20 Years Hitting The Spot

That was up from the last couple of years, when there were a little more than 1,000. Event press officer Steffan Møller  says Spot welcomes the competition, tends to regard competitors as colleagues and feels the growing number of conferences is good for the music business.

Apart from the regular music weeks on the other side of the Baltic Sea in Tallinn and Vilnius, Spot’s regional competition includes Germany’s Reeperbahn Festival, Norway’s By:Larm and Finland’s Music & Media. German festival promoter Folkert Koopmans will start his Where’s The Music? gathering in Norrköping, Sweden, in 2015, which will mean all four of the larger Scandinavian countries will be covered.

As if to reinforce Møller’s views about competitors and colleagues, Koopmans was at Spot to be interviewed by VIP editor and regular conference moderator Allan McGowan.

The increasing demand for Koopmans as a panelist or keynote speaker – in the last year he’s also headlined at Eurosonic-Noorderslag, Reeperbahn and By:Larm – may be down to the number of countries where his FKP Scorpio has business interests.

Møller reckons Spot holds its own on the conference circuit by constantly evolving, this year stretching beyond music to interactive media and film. The first day was entirely dedicated to interactive media, touching on design and development, reaching new audiences, and creating branding opportunities and new ways of making some money.

The evening showcases in 16 venues dotted around Århus gave opportunities to over 150 acts. Spot is supported by ROSA, the Danish rock music society, and the country’s music export office.