Music Finland Opens For Business

Music Finland, the new organisation formed by the unification of Music Export Finland and the Finnish Music Information Centre, became operational in Helsinki June 11.

This means that, among other things, email addresses will become [email protected] and all bulletins, newsletters and other communications will be sent on behalf of Music Finland. The telephone number is +358 20 730 2230.

The websites of Music Export Finland and Fimic will remain separate until fall. Alongside them, a temporary site has been launched at musicfinland.fi.

The founding members of Music Finland are the Copyright Society of Performing Artists and Phonogram Producers in Finland (Gramex), IFPI Finland, Finnish Music Publishers’ Association, Finnish Musicians’ Union, Finnish Independent Labels Association (IndieCo), Finnish Society of Popular Music Composers and Authors (Elvis), Finnish Composers’ Copyright Society (Teosto), and the Society of Finnish Composers.

The new organisation will be headed by executive director Tuomo Tähtinen, who took the role amid some musical chairs from some of Scandinavia’s top music export office execs.

In November, two months before Music Export Finland and FIMIC were merged, Tähtinen took over as acting executive director of Music Export Finland, following Paulina Ahokas’ departure to become managing director of Tampere Hall.

In February, Anna Hildur Hildibrandsdottir left the Icelandic Music Export office to become programme director of Nordic Music Export, working alongside the Icelandic, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian and Danish export offices and focusing on strengthening connections across the Nordic region.

NOMEX was set up with the help of two million Danish Kronas (around $350,000) from the Nordic Council of Ministers.