Radar Report 2023: Celebrating 20 Years of ESNS Exchange

10.01.24

Even at a quick glance, the results that have come out of ESNS Exchange’s twenty-year tenure are staggering. Since its launch in 2003, the programme – formerly known as the European Talent Exchange Programme – has seen 2,158 artists, from 36 different countries, take to stages across Europe for 5,333 live shows. Those numbers alone help to demonstrate just how integral the ESNS Exchange has become to the European music industry.

By Sarah Jamieson
Managing Editor, DIY Magazine

Granted, nowadays, there are all manner of metrics and data samples which can be used to define the success of an artist; from Spotify streams to YouTube views, record sales through to TikTok followers, these numbers can be constantly debated and analysed with the primary goal of breaking an artist to the masses. And yet, still, there is little more powerful than the simple act of an artist playing live, and the connection formed with their fans.

The programme also provides the perfect illustration of the power of live performances.

That’s something that ESNS Exchange really understands. With its primary aim being to connect artists with festivals and events from across the continent, the programme also provides the perfect illustration of the power of live performances, and just how important they can be in both the growth of an act, and their lasting, long term success. Look, for example, at some of the artists from the inaugural year of ESNS Exchange: Norway’s Kaizers Orchestra – who received four festival bookings in four different countries that year – are currently in the midst of an entirely sold out 56-date residency in Norway to celebrate their 2022 Greatest Hits, while elsewhere on that year’s Artist Chart, a little known band called The Libertines were booked to play at Germany’s Haldern Pop following the release of their iconic debut Up the Bracket.

This track record of success – of helping to break the bands of the future – can be seen throughout the two decades of ESNS Exchange. In 2004, Scottish quartet Franz Ferdinand performed at Eurosonic Noorderslag in January before releasing their Mercury Prize-winning self-titled debut just a few weeks later; that year alone they secured 12 festival bookings and catapulted themselves to becoming a mainstay on festival line-ups through to the present day. Then, 2008 alone saw Swedish pop icons Lykki Li and Robyn both earn a slew of bookings, alongside Scottish producer Calvin Harris, fresh from releasing his debut I Created Disco. Harris would not only go on to win an array of awards across the world, including four GRAMMYs – but would also be named as one of the highest paid producers in the world, period.

"ESNS was a massive step in my career" - Dua Lipa

Throughout more recent years, ESNS Exchange has still worked to give artists the help and support they need in order to be able to break into new territories. Huge British acts such as Stormzy and Dua Lipa were both part of the programme back in 2016 – securing ten festival bookings between them– and now, today, are considered festival headliners across Europe, with Dua undertaking a huge European tour last summer, that included slots at ESNS Exchange festival partners Open’er, Roskilde and Sziget, among others. “ESNS was a massive step in my career,” Dua has said herself, of her involvement in the programme, and it’s perhaps this example that best showcases how, when a symbiotic relationship between artist, festival and fan is nurtured effectively and all work to support one another, it really can achieve the best possible outcome for all parties.  

When a symbiotic relationship between artist, festival and fan is nurtured effectively and all work to support one another, it really can achieve the best possible outcome for all parties.  

Even following the Covid-19 pandemic, and the adverse effect that it had on the live and touring industries, ESNS Exchange still maintained its support for young artists, and – via virtual events and its full return to a live capacity this year – has continued to uplift them. In 2022’s Artist Chart, the likes of Swiss-Tamil artist Priya Ragu, Ireland’s CMAT, and UK acts Yard Act and Wet Leg all secured a huge number of festival bookings, giving them the opportunity to showcase their music and begin the kinds of long-lasting relationships with overseas audiences that will undoubtedly outlast algorithms and trends. And it’s for this reason that the success of ESNS Exchange is so important to the music industry as a whole; data can be manipulated and technology will inevitably continue to shift the goalposts, but the tangible, real life connection between an artist and its audience is near impossible to recreate without dedicated investment and support; something that, over the past twenty years, ESNS Exchange has been at the forefront of. Long may it continue.

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