Today’s edition of Sound Business comes with an unfamiliar structure—but also free to read. I want to examine a three-legged monster, the triangle of doom, if I may be a tad dramatic.
We’ll be looking at the latest news and longer-term trends in brief, which could have a fatal impact on the local music industry and are gnawing away at local music production on three fronts:
- Massive job cuts at SRG will hurt this last impactful platform for Swiss music.
- The club crisis shows no sign of ending, even though promising solutions are on the table.
- The majors are dropping their lawsuits and closing deals with AI music companies.
Some of this news and these shifts are hard to digest. And for me, their negativity always stands in stark contrast to the great music and work that is produced here in this country and abroad. It is tempting to say: there is still so much brilliant, handmade music out there—why all the doom and gloom?
However, deteriorating conditions are slowly eroding the foundations needed to produce high-quality, human-made music. Early intervention is necessary before everything rots to the point that the house collapses at the slightest breeze.