With 2025 coming to a close, we‘re happy to present the new brand identity for Sound Business. Conceived by Julia from Studio Jumila, it sits between 70s and contemporary iconography: simple, elegant, and sincere, yet with a slight edge, and seamlessly connects with the overall design of Negative White.
Now, as Sound Business is growing, it finally looks the part. And I thank Julia wholeheartedly for her work and for the collaborative, inspiring process that led to the result.
Even before Negative White launched this newsletter in June, we had covered more business-related stories this year—sometimes even exclusively. Let’s quickly recap.
Early in 2025, I urged musicians to build their own spaces again and reduce their reliance on Silicon Valley social media platforms. Throughout the year, I’ve revisited this topic from different perspectives, including a macro view on how to build a sustainable local scene and an in-depth conversation with artist and developer Hilke on how to escape the tech broligarchy.
Speaking of broligarchy, one of the top-performing stories this year was our report on Spotify CEO Daniel Ek’s investment in an AI defence company. It sparked a steady wave of protest, with artists either leaving Spotify or prompting their fans to switch to another service. Later, cultural reporter Julian Riegel tried Qobuz, one of these alternative streaming services.
Two exclusive stories had a stronger local impact: First was the controversial booking of Bernarda at the m4music Festival, when Negative White could speak exclusively with festival director Philipp Schnyder. And of course, our investigation into the dubious Fashionpaper investment scheme targeting Swiss artists.
The music business is struggling with an interconnected, complex, and structural challenge. From the distribution ecosystem to AI-generated competition, from dying media coverage to reliance on ever more enshittified social media, from societal-political shifts to rising costs.
Internationally, some initiatives, like the „Grassroots Levy“ in the UK or the „Live Music Fund“, try to support smaller clubs and concert venues. Julian Riegel carried the idea to representatives of the local industry. You can read an excerpt of his report below, which also reveals that a third of Zurich’s clubs are operating at a loss.
Despite all these dark clouds on the horizon, I wish you a calm and enjoyable end of the year. Thank you very much for your interest and subscription to Sound Business. If you think this newsletter is valuable, share it with your peers.
And I’m already excited for 2026 and proud to announce we’ll host renowned songwriter and educator Andrea Stolpe for a 4-part series on maintaining creativity as a working songwriter.
Headlines
St. Gallen Cantonal Council jeopardises the digital events calendar „Minasa“
More than four years ago, Swiss culture magazine „Saiten“ and the organisation Thurgaukultur began collaborating with public and private partners to develop and operate the largest event calendar platform in eastern Switzerland. „Minasa“ is a public service and available free of charge.
However, in a short-notice change led by the far-right party SVP, the cantonal council of St. Gallen cut 195,000 Swiss Francs from the Lottery Fonds, which would have secured the operation and further development of the cross-cantonal digitisation project for the next three years, as Saiten writes in its press statement.
Council of States approves the amended motion for AI regulation
The motion 24.4596 for „Better protection of intellectual property against AI misuse“ by Councillor of States Petra Gössi has previously been amended by the National Council to be less restrictive than initially intended. Therefore, the Council of States again voted on the amended motion and accepted it on December 11. The motion has been transmitted to the Federal Council for implementation.
Nemo returns Eurovision Trophy
Swiss artist Nemo has sent his Eurovision Trophy back to the European Broadcasting Union in Geneva in protest of Israel’s continued participation in the song contest. „The contest was repeatedly used to soften the image of a state accused of severe wrongdoing, all while the EBU insisted Eurovision is ‚non-political‘,“ Nemo writes on their Instagram. Meanwhile, Spain, Ireland, Iceland, Slovenia, and the Netherlands have announced their boycott of 2026’s Eurovision Song Contest.
