EMEE European Market Mission: Gothenburg
The last EMEE Mission of 2025 took us to the newest EMEE members’ home base: Gothenburg, Sweden, where Westside Music hosts the yearly showcase festival Viva Sounds. It’s the one showcase that effortlessly puts you in the Christmas spirit and still ends the year with a bang. Spread across some of the city’s most beautiful venues, from the iconic Pustervik to small record shops, it’s a festival that feels both cosy and electrifying at the same time. And one thing I absolutely adore about Sweden: venues double as a restaurant offering genuinely great (mostly vegetarian) lunch options before transforming into a music venue at night.
On this mission we spent three days on Sweden’s west coast, exploring Gothenburg, meeting Swedish industry players from the recording, publishing, and live sector and joining Sounds networking events. At one point someone allegedly said, “I’ve never had so much fun bowling in my life”
- Regional collaboration for the win: The Nordic countries have a long tradition of joining forces through export projects, and it shows. It doesn’t just strengthen Sweden, it strengthens the whole region and creates opportunities none of the countries could generate alone.
- Building capacity in specific sectors takes time and intentional knowledge transfer:
Sweden’s deliberate investment in publishing and producer development has paid off, the country is a net exporter of music, and that didn‘t happen by accident. - Showcase festivals that started with a strong DIY spirit tend to keep it as part of their identity: And that’s exactly what makes them internationally attractive. For visitors and delegates alike, it creates a genuinely memorable, human experience.
- When a city and its music sector work well together, things move: Music isn’t just culturally relevant, it’s a major tourism factor.