Thank you For the Music!

Roland Sandberg sums up after more than two and a half decade  as director of the Swedish MIC

Now that, after nearly 26 years as head of the Swedish Music Information Centre, I am preparing to depart from this post, I would like to take this opportunity to thank everybody with whom I have had the pleasure to be in touch across all those years. Mentioning any one person by name or any special project would, alas, be impossible – the period of time is too long for that! I have hugely enjoyed the sense of co-operation with composers, publishers, musicians, presenters, radio producers, record companies, organisations and institutions, my international colleagues, all others and last but not least all present and former staff members of the Swedish MIC! Thank you for all your contributions to making Swedish music more and more frequently performed!

These years have witnessed unbelievable developments: when I started out satellite and cable TV were both new and no routines existed for the collection of copyrights in that particular environment. Today, we are having similar discussions concerning the internet and online distribution of music and certainly one of the most remarkable tools to have appeared during my time as director of the Swedish MIC is precisely, the internet.

That media explosion of the 1980s also led to increased incomes for STIM (The Swedish Performing Rights Society) and since that makes up the largest part of the budget of the Swedish MIC I am very grateful to have worked for Swedish music during this period of expansion. It has been a great privilege to have experienced those years, especially given the situation regarding the world economy today. But, right now, we are in the middle of a very exciting time also, even if this reflects more changes and even if nobody has the answers to all the issues that surround us. All this can appear to be a threat, but can also be a big possibility for positive changes for the Swedish MIC and Swedish music.

One of my ambitions has been to strengthen the activities for popular music whilst still endeavouring to maintain in vigour the services that the MIC provides to contemporary classical music. In the late 1980s and up until 1992, when Export Music Sweden was founded, the MIC co-ordinated activities at the important international meeting places for popular music, organizing every year the Swedish stand at the music fair MIDEM in Cannes etc. All those activities were transferred over to Export Music Sweden, ExMS, which the Swedish MIC founded along with the Swedish section of IFPI and SAMI (The Swedish Interest organisation of Musicians and Artists).

I have also had the privilege to have participated in a number of international networks such as the European Music Council, European Music Office, European Conference of Promoters of New Music and last but not least IAMIC, The International Association of Music Information Centres. It is my hope that the work that I have performed there has also helped strengthen the position of Swedish music abroad.

Roland Sandberg