Swedish music selling better abroad

Recent statistics seem to show more people are willing to pay for downloads of music. 

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  Swedish music has become an important export, and one of the more successful artists is mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter, above.

• Swedish export of music is doing better and better, according to new statistics. Swedish musicians have pulled in over half a billion SEK ($71.3 million) in the form of copyright export proceeds—music that’s being played abroad on the radio, in clubs, in publicity and on television. That is in total an increase of 9 percent since last year.

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  Swedish House Mafia - the three house disc jockeys and producers, Axwell, Steve Angello, and Sebastian Ingrosso DJ'ing at Pacha Ibiza. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

• The biggest change is the one that has taken place in the online sales of music, especially from music services like Spotify and iTunes. Moneywise, however, it may not seem like much: 17 million SEK ($2.4 million) compared to 11 million SEK ($1.5 million) last year. The online sales of music make up for a bit over 3 percent of the total proceeds.

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  Swedish House, fast growing into an international phenomenon and officially recognized when in 2011 Swedish House Mafia received the Music Export Prize from the Swedish government.

• The organization Musiksverige views this development as positive, interpreting it as people are willing—more now than before—to pay to download music. A huge part of the music proceeds never reaches Sweden, as many artists and composers are connected to foreign copyright agencies. Swedish House Mafia, Robyn, Anne Sofie von Otter, Roxette and Avicii are some of the artists among those who pulled in most of last year’s export proceeds.

• More information on the mentioned artists Swedish House Mafia on Myspace, Anne Sofie von Otter, Robyn, Tim Bergling, better known as Avicii and Roxette