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Stamp of quality
Entering the 21st year of ESNS Exchange, 280 new European acts showcased their talents to around 40,000 enthusiastic music fans and professionals this January at ESNS24, automatically enrolling them in the European Talent Exchange programme. The ESNS 2024 line-up traditionally books acts from across the continent, offering a broad and proportionate programme. This means that artists from countries somewhat under-represented in the European music industry are also included.
ESNS Exchange, co-funded by the European Union's Creative Europe programme, facilitates the booking of European acts at festivals outside their home countries and works with the EBU, Yourope export offices and local media to generate significant media exposure for these artists. In this way, ESNS Exchange aims to boost the international careers of European artists.
For many music professionals, a successful show at ESNS serves as a stamp of quality. Festivals and export offices participating in ESNS Exchange praise the programme for creating opportunities for European acts across Europe as well as on the global level:
Helen Sildna, Founder of Shiftworks Company and Tallinn Music Week: “ESNS Exchange is an important building-block of TMW’s music programme, offering an opportunity to book the most exciting talent that Europe has on offer in a given year. ESNS programme choices provide a high-quality guarantee that is valued by promoters, also reflecting the wide geographical diversity of the EU and giving a spotlight to artists that otherwise might not end up on bookers' radars. The combination of high-standard pre-selection and a support mechanism, helping to cover part of the costs - is a smart incentive to make sure fresh European talent has more opportunities to break borders and enhance their international careers. We hope the programme can continue - it’s a smart tool for both the artist and the bookers.”
Márk Bóna, booker at Sziget festival: “It's very nice that when we start to make a deal [with an artist], we can see them live [at Eurosonic] or meet with their agent and maybe they have more bands they can propose, so [being part of ESNS Exchange] helps a lot.”
Corinne Sadki, President of EMEE - European Music Exporters Exchange President, Director of European Affairs and international development at Centre National de la Musique: “The [ESNS] Exchange programme is, for each European export initiative member of EMEE (and beyond), a key tool to boost the discoverability of European emerging artists in prescriber festivals all around the world. The financial incentive system is crucial to multiply European emerging artists' live presence and is really a huge help in our daily work at EMEE in supporting the international development of European artists, opening new global live opportunities for artists.”
Franz Hergovich, Project Leader MICA – Music Austria: “ESNS Exchange, the European Talent Exchange, is highly important for Austrian acts because it combines visibility towards a lot of the main international multipliers with capacity building actions in a clever way, thereby producing a real chance for a step further in musician’s careers.”
Andraž Kajzer, Artistic Director and Festival Manager at MENT Ljubljana: “Making circulation of new European artists on festivals easier. That's what it is all about. ESNS Exchange is an important pillar for new talent supporting our cause and making it viable.”
More than two decades of supporting talented artists
To date, ESNS Exchange, together with the amazing support of partners, export offices, Yourope and the EBU, has supported 2,159 European artists hailing from 37 countries, enabling them to perform at an impressive tally of 5,336 shows across 192 partner festivals in 44 countries.
ESNS Exchange stood at the base of numerous successful careers such as Editors, Blood Red Shoes, The XX, Iceage, Anna Calvi, Katzenjammer, AURORA, Kae Tempest, Phoenix, Shame, Buraka Som Sistema, Fontaines D.C., Sigrid, Flohio, Marina Satti & Fonés, Altin Gün, Priya Ragu, The Haunted Youth, Deki Alem, Tramhaus, Alyona Alyona, Go_A, Uche Yara and many more.
The full charts, including a line-up archive of over 130 Exchange partner festivals counting ESNS Exchange alumni and the rest of the bookings, are available at ESNS Radar at radar.esns.nl/bookings-artist-chart
Applications for the 2025 edition—for all European artists—will open on May 1st via ESNS.nl.
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