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Last Monday (Nov 28) I attended (part of) the yearly conference about the future of Classical music.

Besides the fact that I’m a classical music lover, we’re also launching the SonicAngel – Festival van Vlaanderen partnership to enable young classical talent to get discovered, earn a record deal and have huge exposure at 2 major classical music events. I’m quite a fan actually, and even though I took my wife (girlfriend then) to a 4 hour Wagner opera as our first classical music concert, she still joins me often. For the anecdote, I still remember that Wagner evening though:
During the break after 90 minutes…

. She: “I’m glad it’s over, didn’t like it’
. Me: “It’s not over, it’s the first break”
. She: “The first?”
. Me: “Yep, it’s gonna be 2h30 more !”

That said, besides the content and meeting people full of passion, I also heard about the new music note that the government will hopefully approve this week. It unites all music related organisations, in a strong and forward looking plan that will benefit the entire industry. From preserving and promoting access to practicing music, to guiding in management and a lot of incentives on the evolution of distribution and connection (digital) and financial support. It can be the enabler of a strong turnaround of the sector, if all work united. Kudos to Stef Coninx (Chief Muziekcentrum Vlaanderen) & his team for taking the time to explain me the background and potential impact. I was also impressed to hear Philippe de Coene, a parliament member, who came forward to highlight the legislative counters of this reuniting note.

Guess we’ll hear a lot about it. Let’s do all we can to build an industry based on new principles, where the artist, the fan and all other players work together to find and break amazing talent, embrace the connection with the fans, and use technology as a means where it can solve the inefficiency of the sector. Maybe some entrepreneurs will step in again, in an industry that has mainly known downsizing, restructurings and more negative news. And believe me, more companies will go out of business, but I think we’re at a pivotal moment in time during which a new reality is being created.

Let’s go
bart

We started SonicAngel about a year ago in Flanders. In order to get things done, we (like many others) try to build bridges between the so-call ‘subsidized’ organisations and the ‘commercial’ organisations. Many of the Flemish initiatives are pretty heavily subsidized. Some are doing amazing jobs, and do all to support starting or emerging talent. 2 very hardworking organisations are Poppunt and Festival van Vlaanderen, but since I’m involved in both – I won’t sing their praise here.

However, some are also incredibly difficult to even get in contact with. MuziekCentrum Vlaanderen for example seems like a great and needed organisation, and I had a couple of talks during concerts with some of its managers, but it’s really impossible to even get a meeting at their office. Even if I live 200m from their offices

Also, we’re trying to work with the clubs. Some are incredibly open, and doing beyond their possibilities to support local talent. Some are  … well … Actually, I don’t get the attitude of some. But I’ll go in detail to share our learnings later on. We’re doing a WFL Clubtour with some of our bands plus some new talent, and will be visiting some of them in the weeks to come.

I’ll also try to sum up my view on what organisations are doing a lot, and which I think could do a lot better. The reason is that we need all organisation and initiatives at full strength to create perspective for beginning artists. It’s really tough out there, and youngsters need every chance and support they can get, especially if they are willing to give it all they have. As said earlier, that is a real condition. ‘Hard work without talent is a shame, but talent without hard work is a tragedy‘. And that counts for everyone.

bart