The biggest music business story of the month didn’t happen here. When Ed Sheeran’s tour dropped Macklemore after his “Free Palestine” statements, it wasn’t only about politics or how to handle a PR crisis, at least not from a business perspective. It was also venue owners telling a promoter who may appear on their stages, and every remaining support act walking out in response. Strip away the politics and you see the industry’s real power map: billionaires, not artists, not labels, not promoters, decide what a tour can contain. It is the same story as in distribution and promotion where billionaires control streaming platforms and social media algorithms.
This ties in perfectly to the publicly funded SRG selling its three music stations into the private sector. Who owns the airwaves? And how does that media sector look like? That’s what today’s second headline story reveals, and spoiler alert: not great.
Meanwhile, the trade press is starting to draw its lessons from the Sheeran/Macklemore fallout: IQ Magazine asked legal and insurance experts what the industry should learn. Their prediction: speech protection clauses are about to become a standard negotiating point, insurance won’t cover a cancellation an artist chooses for protest, and support acts will get vetted harder than ever. The venue owners were “well within their rights”, one lawyer said, “the First Amendment doesn’t override what a contract says”. Not a freedom-of-speech crisis, then? Yeah, sure… But it is ultimately the result of a system that concentrates power in ever fewer hands.
Music as a cultural entity is reflecting society and politics. The a-political stance of pop music seems to be over, as I wrote in the latest Offbeat. Of course, the Sheeran/Macklemore episode is extremely US-centric, with all its divisive political explosiveness.
And yet, it is worth thinking about the consequences of a demand for stances by artists but also by any other actor in the music business as these situations can quickly escalate. We just have to think back to m4music 2025 and the booking of Bernarda.
P.S. Coming soon: an interview with Maisch Gosteli and Martin Schrader of Redda Music on their return and why there is still space for another booking agency. Don’t miss it: consider an upgrade to Professional.
Headlines
SRG sells Radio Swiss Pop, Classic and Jazz—two years of Swiss music guaranteed, then?
The SRG SSR board approved the sale of its three Swiss satellite radios on 16 September: Radio Swiss Pop goes to CH Media from January 2027, Radio Swiss Classic and Radio Swiss Jazz go to Digris AG from July 2027. The parties have agreed not to disclose the sale price. These satellite stations, especially Radio Swiss Pop, are among the last mass-reach channels for Swiss music on the airwaves.
- Why it matters: These stations are structural. Radio Swiss Pop’s playlist gives Swiss productions daily rotation on a significant reach. They also generate direct income for musicians via SUISA and SWISSPERFORM. The buyers commit to keeping the 50% Swiss music share for two years. After that, commercial owners answer to advertising economics, not cultural mandate, and nobody knows what the rotation looks like in 2029.
- Industry reaction: SONART called the sale “a great disappointment”. Their sharpest point is timing: the announcement landed on the Swiss Music Day, when SRG radios played Swiss music exclusively for 24 hours. SONART also disputes SRG’s legal reasoning: while the three stations are not mandatory programmes, the concession explicitly provides for them (Art. 16 para. 2 lit. c: one pop, one jazz, one classical programme per language region, each with at least 50% Swiss music), and the official explanations classify them as part of the service-public offer. SONART’s verdict on the two-year guarantee: it doesn’t secure anything, it merely postpones the uncertainty. They demand the new owners keep the Swiss music share beyond the guarantee and that SRG compensate the lost platforms in its remaining outlets.
- Critical thoughts: SRG argues the satellite radios sit outside its mandate. SONART’s reading of Art. 16 is more honest: the mandate explicitly contemplates these programmes, it just doesn’t force them. “Not mandatory” is not the same as “not part of the mission”, especially months after 61.9% of voters rejected the halving initiative and Swiss musicians campaigned for a strong SRG. Moreover, I definitely do not trust private media to support local artists; they rather try to cut costs by playing AI-generated slop. And “the market will handle it” has a track record in this industry: the market handled club venues, and the clubs are closing.
More companies, fewer jobs: the atomized culture sector
The Federal Statistical Office released its culture business statistics on 11 September, with data for 2024: a record 69,441 culture enterprises, up 1.8% year-on-year and 27% since 2011. Culture firms now make up 10.7% of all Swiss companies. Sounds great. Now the other half: