36 Music Week 28.09.12 TERRITORYSHOWCASEIRELAND PLUCK OF THE IRISH
Ireland is the home of some of the biggest music acts in history. Now, after being hit particularly hard by the economic recession, it’s looking forward to a return to form
INTERNATIONAL BY TOM PAKINKIS
T
here’s something about the Irish music market that doesn’t quite add up. Despite being a tiny landmass with a population of
just over four and a half million, it’s produced a small army of world-beating talent. Irish acts like Westlife and Boyzone defined
and dominated the pop genre in their prime, The Cranberries and Van Morrison have both breached the 50 million sales mark while Enya has topped 80 million without ever really becoming a superstar. The likes of Bob Geldof, Sinead O’Conner and Thin Lizzy are all musical legends, even if their figures don’t match the territory’s top earners, while U2 are one of the few acts in the world that can be labelled a phenomenon. With 36 years experience, the band managed to outdo the likes of Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga across live revenue and recorded music sales in 2011, amassing $160 million over the year. But Bono and co are an exception in Ireland
DARE TO STREAM
UNIVERSAL’S MARK CROSSINGHAM (pictured) tells us that while most of Ireland’s market trends mirror the UK, the territory is lagging behind when it comes to digital giants. “Deezer have had a soft launch
here and there’s currently no activity from Spotify,” he points out adding that without an
Amazon.ie, sales are being sucked out of the country by the online retailer, which is hard to equate. “That’s the real challenge here – we need
a streaming service to get a foothold,” he says. “It’s definitely on the horizon
though. [ISP] eircom launched MusicHub in 2011 and its mobile app is just about to launch, so we’ve got high hopes for that.”
www.musicweek.com
ABOVE You, too? Some of the most promising names in Irish music today – Delorentos (main photo) and from left, Mmoths, The Script and Hudson Taylor
today. The country has seen its recorded music industry decline by half over the last five years with a dearth of talent boasting realistic global potential. “I’ve been here four years and I have to say
that, up until now, I’ve been a little disappointed,” admits Mark Crossingham, managing director of Universal Ireland, which is has been forced to narrow its focus in recent years. “In terms of A&R activity, we are signing local artists but the current state of the market here makes it very difficult to make the numbers work. So, we’re changing tack on that front and really only looking at investing in artists that have got a chance of selling outside of Ireland.” Despite his initial disappointment, Crossingham
believes that the Irish music industry could reach another peak soon. “It hasn’t been as prolific in the last four years as historically, but that looks set to change in the next year,” he predicts. “I’m very optimistic about artists like Little
Green Cars and Hudson Taylor, and The Script have proven themselves already. Two Door Cinema Club are in a really good place at the moment and Imelda May has been huge here and made some good inroads into America, France and Australia.”
A focus on Irish talent with international appeal
seems common in the territory – just look at the strategy of the newly established BMG Ireland (see ‘BMG Goes Green’, right) – but ‘international appeal’ doesn’t necessarily mean global domination.
“When you expect an event to select 10 artists and they end up picking up 21, as Eurosonic did this year, then
you can only take it as a good sign that Irish music in general is doing pretty well” ANGELA DORGAN, FIRST MUSIC CONTACT
First Music Contact is a free musician
information and advice service in Ireland. It’s behind the Hard Working Class Heroes convention as well as other initiatives such as Music From Ireland, which co-ordinates and funds an Irish presence at international showcases such as SXSW, The Great Escape and Eurosonic Noordeslag. First Music Contact CEO Angela Dorgan sees
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