m4music: Progress in awareness issues

The Pop music festival of the Migros Culture Percentage, m4music, has grown once again at its 25th edition: The two-day event at Zurich's Schiffbau attracted almost 1500 professionals and a total of over 6000 music fans this March. Festival director Philipp Schnyder von Wartensee is delighted that the event welcomed around 2000 more guests than last year. "In terms of our capacities, however, we are now close to the ceiling." Whether we should aim for further growth is one of the key questions that will need to be answered in the coming months.

Presence in Latin Switzerland

According to Schnyder, this year's festival edition was extremely beautiful, colorful and, last but not least, extremely diverse. "This was reflected not only in the music program and our demo tape clinic, but also in the conference." As in 2022, m4music once again decided not to open its festival in French-speaking Switzerland. Instead, efforts are still being made to maintain a presence there throughout the year. "In November, we were represented with a panel discussion at the Geneva festival 'Les Créatives' and broadcast three concerts from there on Couleur 3.

And two months ago, around 100 professionals came together at an m4music event in Lugano to discuss how smaller cities could promote the music scene." From Schnyder's point of view, the event in Ticino was not only an effective signal for the local scene, but also for the responsible cultural promotion institutions in the region. "For 2024, we want to think fundamentally about how we should continue with our activities in French-speaking Switzerland and what we can offer as an extra."

A festival in the learning process

Various festival content - including some panels - can be discovered on the m4music website, its Soundcloud or YouTube channel. "But despite the digitalization push, we have refrained from turning ourselves into a hybrid event," says Schnyder. Not least because such an undertaking would be too costly. According to the press release, there was a palpable desire at this year's m4music to make progress together on issues of diversity and awareness, sustainability and social justice. "We are in a learning process, we are aware of that. It is also clear that we need to make further progress in this regard." When it comes to air travel for invited guests and performers, m4music does not yet have any clear guidelines. "However, if I compare the number of flights taken by our guests today with the number before the pandemic, it has become significantly less."

The value of music

While the networking workshop "Crossing the Röstigraben" discussed how the music scene can bridge the gap between German-speaking and French-speaking Switzerland and Ticino, the panel "Tomorrow's Warriors" focused on the question of what the local jazz scene needs to do to appeal more to the younger generation. Musician Julie Campiche was once shocked to discover that her young daughter was convinced that the saxophone was not an instrument for girls, but exclusively for boys. Campiche attributed this mainly to the fact that too few women are employed as teachers at local training centers. "If we acknowledge that we have a problem in this respect, that would be a first step."

Meanwhile, the panel "What value does music have?" mainly debated the extent to which pop will be valued in 2023. Cultural scientist Maximilian Jablonowski noted that more money is currently being made with pop again and raised the question: "Is pop still creative at all?" WoZ-Editor Bettina Dyttrich described the current pop music system as "perverse". "Bands used to be able to make a living from their shows and albums. This is becoming increasingly difficult, even for well-known acts."

The next edition of the festival will take place on March 22 and 23, 2024. Further information can be found at: www.m4music.ch