Network is participating in this dynamic union. Projects and collaborations are in progress and we have to build bridges, because what counts above all is to defend cultural diversity, a real challenge in a historical period where we face the threats of cultural isolationism around sectarian and enclosed identities.

MM: About the Charter of World Music, I have to tell you that it is great and I think it should stop the unfruitful debate about the term “world music”. The first version was adopted in 2001. The current version is from 2015. Do you have any plan to revise and perhaps update it? Not that I miss anything, but I see that you are spearheading the reflection.

SL: Currently, we have two coexisting versions of the charter: the version adopted in 2015, which has been widely printed and disseminated. It can be found on the Zone Franche website in a somewhat different version: it has since included a chapter on gender equality, since the 2020 General Assembly:

“# Equality between women and men

The signatories of the Charter commit to act for real equality between women and men:

We have not made an “official” print re-edition of the charter because this aggiornamento is still in progress with the aim of producing a final modified version in the form of an “International World Music Charter”. 

MM: Sébastien, you are the new director, you have been in the position for around 2 months. Can you tell me if you have anything new in mind for the near future?

SL: I have indeed recently arrived at the network’s management and in an intense period of activity: my first day of work started on the train! I headed to Bordeaux (a city in the South of France) for the ¡Franchement! festival created by Zone Franche. Then followed the various fairs (MaMA, WOMEX…). It was more a matter of action than a reflection, but a very useful action because it allowed me to meet very quickly many of the network’s members, its partners, and the national and international ecosystem of World Music.

I have long noticed that many artists do not have a website and do not have a mailing list to collect the contacts of their followers. They rely on third parties, such as Instagram or Facebook, to contact their fans. There are known cases of hacked Facebook accounts with thousands and thousands of followers, which have never been recovered.

But let’s say nothing this tragic happens. Every now and then the conditions change and the visibility of posts can decrease from one day to the next and you have no control over what happens. I don’t think it’s a good idea to leave this contact with your community in the hands of third parties who use you to monetise you in the way that suits them best. That’s why what Will was telling me resonated with me. So the next few questions are specifically about your content hosting and monetisation platform project for artists.

I met Will during the pandemic. Of course, only digitally. He was doing a series of interviews with people from the, let’s say, industry, and he interviewed me. Since then, we have been following each other and he is a really restless guy, and in this conversation he is going to give us a very concrete vision aimed at solving a need that I think many artists have. He will also help us to define some concepts that, al least me, didn’t have so clear.

Mapamundi Música: First of all, please, describe what your platform provides for the artist or for the managers. Some of the recipients of this newsletter are that profile of professionals. 

Will Villa: Hi. I am Will Villa, Artist & Engineer and also CEO of the SQRZ Agency. We make websites with Superpowers for Artists & Agencies…not those old boring websites blogs… Our sites include Membership Platforms, Marketplaces, Booking Platforms, gated Content and more. Giving Artists the power to control and monetize their content in an inexpensive way. 

MM: Please, define some concepts: gated content, membership platform, booking platform, marketplace. 

WV:

MM: Which is the unsolved problem that you want to resolve with the platform? 

WV: The beautiful thing is that there are many problems to solve, and today´s so-called No-Code tools allow us to develop digital products at a fraction of the cost.
I had my first website for my DJ Brand back in 2006. My friend helped me set it up for a friendly price.
But maintaining it was the bigger challenge. It was a pain for me to make changes or update the site.
And I know many artists struggle with this, they don´t want to be part-time developers.
That´s why we created a collection of Website Templates for Artists. They are super easy to set up and maintain, no need to hire developers for every little change. 

MM: To which extent the user has the control of the visitors / subscribers? I see an obvious issue about this with the usual social media platforms, that you can’t really control the communication with your followers and sometimes you can even lose your account because it is removed or it can be hacked and you lose all those contacts.  

WV: That´s true, that’s why I want to focus on the aspect of direct-to-consumer markets.
In my opinion, today is the greatest age to be an independent musician. There are all these tools out there that allow us to take our intellectual property and keep control over production, distribution & monetization.
But it’s also a challenge, keeping up with the platforms and understand what those 270 pages of terms & conditions actually mean.
For example, many website builders will not allow users to export the code, thus binding them forever to their hosting plan.
Now because of this, we work particularly with Webflow.
Our sites can export their code & Database and would allow users to move to another provider later. It always depends on the use case, but it’s always important to own your work & your contacts. 

MM: Does the client need any knowledge of making websites? 

WV: Our sites have an Editor and a Designer.
The Editor makes it super easy for clients to change text/images/video/links without changing anything dramatic on the site.
Deeper changes can be made in the Designer. To be honest, the designer has a learning curve and can be a handful, but that’s why we developed our template library. So the client only has to copy/paste a section and put the new info in. 

