Algorithmic Invisibility

One year of Sound Business. When I sent out the first prototype in June 2025 from a hotel room in London, I gave this newsletter a year before assessing it. Since then, more and more people have joined, and I’ve received some great feedback.

While I’ve tried a couple of things throughout the past months, one thing hasn’t really changed: The urgent topics piercing the local music business from all sides. Whether it’s the flood of slop music into an algorithmic hellscape, structural imbalance, or the dust from the next club being demolished.

It’s just a feeling, but when I read how there’s still a lot of money floating around, it seems like the last attempt to harvest from a crop whose roots are already dried up and crumbling. But hey, once the leaves are withering, we can just put an AI filter on top of them, right?

Despite, or maybe just because of these challenges, I will continue writing Sound Business every month. To help shape year two, I’ve put together a short survey (yes, I know, nobody likes them), but it only takes 5 minutes out of your busy day. And it earns you my lifelong gratitude. Thanks for helping me out here.

P.S. This edition is free to read in full to mark one year of Sound Business. If you find it useful, consider upgrading to Professional.

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Headlines

IQ Magazine: Switzerland Market Report 2026

IQ Magazine published its Swiss market report for 2026 (paywalled), drawing on interviews with promoters, venue operators, and ticketing executives across the country. The headline number: Swiss live music generated €551m in 2024 (€461m in ticket sales, €90m in sponsorship), with PwC/Omdia projecting €599m by 2029. The market remains healthy yet deeply unequal. Here are my takeaways:

Why it matters: The report confirms what Sound Business has been reporting in the recent months. Revenue is concentrated at the top of a further consolidating ecosystem. Major international shows, established domestic artists, and big festivals are performing well (if they sell out). Everything below—independent club venues, grassroots artists, mid-tier promoters—is under structural pressure. And while many interviewees report the same problems, the club crisis is one of them, nobody is really talking solutions.
The venue crisis is now mainstream: Every promoter in the report flags it independently: no new arenas in Geneva or Zurich in the pipeline, club venues closing across Zurich due to gentrification. "The development for such projects takes at least 15 years," says Opus One MD Vincent Sager. This is the structural backdrop to the Komplex 457 closure and the grassroots levy debate.
- There has been an additional IQ report about the closing of Komplex 457, featuring Gadget's Stefan Wyss
- Following the PETZI Manifesto, Wochenzeitung has published a report on the club crises.
Ticketing consolidation deserves attention: The March merger of Ticketcorner and See Tickets under the Eventim umbrella gives CTS Eventim an estimated 70% share of the Swiss ticketing market, according to AllBlues/Bierhübeli CEO Dave Naef: "When ticketing, festivals, and artist agencies operate under the same umbrella, dependencies emerge, and they are felt most strongly at the lower end of the ecosystem. Smaller acts and emerging artists increasingly struggle to establish themselves outside these structures."
Festivals are under margin pressure: Paléo's breakeven sits at 100% occupancy. Sold out or loss-making, no middle ground—that's the cost reality of the modern festival, and it's getting worse. The summer market is saturated; Beatrice Stirnimann of Baloise Session asks the obvious question: "Why does every village need to have a festival?"
What needs to happen: The venue infrastructure gap won't be solved by the market. Political will is notably absent, and Switzerland's federalistic system gives no single actor the mandate to move. The ticketing consolidation definitely should be watched with scrutiny by regulators. And it's clear that the grassroots levy conversation becomes harder to avoid when we see these levels of structural imbalance across multiple aspects of the business.

Swiss Music Associations Sound Alarm on Algorithmic Invisibility

On 1 June, IndieSuisse, SONART, and the Schweizer Musikrat released a joint press release, responding to a new EU Commission study on the discoverability of European cultural content online and flagging Switzerland as a particularly exposed case. The undersigned associations call on politicians and the administration to establish appropriate framework conditions and provide up-to-date regulatory responses in order to effectively counter this undesirable trend in economic and cultural policy.

Core findings of the study: being on streaming platforms is no longer enough. What gets heard is determined by algorithmic recommendation and curated playlists controlled from international headquarters, with little knowledge of local scenes. Read the full report here.
Swiss perspective: With four national languages and a small, fragmented market, local music falls between multiple "language silos", further compounding the problem. Swiss artists releasing in English don't even register as Swiss, competing directly against the global English-language catalogue.
Critical thoughts: The press release also features a section directed at consumers and their role on pushing Swiss music's visibility, like dedicated search, curating your own playlists, or relying on curated playlists by labels or media. While these recommendations are certainly commendable, they do not change the underlying systematic problems inherently tied to the streaming model and its algorithms, especially not in a small and fragmented market as Switzerland.

Visa Launches Platform for the Swiss Music Scene

“Moving Music” marks the company's first engagement with music culture in Switzerland. The platform supports emerging artists, fans, and partners from different regions and genres. Their focus in 2026: intimate Studio Sessions where artists from across Switzerland meet and perform together. “We are investing in Swiss music culture because it allows us to bring our role as pioneers to life here,” says Santosh Ritter, Country Manager for Switzerland and Liechtenstein at Visa, according to persoenlich.com.

What to watch: The critical part to Moving Music's success will be the pool of potential artists with the breakthrough profile similar to Jule X and Milune, the first collaborative showcase, that also bring along the mainstream appeal a brand like Visa is probably interested in.
Déjà vu: The Visa project reminds me off riser, launched in 2023, which had a compareable approach on supporting newcomers. However, the project since pivoted significantly from its initial ideas.

Also Noteworthy

The Federal Office of Culture has revealed the winners of this year’s Swiss Music Prizes. The Swiss Grand Award of Music goes to yodeler Nadja Räss who also played a key role in ensuring that yodeling was included on UNESCO’s list of intangible cultural heritage.
Kanal K is running a crowdfunding campaign to equip its new studios at the KiFF 2.0, which is currently under construction. They have reached their initial goal of CHF 10'000 within 12 days.
Mouthwatering Record's Andreas Ryser speaks in the Helvetica Podcast about the business, promotion, and reach vs. fans.
SwissPerform rolled out a redesigned "respect ©opyright!" website in April 2026, expanding its longstanding school campaign to address new forms of content use: copying, editing, citation, and importantly AI-generated content.
Fondation Suisa published its 2025 activity report.

Parliament Watch

Motion 24.3944 – Eliminate harassment in copyright law for SMEs

The National Council is scheduled on Motion 24.3944 which would reduce the music licensing obligations that fund royalty distributions via SUISA and SwissPerform. Suisseculture, the umbrella body for Swiss arts organisations, called on the Council to reject the motion, arguing that royalties are already affordable (most SMEs pay under CHF 250/year) and are a critical income source for composers, performers, and producers at a time of growing financial pressure on creative workers. The outcome of the vote directly affects how much Swiss rights holders earn from background music in commercial premises.

Jobs & Opportunities

Finta Trainee 60–80% (ltd. to 6-12 months) at Grundiynkommen Agency.
Fondation Suisa's "Get Going!" 2026 funding round is now open: up to eight work grants of CHF 25,000 each are available for musicians with a connection to Switzerland or Liechtenstein. Deadline: July 15, 2026. Apply here.