Guest
Stein Bjelland
Stein Bjelland is Chair at Music Norway, as introduced on the show.
Episodes (1)
Stein Bjelland, chair of Music Norway, explains why artists must understand markets and how Norway could fund music firms without buying equity.
Questions these episodes answer
Why do Norwegian music companies struggle to attract investors?
Stein Bjelland says most Norwegian labels and management firms are small by choice, run by founders who want a good life rather than global scale. Their surplus gets reinvested in artists rather than kept as profit, so buying a stake would rarely earn an investor a financial return, which keeps venture capital away from the sector.
Should artists separate art from business, or treat them as one thing?
Bjelland argues art and money stay separate until art enters a marketplace, and at that point the artist needs to understand the market. Different funders want different returns: an arts council wants artistic value, a venture capitalist wants financial return, and confusing the two makes the artist look weak instead of making the relationship clear.
What happens to Norwegian artists and companies once they succeed abroad?
Bjelland says Norwegian public money develops artists and companies, but once one breaks internationally, local firms usually lack the infrastructure in that market, so the financial return goes to American or other foreign partners instead. He wants Norwegian companies to open sister companies abroad so the money and knowledge come back home.
How could investors fund Norwegian music companies without buying equity?
Bjelland proposes going back to a 1950s cooperative model: financing specific projects through a time-based profit split rather than buying shares in the company. He says he has tested this on a small scale and it works, because it lets risk capital in without an investor owning part of a business that was never built to sell.