MM: How do you resolve the payments for the monetized contents? 

WV: We offer Membership platforms, subscriptions & Downloadable Products.
We stay away from dropshipping and fulfillment solutions. As earlier mentioned it becomes an issue of control & accountability.
That’s why we focus on Content Creators or Digital SAAS Products (software as a service) who have complete control over their IP & Production.
So what does this mean for your artist? Well, maybe they could create behind-the-scenes, how-to-videos, live-streamings, or downloadable products.
And charge a monthly fee to get access to the gated content.
With a few hundred real fans an artist can create a stable and recurring income. 

MM: Which is the cost for the user? 

WV: As mentioned, today´s tools allow us to create incredible things for a fraction of the effort.
Our Page-Templates take only a couple of minutes to set up.
One page costs only 250$ and includes the Webhosting for the first Year.
I will implement the site personally during our zoom call. After transferring the site to the clients’ account they can enter into the Editor and change text & image.

Now some bigger websites can have superpowers such as searchable databases, Memberships, Subscriptions, Chatbots, Tracking, and more.
When I started to get quotes for an app just a few years ago, the estimated prices were ranging from 40 to 150K dollars and would take from 3-6 months to implement. Of course, this was never an option, so I started learning how to do it myself.
Now an App of this type today could probably be done with a budget of 5-15K, having the first usable results within weeks.

• Transglobal World Music Chart welcomes a new panelist: Magda Tejchma (on the picture). Check all the current panelists on the website.

• Applications to showcase at English Folk Expo are now open. NEW IN THE NEWSLETTER.
  Dates: 19-21st October 2023. Location: Northern Quarter, Manchester, UK.
  “The only showcase exclusively for folk, roots and acoustic music in England. English Folk Expo invites music industry representatives from the UK and beyond to network and discover amazing artists from this broad and diverse genre.”
  “All selected showcasing artists receive a fee and a Conference Pass which permits access to the conference programme (including the European Folk Network events) and the trade fair. Artists also receive a full listing (including booking contact information) in the delegates’ app.”
  Application deadline: Midnight, Sunday 15th January 2023. “We will aim to make final artist selections by April 2023”. For application, click here.

• For artists who live in Canada, have a Canadian passport, or are led by a Canadian; who have PR status or an application for PR or refugee claim: applications for Global Toronto are now open. NEW IN THE NEWSLETTER.
  “Global Toronto (GT) is a music showcase and conference rooted in building a sustainable, equitable, and accessible future for the music sector. It is a platform to discover great music, make connections, build community and create change. Global Toronto 2023 (GT23) will be held in Toronto from September 18-22, 2023.”
  Deadline: Friday, December 9th at 11:59pm EST. For FAQs and application, click here.

• For artists settled in the USA.  NEW IN THE NEWSLETTER. Applications are open for the 2022-23 cycle of the Performing Arts Discovery (PAD) Showcase program
  — an international virtual showcase opportunity for U.S.-based performing artists who are ready to tour internationally.
  “Applications are open to music, dance, and theater artists/ensembles with a demonstrated capacity to tour internationally. 25 artists/ensembles will be selected for this year’s cohort by a diverse panel of peers from across the country“Applications will close on January 6, 2023 at 11:59pm PT. Learn more and apply, here.

• »FolkHerbst« (Folk Music Autumn), open call. 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.

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.

• »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.

Hello, how are you? I’m very well, sending this letter from home after returning from Vienna, where I attended the last Friday the concert by Ali Doğan Gönültaş, that was really worthwhile to make that flash trip. He is with me in the portrait of this edition and I hope we’ll make many things together.

If you don’t know him yet, ➡️ here ⬅️ you have his album Kiğı, that is his personal look at the 150-year musical process of Kiğı, his birthplace, which consists of works in the regional languages of Krmancki, Kurmanci, Kirdaski, Armenian, and Turkish.

• Babel Music XP. NEW IN THIS NEWSLETTER. Aforementioned. It will take place in Marseille, France, from 23th to 25th of March 2022. The application for artists is open until October 16th. Application and terms and conditions, available here.

• European Folk Network annual meeting / Fira Mediterrània de Manresa. The anual meeting of the EFN is hosted by Fira Mediterrània de Manresa, that will take place from 6th to 9th of October. The registration for the Fira is open here. The program is here. And the complete program of the EFN meeting, with most of its activities open to the delegates, included the non-members of the EFN, is available here.

