Vienna Aims For 2010

Austria hopes to stage its own mini festival and conference next year, following the support the idea received at a one-day seminar in Vienna Sept. 10.

The Austrian Music Ambassador Network (AMAN), which aims to run the 2010 event, invited speakers and panelists from similar events around Europe, including Philipp Schnyder from Switzerland’s m4music Festival, Ralph Christoph from Germany’s c/o pop, Christian Hald Buhl from Denmark’s Spot, Helen Sildna from Tallinn Music Week in Estonia and Fernando Ladeiro-Marques from France’s Le Printemps de Bourges.

The new gathering, which will likely be called Austrian Music Week, aims to promote Austrian acts and raise awareness of the issues confronting the country’s music business.

The Sept. 10 seminar at Karlsplatz discussed the limited size of the domestic market and the subsequent difficulties in exporting new Austrian acts.

It also made use of the experience of the invited guests when discussing European showcase festivals in general and how they could all help each other through an exchange of information.

AMAN, which was founded in 2007, is a cooperation between the country’s major and independent labels and other music business institutions.