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ABBA boom years fade as Swedish music exports fall
Stockholm, Nov 29: Piracy and economic downturn have finally caught up with Sweden`s music industry, home to one-time global pop sensations ABBA and Roxette.
Kim Forss, an economist who compiled an annual industry report, said Sweden's music exports saw a two percent decrease in value in 2002. Records began to be compiled in 1998.
Sweden's glory years in music have often been attributed to high standards of music education in the 1960s and 70s. According to Forss, public-funded music schools' budgets have been decreasing since the early 1980s.
"If there is no place for young artists to rehearse, no new stars will rise," Ola Hakansson, the president of Stockholm Records, a Universal Music subsidiary that produces Cardigans, A-Teens and Army of Lovers records, told a news agency.
Rampant music piracy on the Internet, and the success of free file-trading networks like Kazaa have stolen a march on music retailers, contributing to a global record industry slump.
Christer Lundblad, head of Export Music Sweden, still saw a bright future for the industry as new ways of distributing music legally, such as pay services for downloading songs online, and young talents were "just behind the door."
"There is no lack of interest in Swedish rock artists but most of them do not sell in large volumes while the competition on the global market for mainstream pop music has become tough," Lundblad said.
Music exports -- CD records and manufacturing equipment, production services and royalties -- account for about 0.5 percent of Sweden's total exports.
The biggest earnings in the Swedish music industry have come from bands such as Ace of Base and Cardigans, while companies have sold recording and other services to artists like Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys.
The industry report said that total music export earnings, including film DVDs, grew by 40 percent to 6.8 billion crowns ($895.3 million) in 2002 from the previous year. Bureau Report