• English Folk Expo. NEW IN THIS NEWSLETTER. It will take place from 13th to 16th October in Manchester, England. If you are working in the music industry, in the UK or internationally, and interested in attending English Folk Expo Showcase, contact: Terry O’Brien by clicking here or at terry@englishfolkexpo.com.

• Pro/Press accreditation for Visa for Music 2022, open. “Accreditation requests are now open ! If you are a music professional or a journalist/media, ask for your accreditation by filling the google form linked to the button.” It will take place in Rabat, November 16th-19th.  To request the accreditation (it seems to be still open) click here.

• 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.

• Mundial Montréal, professional registration is open. Here. “Mundial Montréal is back for its 12th edition from November 15 to 18 in person and via its virtual networking platform from November 1 to 25!”

• Afro Pépites, two calls:
  • Call for artistic project: opens till 30/09/22. Not just music, but almost any kind of art. Learn more, here.
  • Call for talent-hunters: the Afro Pepites Show is a tool dedicated to talent-Hunters. “The committee members will receive the instructions by e-mail. You will have to select 5 musical projects and 5 other projects (painting, dance, sculpture, short film…), in the quiet of your home, between 03/10/22 and 23/10/22.” Learn more, here.

Daina Zalāne is the Head of Label and Culture Management Centre LAUSKA in Latvia, that, according to their website “is a partner for independent artists and groups active in various cultural fields. “Lauska” helps to professionally organize and implement different projects and creative ideas”. She is also a member of the board of the European Folk Network, thanks to which I have been in frequent contact with her over the last year.

According to their website “The Culture Management Centre “Lauska” was founded on 29 January 2003 with the aim to support cultural processes and professional culture management in Latvia”. I sent a few questions to Daina about their several lines of activity and here you are the answers. 

General questions about Lauska:

Daina Zalāne: When we started, we wanted to keep the topic as broad as possible because we didn’t exactly know, which route we are going to take. We were a group of friends all engaged in culture but from various angles. For example, in the beginning I was managing a small ceramics gallery and workshop in the Old Town of Riga, because the artists were friends of mine and they needed administrative help. My husband is a historian by education and he had several ideas about projects treating history, oral history and history of everyday life in particular, about collecting pictures, recordings, stories. Some of it we also realised.

But eventually we turned out to be the biggest folk label in Latvia, because that is where our strength lies – in our network in the Latvian folk scene which has broadened into an international network.

Also our Ethno Music Festival grew organically from small-scale concerts at the opening events of our releases which we organised in different places in Riga and outside. Eventually we started working with different municipalities, who wanted a folk music stage in their city festivals, and then we grew into a separate, full-scale festival.

MM: On your website I see you are 4 people. How do you manage to sustain the organization? Do you get any grants from the government or is it sustainable with the services and products that you provide?

DZ: Our NGO Lauska is not based on membership fees. As a matter of fact we are only two active members working on the projects. The NGO is merely a body from which to initiate and administrate cultural projects. Our main funding body in Latvia is the State Culture Capital Foundation where we can hand in projects 3-4 times a year to receive funding and realise them – be they recordings, releases or concerts or workshops.
From there we also receive an annual administrative grant to be able to pay a small salary, cover transport and office expenses.
In addition to that we also are partners or initiators in different international projects, funded by Creative Europe or EEA Grants.
There is also some income from the CDs, books and vinyls we sell, but it is decreasing rapidly and we mainly keep the shop so that all our releases are easily available, as our mission is to spread information about traditional culture nowadays as widely as possible.

About the festival: 

DZ: The Valmiermuiža Ethno-Music Festival actually grew out of a compilation that we release every other year – SVIESTS. There we collect recordings of the folk groups and projects that are currently active in the scene in Latvia. As we always organise some concert or other event on the occasion of a new release, this compilation with 18-20 groups already asked for a festival.

The first five years we were located in the beautiful medieval town Cēsis, as part of the city celebration in the middle of the summer. But then we got a new partner – the Valmiermuiža brewery, that is located in a beautiful old mannor park, so there we now have the festival at the beginning of the Northern summer, in Mid-June, just before Midsummer. Our festival is slowly growing, in 2022 we already had two stages and two nights of concerts and other events. During the day there is a crafts and farmer’s market with local produce, as well as many activities for children and families, where they can learn about traditional crafts, natural materials and their use, traditional games and horse riding, etc. In the afternoon the musical programme starts with Latvian and international groups, that play what we call “post-folklore”.

When inviting groups from abroad, we are always looking for some special feature – maybe they are playing music from a specific region, singing in a special local language or dialect, or playing some specific local instrument, which people haven’t heard before and thus we can tell the stories about local nuances, diversity that adds colour to our global cultural landscape.

