website<\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nAnd I announced I would make some questions to S\u00e9bastien and he has kindly answered. So, here you are!\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n
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Mapamundi M\u00fasica: 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?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nS\u00e9bastien Laussel:<\/strong>\u00a0The first members were its founders, namely bookers, festival programmers and journalists (Christian Mousset, Frank Tenaille, Fran\u00e7ois 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.<\/span><\/p>\nThus, 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.<\/span><\/p>\nIts 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.).<\/span><\/p>\nMM: 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?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nSL:\u00a0<\/strong>In extenso, the statutes of Zone Franche define the organization\u2019s 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).
\nIn 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!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/div>\n“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!”<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/div>\n\n
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MM:\u00a0If 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?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nSL:\u00a0<\/strong>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.<\/span><\/p>\nMM:\u00a0I’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-valoris\u00e9s, des “passeurs” entre les artistes et le public. Leur travail est n\u00e9cessaire aux artistes et indispensable pour le public. Sans leur “m\u00e9diation”, nombre d\u2019\u0153uvres resteraient inconnues, r\u00e9serv\u00e9es aux communaut\u00e9s ou \u00e0 quelques curieux avertis. La formidable diversit\u00e9 des cultures resterait ignor\u00e9e d\u2019un 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? \u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nSL:<\/strong>\u00a0Zone 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.<\/span><\/p>\nMM: 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.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nSL:\u00a0<\/strong>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:<\/span><\/p>\n“# Equality between women and men<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nThe signatories of the Charter commit to act for real equality between women and men:<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n- by participating in the increase of women\u2019s representation on stage (musicians, technicians) in order to go towards parity,\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n
- by taking into account professional equality, particularly in positions of responsibility (board of directors, management, programming, etc.),<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n
- and by not tolerating any form of sexism, discrimination or violence of a sexist or sexual nature”<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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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”.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMM:\u00a0S\u00e9bastien, 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?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nSL:<\/strong>\u00a0I 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 \u00a1Franchement! 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\u2019s members, its partners, and the national and international ecosystem of World Music.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/div>\n“I intend to submit to the Zone Franche board the idea of organising the \u201cGeneral Estates of World Music\u201d in 2023, 10 years after those we held in 2013”<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n\n
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It is therefore still very early to announce new orientations for the network, even if I have ideas of course! In particular, I intend to submit to the Zone Franche board the idea of organising the \u201cGeneral Estates of World Music\u201d in 2023, 10 years after those we held in 2013 (a professional event meant to build a situational analysis of the world music sector, pointing out its assets, its difficulties and its needs). In this intense period, we have also imagined a European project “World Music for Green Europe”, following the climate convention led by Zone Franche in 2021 and 2022, and its report and recommendations. And many other ideas that it is still too early to reveal…<\/span><\/div>\nMM: Is there anything else that you would like to tell the readers?\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/mcusercontent.com\/993c677d53044839b1b39b2dc\/images\/544144e6-1844-f2fb-45d6-3c59d030a1b1.png\")
<\/a>SL:\u00a0<\/strong>We would like to highlight AuxSons.com, the collaborative webmedia we created to give more visibility to worldwide music, and the incredible diversity of aesthetics that are generally under the radar of the main media outlets. Aesthetics that otherwise require a lot of energy, work, networking and contacts to bring under the spotlight. On\u00a0AuxSons.com<\/a>, anyone can create an account to contribute with article proposals: short news, video clips, new albums. Our team then moderates the submitted content before publishing it, and sharing it on our social media and newsletter, if they comply with our specifications and our editorial line. Please contact auxsons@zonefranche.com if you want more information on how it works: the process is very simple and only takes a few minutes! Zone Franche members also have exclusive access to our \u201cagenda\u201d section where they can post their concert dates.<\/span><\/p>\nWe produce longer articles as well: they focus on certain styles, sometimes with regard to socio-political context, sometimes purely artistic, where a more in-depth analysis is provided as they are written by paid journalists or researchers. We also let the artists speak for themselves in our playlists: each week artists tell us about their inspirations and latest discoveries, bringing more diversity to the streaming platforms.<\/p>\n
Last but not least, #AuxSons also issues a print magazine once a year.<\/p>\n
THANK YOU, S\u00c9BASTIEN!\u00a0<\/strong>\ud83d\ude4f<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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AND NOW THE FLOOR IS FOR:<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\nWILL VILLA, FROM SQRZ AGENCY<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n
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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.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nBut 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.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nI 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.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
\nMapamundi M\u00fasica: 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.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nWill Villa:\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>Hi.\u00a0I am Will Villa, Artist & Engineer and also CEO of the SQRZ Agency<\/a>. We make websites with Superpowers for Artists & Agencies…not those old boring websites blogs…\u00a0Our sites include Membership Platforms, Marketplaces, Booking Platforms, gated Content and more.\u00a0Giving Artists the power to control and monetize their content in an inexpensive way.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
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<\/strong>Hello, how are you? I have started editing this newsletter still from home, although I will be in Tel Aviv when it is sent.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/mcusercontent.com\/993c677d53044839b1b39b2dc\/images\/eff81165-e740-398f-c138-b43aee224973.jpg\")
It has given me a lot of reflections and a certain sadness as well. Sadness because these songs have been on Youtube for 6 months and the one with the most views,\u00a0![](\"https:\/\/mcusercontent.com\/993c677d53044839b1b39b2dc\/images\/0be03dba-39cc-2966-99e1-6a9a05591d93.jpg\")
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On the previous edition of this newsletter I already talked about S\u00e9bastien Laussel and his incorporation as the\u00a0director of Zone Franche.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n