Developing The Welsh Music Industry

The four-year-old Welsh Music Foundation (WMF) works with companies rather than artists or community groups to assist those companies to develop into fully functional entities that can operate and compete at the highest level. Publicly funded, the WMF's board members have professional experience and expertise providing invaluable knowledge and a hands-on grassroots approach.

The board members include Dai Davies, formerly with the Sanctuary Group; leading music industry lawyer Ann Harrison, whose clients include The Corrs; former Stereophonics manager John Brand, and Gareth Hopkins, senior VP, business affairs, EMI International. The WMF staff team combine record label, artist management, legal and journalistic experience.

WMF activities range from bringing BBC Radio 1's "One Live" show to Cardiff and assisting the Barfly chain to launch its Welsh operations to assisting Welsh record companies in attending the PopKomm and MIDEM events in Germany and France as well as subsidizing consultations for Welsh music companies with expert music business lawyers and offering general advice and guidance for the companies in conducting their business.

In September the WMF held a series of educational seminars in Cardiff with speakers from the BPI, AIM, the MCPS-PRS Alliance, ASCAP and VPL explaining the functions and services of the collection societies and professional organizations. Registration by over 130 people within one week of the seminars being announced shows their validity and relevance for the music industry in Wales. Further seminars are planned on subjects such as contracts, running record labels and artist management.

The WMF also provides one-to-one advice at short notice on a wide variety of issues from recruiting staff to working out royalty percentages. If the answers are not instantly available in house, the WMF researches them and everything is free of charge. It publishes the Welsh Music Foundation Directory containing contact details for the entire music industry in Wales and Sound Nation magazine containing Welsh and general music industry news, comment and advice. The first is available from the WMF direct at and the magazine can be obtained by sending your mailing address to subs@soundnation.net.