When darkness sets, one of the high-lights of the festival each year is the burning of the fire sculpture prepared by the Valencian artist Jordi NN.

TheEthno Festival „SVIESTS” reflects traditional culture and its different expressions that are based on their immediate environment and tradition, and thus can be understandable also for contemporary people who live in this same environment. The music in this festival is based on folklore and tradition that has passed the test of time and sounds authentic and enjoyable also nowadays.

Sviests – Butter – is a pure product, the best one can get from milk. In this time of margarine we invite to realise and return to values that have stood the test of time. Real values that we can enjoy and be proud of. It takes hard and accurate work to churn butter from milk and cream, to reach the stage when the unnecessary is separated and only the most valuable stays.

This is what the music groups in SVIESTS do – they explore and research the ancient traditional music and churn, churn until the very essence appears and the nowadays topical and unheard appears.

SVIESTS – “butter” – also has a slightly ironic meaning, because  until recently we could often hear about traditional or ethno-music a certain attitude – „kas tas par sviestu!” meaning  – “what is this rubbish” (literally “this is butter!”).

The main challenges

DZ: The main challenges of the festival and overall the cultural sector featuring live events is convincing the audience to attend. Especially after the pandemic, when people spent two years glued to the screen, it is very difficult to motivate them to buy tickets in advance – because the experience is that regulations can change quickly and concerts can be cancelled on short notice. Also people are not so ready to attend events where they don’t know exactly, what to expect. When the music groups are not mainstream, it requires a certain risk-taking to decide to spend time and money to go to a festival where one can be surprised by the diverse music and multitude of sounds from different parts of the world. But we are determined to carry on and provide this experience to people.

In one sentence: It is sometimes difficult to exactly describe, what the sound will be like, but I want to assure, that attending Valmiermuiža Ethno Music Festival will be an enriching and eye- and ear-opening experience you will not regret!

As I am directly involved on this event, as part of the board of the EFN, I can tell you that this is going to be a thilling event, combining a carefully designed program by the EFN with the usual know-how and good taste of the Fira Mediterrània.

• Pro/Press accreditation for Visa for Music 2022, open. “Accreditation requests are now open ! If you are a music professional or a journalist/media, ask for your accreditation by filling the google form linked to the button.” It will take place in Rabat, November 16th-19th.  To request the accreditation, click here.

• 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.

• Mundial Montréal, professional registration is open. Early-bird rate available, here. “Mundial Montréal is back for its 12th edition from November 15 to 18 in person and via its virtual networking platform from November 1 to 25!”

• Afro Pépites, two calls:Call for artistic project: opens till 30/09/22. Not just music, but almost any kind of art. Learn more, here.
  • Call for talent-hunters: the Afro Pepites Show is a tool dedicated to talent-Hunters. “The committee members will receive the instructions by e-mail. You will have to select 5 musical projects and 5 other projects (painting, dance, sculpture, short film….), in the quiet of your home, between 03/10/22 and 23/10/22.” Learn more, here.

• Three calls from MOST, deadline: 28 August (Sunday), midnight: 
  • For festivals and cultural venues from any Creative Europe member state: Festival & Club Exchange
  • Only for South East European countries: Balkan Music Export (for musicians) and Management Training (for beginner/aspiring managers).

• Mobility grants to book Spanish artists, by Acción Cultural Española. The dates and conditions for this grants have been dramatically enhanced. The official information is here.

Two weeks ago it took place the conference WOMBA. I have spoken about it before, and also about the framework in which this initiative takes place, which is MOST – The Bridge for Balkan Music (you can learn more and read an interview here).

Among the talks and panels there were two that were of particular interest to me. One was the Hidden and Authentic Balkans / Touring panel, moderated by Dejan Vujinović and featuring presentations by Dragi Šestić, Kim Burton and Bojan Đorđević. You have a pretty comprehensive summary of this panel in the latest newsletter of the European Folk Network, which is available here. I strongly encourage you to read it and also to subscribe to that newsletter. You can register, here.

And the other was Ben Mandelson’s opening talk, which had two big themes: the birth and concept of “world music” and the reasons for wanting to export an artistic proposal. I liked his talk very much because I feel that his approach to it was intended to be really useful and he succeeded. He was very direct, he told a lot of things in such a short time and at the same time, it was very easy to follow him, even for not native speakers of English, like me. It is not always easy to understand native speakers of British English. Some don’t realise it, because the rest of us speak their language. But some of us speak what I call “International English” 🤣. I’m sure you get it! It was not the case of Ben, he was understandable. I will summarise him here below.

