234 million to zero - a task for the PGM
At the meeting of the Parliamentary Group on Music on February 28, astonishing figures on the streaming of Swiss music were discussed. They suggest that politicians are taking action.
Stefan Müller-Altermatt, President of the Parliamentary Group for Music PGM, was joined by National Councillors Estelle Revaz, cellist, and Vroni Thalmann-Bieri, folk musician, at the group's latest meeting to discuss the discrimination of Swiss musicians on streaming platforms.
Switzerland ranks sixth in the world for per capita expenditure on recorded music. In 2023, Swiss customers spent CHF 234 million on recorded music, 88% of which was spent on streaming. This enormous amount is offset by zero: not a single one of the digital service providers (DSPs) has even one employee who is primarily concerned with Swiss music, and not a single one has a branch in this country. The curators work the Swiss market on the side, in the case of market leader Spotify from Berlin as an "encore" to the ten times larger German market. They are not familiar with the local scene and don't have the time to deal with it. Acts from French-speaking Switzerland and Ticino receive even less attention. As a result, Swiss music hardly features on the playlists they put together. This underrepresentation is exacerbated by the other playlists created by algorithms on this basis. There is clear discrimination against acts from comparable countries.
Previous initiatives by associations in this matter have been unsuccessful. Now Stefan Müller-Altermatt has submitted a motion demanding that DSPs of a certain size have a Swiss editorial office based in Switzerland. It will be dealt with by the councillors in one of the next sessions.
