Sweden is one of the world’s biggest music exporters, despite having just 10 million people. Artists like ABBA, Zara Larsson, Avicii and Yung Lean have all come from this small country in Northern Europe. But what really laid the foundation for all of these successful musicians? This is how Sweden became a global pop songwriting powerhouse
The history behind Sweden’s music export success
Sweden’s international success in music exporting can be traced back to the early 1960s. In 1964, jazz legend Bill Evans released a jazz album together with Swedish artist Monica Zetterlund which instantly gained international attention. 10 years later, ABBA won the Eurovision Song Contest. ABBA would later on become one of the best-selling music acts of all time. The success followed with bands like Europe, Roxette, Ace of Base, The Cardigans and The Hives in the 1980s and 90s. Sweden has also found a lot of fame with electronic music acts such as Avicii, Galantis, Alesso and Swedish House Mafia. The latter became the first electronic act to headline and sell out Madison Square Garden back in 2011. The same year, Financial Times reported Sweden produced music exports of up to $150 million, the largest per capita in the world.
But the success doesn’t only stem from artists and bands. The majority of the revenue from the music export comes from songwriters. One of the most succesful songwriters ever, Max Martin, is Swedish. He has received 25 Grammy nominations and won five of them. His work has contributed to more than 140 million records sold worldwide, and he has been behind 27 number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100. He has written and/or produced hits for literally every popstar you can think about. Sweden has a lot of songwriters, almost 106 000. According to STIM, a Swedish membership organization for songwriters etc. reported that Sweden has four times as many songwriters as the United Kingdom (per capita). A study by Tony Fang and Mikaela Lewander from The University of Stockholm shows that in 2012, Half of Billboard’s Top Ten hits in 2012 were performed, written or produced by Swedes.
Sweden doesn´t only lead in music export but in entrepreneurship as well. Many of the world’s leading music streaming platforms are Swedish. Spotify, Soundcloud and Tidal were all founded in Sweden. The world´s leading soundtracing platform, Epidemic Sound, is also founded and based in Sweden.
So why Sweden?
The success of music export can stem from a lot of things. Below, we will list a few possible reasons.
- The weather
It sounds ridiculous but is a playing factor. Sweden is known for long, cold and dark winters. Surprisingly, many artists find the most creative periods to be found during winter months. The mentality seems to be “if you can’t be outside, you might as well be creative inside”. On the contrast many also find inspiration during the long summer days. In some parts of the country, the sun doesn’t even set for months during summer. Zara Larsson recently said “the long winters of darkness and melancholy make you appreciate summers like nowhere else”. Swedish DJ Axwell, who’s also a part of Swedish House Mafia, similarly said “You get out of the dark and melancholic, into the happy and warm and it’s perfect”.
- The welfare system
The Swedish welfare system plays a big role in the creation of new songwriters and pop stars. In Sweden, schools are tuition-free and music courses are included in the school curriculum. The Swedish government has a series of ways to get funding for musicians via grants or scholarships. For example, the Swedish Arts Council funds over 2 billion SEK (Swedish crowns) to artists every year.
- The global aspect of Sweden
Swedish people are known for their ability to speak English particularly well. English films are (almost) never dubbed and English is a mandatory subject in schools. Swedes are used to hearing English daily and often tops the list of travel habits. A research from Pew Research Center showed that over 99 % of Swedish people had visited another country in their lifetime.
Sweden is the largest B2B (business-to-business) supplier per capita in the global music production value chain. Due to the small size of the Swedish market, most sectors heavily rely on export and the music sector is no exception. In recent years, Sweden has become one of the largest exporters of K-Pop music. The income from K-Pop music for Swedish artists and songwriters are up an astounding 1000 % since 2018.
Conclusion
Sweden’s rise to becoming the world’s pop songwriting capital is no coincidence. It’s the result of many small things working together over a long time. From ABBA’s Eurovision win in the 1970s to Max Martin writing some of the biggest pop hits ever, Sweden has built a strong reputation for creating global music success. In the end, Sweden proves that size doesn’t matter. With innovation, collaboration and a global mindset a country of just over 10 million people has managed to become one of the global exporters of music.