ESNS 2019: Overview | Stingray

There aren’t many music festivals in Europe that have as much importance and weight in the music industry as the Eurosonic Noorderslag. Every year in January, the Dutch city Groningen becomes the European capital of young emerging artists. The annual four-day event has already helped launch the careers of musicians King of Convenience, The Libertines, James Blake, The Subways, Franz Ferdinand, Selah Sue, Ben l’Oncle Soul, Melanie de Biasio, and Anne-Marie. While no one knows who the next big act will be, many professionals from the music industry come to discover new artists. Many professionals take the opportunity to network, create opportunities, and solidify new partnerships. Stingray Music partnered with ESNS 2019 to launch the new format sessions, talk business, meet new colleagues, and spot the next Dua Lipa.

First things first: Stingray Music is launching the new format sessions dedicated to the European market. Although a few of these short-format sessions were filmed in 2018, during Eurosonic Noorderslag 2019, the Stingray team selected four international acts and recorded their performances to help them reach wider audiences around the globe. Stingray became one of ESNS’ official media partners, and the new sessions will be launched later in 2019.

Eurosonic Noorderslag is a very important yearly event for music industry professionals. During the event, there are opportunities to have one-on-one meetings for partnerships. Booking agents can meet people from various venues, artist managers can meet booking agents, while record labels can meet the previous two all for the sake of helping each other in the struggling music market.

The festival also presents opportunities for music professionals to discuss industry-related issues during various panels, by participating as guest speakers or attending the presentations. Some challenges addressed in this year’s ESNS panels include non-functional promotional models, the overcrowded landscape of music curation, and what comes after music streaming. However, Eurosonic Noorderslag isn’t just for music professionals.

Eurosonic Noorderslag is for all music lovers, and many of them only come to watch emerging artists perform all across Groningen. From Wednesday evening to Sunday morning, the northern city of the Netherlands becomes one huge venue. Artists play on every corner, every shop, every cafe or bar, not to mention bigger indoor and outdoor venues. As a result, it is impossible to see everything as many amazing performances happen simultaneously, and going from show to show can be taxing. Nevertheless, Stingray enjoyed some amazing concerts by very promising talents.

One of them was British jazz group KOKOROKO. Being part of Brownswood Recordings record label’s lineup, run by the famous DJ Gilles Peterson, the London-based ensemble blended urban sounds of their home metropolis with a contemporary jazz outfit. Dorian Concept was another remarkable showcase. While the Austrian producer-keyboardist has been around for a while, he hasn’t yet received mainstream breakthrough. His futuristic electro-visual performance was one of this year’s ESNS highlights. One of the youngest, Norwegian soul singer Fieh, embellished her performance with colours and youthful optimism. Her interesting arrangements mixing classic soul, hip-hop, and contemporary R&B set her apart from the rest.

With so little time to see so many shows, it can be difficult to decide which performances to attend. However, Stingray Music made ESNS 2019 successful by meeting new people and further working towards establishing its roots among European markets. Let's see if next year's Eurosonic Noorderslag will be as rewarding. See you in 2020, Groningen.

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