02-03 November 2018
Attached to Sørveiv Festival in the city of Kristiansand, Norway, Sørveiv Music Summit
is unusual in the landscape of its peers.
Conferences should be a catalyst for change and renewal, and an opportunity to raise the level of discourse in our industry, but too often revolve around the same topics, debated by the same voices. Sørveiv offers new perspectives in a landscape that’s become tired and formulaic. We gather the brightest minds from the global music community to meet, encourage and inform, inviting a younger, more diverse, gender-balanced and socially representative group of delegates to work through the issues and better arm our industry for the challenges that lie ahead.
We question and engage, encouraging innovative thoughts and full participation from the audience throughout; at Sørveiv Summit, the floor is always open to questions and thoughts as we challenge outdated systems and procedures, reaching for transparency and a more sustainable music industry that’s supportive of our artists, their art, their health and their audiences. A more inclusive, more diverse, more welcoming industry, embracing all, regardless of race, gender or background.
Throughout a packed and varied programme we’ll ask our audience and participants to throw their significant intellectual weight at the myriad issues and challenges we face as an industry, to deliberate on how we can empower a generation of new leaders, and consider the role music has to play in this period of staggering social and cultural upheaval. Artists, managers, academics and labels will pull and stretch traditional record release models until they snap, and wrestle with what might take its place, while leaders in the intersection of music and tech give us an insight into what’s coming next and what won’t last the year.
Europe’s live music industry will be represented, ready to articulate and debate the challenges faced by venues and festivals across the continent, as well as the abject lunacy and environmental vandalism of touring. The physical and mental welfare of our artists will remain front and centre, as we navigate the often-serious consequences of the demands we place on our artists, and – unusually – we’ll focus on failure, which according to Beckett is an essential component of any artist’s work, even as success defines their place in the industry. We invite all our participants to embrace, stand behind and shout proudly of their failures, and define success on their own terms,
not in the context of those whose streams can be counted in billions.
– Francine Gorman, Daniel Nordgård, Erica Berthelsen, Andy Inglis – Kristiansand 2018