Sales of independent music going down
Grísalappalísa, here playing at Iceland Airwaves, is signed to the 12Tónar label in Iceland. Mbl.is/Styrmir Kári
Album sales have gone down immensely in the last few years which means that music labels are producing fewer of them. "The grassroots in Icelandic music are suffering as artists receive very little money from Spotify and cannot sell their albums in supermarkets," says Lárus Jóhannesson who is on the board of the Icelandic association of record producers and one of the owners of the 12Tónar label.
"Most album sales in Iceland are through supermarkets and department stores which most of the time only stock the most popular artists," Jóhannsson explains.
Money not returned to the grassroots
Around 202 thousand Icelandic records were sold in 2013 compared to 310 thousand in 2009. "An artist has to sell his album 150 times on Spotify to get the same amount of money that he would make from one album sold in a store. When the digital streaming service sites appeared they were supposed to solve problems caused by "bad" music labels but now almost all the money made by artists goes abroad," says Jóhannesson. He compares this to his own label and music store 12Tónar."When album salse go well we put money back into the grassroots.
Lárus Jóhannesson, one of the two owners of the 12Tónar music store and label. Photo: mbl.is/Kristinn Ingvarsson
Popular music becomes more popular
Jóhannsson explains that only the most popular artists are sold in supermarkets like Bónus which means that they obviously become more popular whilst lesser known independent artists just disappear. He adds that he's not criticizing the appearance of digital streaming sercives such as Spotify but just pointing out the reality of the situation.
Depite these problems, the Icelandic music scene is flourishing with many new promising bands having made an appearance in recent years. "The patient is healthy, but we have to start rethinking the industry on many levels. The record industry in Iceland is a very valuable culturally and we need to think ahead. Noone wants to starve the Icelandic music scene," he says.
