The Finnish pop songwriting and music publishing industry is working on a Future Vision in order to unite the industry in export, create success stories and find ways to grow the export revenue from copyright income.

Song exports have been identified as one of the biggest growth opportunities in the Finnish music industry. Copyright revenue collected to Finland from abroad amounted to 5.8 million euros in 2015, gaining an almost 20 per cent increase from the previous year. According to the Music Barometer survey carried out by Music Finland, nearly half of Finnish music professionals see the best growth opportunities in song export.

"All of our industry can benefit from increased co-operation in exports. We’ll see great results in less time, if all the top players in Finland, regardless of their publishing company, bring their strength together," says Jukka Immonen, the founder of Fried Music.

"Finland has plenty of songwriting talent, but we also need continuous actions, as well as time and money invested, to make song exports flourish" says Tommi Tuomainen, Managing Director of publishing company Elements Music and Chairman of the Board in Finnish Music Publishers Association.

According to a song export study to be published in October, the number of songs by Finnish songwriters released in 2016 on foreign artists’ records is higher than ever before. The survey showed a total of 71 internationally released songs by Finnish writers on foreign artists' albums during 2016.

Future Vision of Finnish Songwriters and Publishers

“Future Vision of Finnish Songwriters and Publishers” is a collective effort of the songwriting industry to set common goals.

The Future Vision is determined in two workshops. The first one, in Stockholm September 7th, will set the goals and determine the vision. The second workshop, in Helsinki October 10th, will map out the steps towards reaching the vision and discuss funding and investment. Future Vision of Finnish Songwriters and Publishers will be released at Slush Music, November 28–29 in Helsinki.

The Stockholm workshop will also work as a mini trade mission. The Finnish publishing companies will introduce themselves to colleagues in Stockholm and the writers are set for co-writes around the workshop day. Music Finland and the Finnish publishers will host networking drinks for the Swedish publishing industry in Stockholm on September 7th at 18.00–20.00. Please contact katariina.sorsa@musicfinland.fi for RSVP.

The project was initiated by Music Finland and planned in partnership with Tekes, Finnish songwriters and lyricists Elvis ry, Finnish Music Publishers Association, and Finnish Composer’s Copyright Society TEOSTO. The vision work is sparred by Risto Kuulasmaa and the workshops are facilitated by Fantastic Studios.

Download a list of participating Finnish publishers and songwriters (PDF)