But before Ben, Ivan Petrovic, President of the Managing Board at EXIT Foundation, made a brief intervention. You should know that this whole WOMBA event was hosted by the EXIT Foundation, associated to the huge EXIT festival. The concerts programmed through MOST took place on a stage within the EXIT festival. Well, it is to be welcomed that this huge festival, which is a wonderfully organized and I was impressed with the immense production and communication work involved in a festival of this size, hosted this stage within the framework of WOMBA.

Well, Petrovic explained that for the last 11 years they had eliminated the world music stage because they had surveyed their audience and their audience didn’t go to the festival because of the world music stage. Well, that’s logical. The audience at that festival is probably going for artists like Nick Cave or Sepultura, who were on this year’s line-up. But whether or not to keep a world music stage at a festival like this, with more than 20 stages, I don’t think it’s a decision to be made like that. If the objectives of the festival are just commercial, it doesn’t make much sense to put resources into a stage for that, but if the objectives are, in addition to the economic sustainability of the festival, to reflect the diversity of the world’s cultures, then it would make sense to have that stage for the minority part of the public that might be interested, and also to create that space and give visibility to the existence of these non-mainstream musics. A foundation has no profit purpose so I understand other objectives must be there, besides satisfying the majority of the public.

In any case, this year there was a stage that was explained as the recovery of the world music stage, the “Pachamama stage”. But it was not very successful in terms of amount of public and I would say also not in terms of programme. And it was super hidden too, so you really had to go on purpose, you wouldn’t find it by chance. But the most worrying issue was that in the same stage there were mixed two tipes of concerts: one, the programme of MOST, with artists from the Balkans, those selected in the project to accompany them in their development and internationalization (the duo of Daniel Lazar (Serbian) and Almir Mešković was my favourite). The other programm was called “conscious music”. Those were very long concerts between the others, which had nothing to do with the artists from MOST. Those “conscious musics” were proposals of a new age concept, so to speak, that could make sense in their own space for chilling out, but not in a supposedly world music stage, generating confusion. Anyway, if this is the idea of recovering the world music scene, it may be better if they did not because it will once again appear to be of no interest to the public and a self-fulfilling prophecy will occur.

In Serbia there are people who are exceptionally capable of developing a proposal under the concept of “world music”. Hopefully at some point they will have more resources to be able to reach a wider audience or they may be included in such a relevant event in a future to give some strengh to the world music stage.

I have said many times before how much I admire this MOST thing and it is really fantastic. It can’t all be perfect and this pachamama thing was not. I don’t know how much involvement had the team of MOST on this strange programme. Surely all involved will assess the rights and wrongs and we will be aware of their new proposals in the future.

Ben Mandelson’s speech

Ben explained about that mythical meeting where this miscellaneous set of music was baptized as “world music”. He explained that in 1987 there was no marketing concept of “world music”. A group of people, mainly from the UK, developed a marketing campaign to identify what was already there. They raised money for an ad campaign and voted for the name. They invested £3,250 in a three-month campaign. They started putting “File under: world music” on the records, so that the shops would know where to put the music and would make a space with that label. All this is no secret. The minutes of the meeting are publicly available, for example, here: Minutes Of Meeting Between The Various ‘World Music’ Record Companies And Interested Parties, Monday 29th June 1987. If you are interested in more details, you can read it. But what I liked most about what Ben said is that world music is a community. That’s all, your Honour.

No, obviusly that’t not all but I agree with all my heart with Ben. World music is what the world music community say it is world music. Bravo.

After this part, Ben talked about exportation of the music. He explained that the music is a symbolic system. Why are you going to export it? Which are your expectations? What are the reasons? He announced 5 elements to be ready to export:

And he added two more: educational will and systemic will.

He elaborated more for each of the reasons, of course, but I was listening instead of taking more notes, sorry! 🤣

OPEN CALLS AND PROFESSIONAL EVENTS

If you have anything to share in this section in a future edition, let me know. 

• The European Folk Network’s annual meeting, open registration. It will take place in Manresa during the Fira Mediterrània. The welcome to the attendants will be on Friday 7th of October and the day of talks and meeting will be on Saturday 8th. After the activities of the network, the attendants will be able to enjoy the showcases of the Fira. Non-members of EFN are very welcome to attend the conference and can register to access airport transfers and lunch, etc., but will pay their own hotel costs. More details and registration, here.

As I am directly involved on this event, as part of the board of the EFN, I can tell you that this is going to be a thilling event, combining a carefully designed program by the EFN with the usual know-how and good taste of the Fira Mediterrània.

👉 Check the Spanish artists I offer from Mapamundi Música, here. They are Vigüela, Entavía, Jako el Muzikante, Xabi Aburruzaga and Citra Trío.