RESTARTING EXPORT CAREERS: The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Finnish popular music export artists

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected the Finnish music and music export industries, and they are currently in the process of recovery. In this thesis, I research the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Finnish popular music export artists from the perspective of restarting export careers. My focus is on the experiences of individual export artists, whose perspective is yet to be studied much. I aim to understand what changes the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the artist export business, what kind of support popular music export artists currently need to restart their export careers, and who should provide this support. In addition, I map out the pre-pandemic state of the artists´ export careers and the effects of the pandemic on them.

This study is qualitative multiple-case study research. Its primary data consists of five semi-structured interviews with the representatives of five popular music export artists in the growth phase of their export careers. The thematic framework is based on concepts of music export, support structures of Finnish popular music export, and previous studies about the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the music and music export industries.

The findings show that before the pandemic, the career path of each export artist was unique, and the pandemic led to the loss of various resources and opportunities. According to the research results, post-pandemic artist exporting is characterized by general uncertainty. Several post-pandemic challenges but only a few new opportunities were identified in the artist export field. The results highlighted the challenges related to live music export.

The findings suggest that the most important form of support for restarting artist export careers is financial support, particularly for live music export. Different views arose about who should provide the support, but the findings indicate a need to diversify the support field. The results highlighted the roles of the public and private sectors, Music Finland, and industry colleagues.