Swiss Music Export @ m4music Festival 2025

What’s the very best thing about March? That’s right – it’s m4music, the two-day festival within spitting distance of the bluest and cleanest lake in Europe, Lake Zurich, and, of course, showcasing the finest music of tomorrow as well as the day after tomorrow. Popular not just amongst professionals – the public concert programme is always sold-out weeks in advance –, m4music offers a wide range of presentations, panel discussions and workshops. A large and comfortable foyer with plenty of bar space and seating areas is the perfect environment for conviviality and business discussions.

Swiss Music Export will once again host a number of excellent events, all designed to bring together Swiss artists and professionals with their counterparts from all over Europe.
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Getting to know European Festivals

FRI 28 MAR | 13:00 – 14:30 | Schiffbau, Moods | In English

This panel – another regular SME presentation at m4music – offers in-depth insights and information about some of the most important showcase festivals in Europe. You will find out how they put together their programs, what kind of audience they cater for – and what the most common mistakes are in dealing with festival bookers. A must, in other words, for anyone involved in booking tours and one-off performances, or looking for advice about how to approach a festival as an artist.

Speakers:
Alexander Walter, WOMEX, Director, Berlin
Beke Trojan, MS DOCKVILLE, Head of Booking, Hamburg
Christoph Heide, c/o pop, Head of Music Booking, Cologne
Julen Martin, BIME Bilbao Content Director, Bilbao

Introduction:
Joana Elena Obieta, Swiss Music Export

Moderation:
Jean Zuber, Swiss Music Export

Panel conducted in English.
Link m4music: Getting to know European Festivals
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SME Matchmaking

FRI 28 MAR | 15:30 – 17:00 tbc | Schiffbau, m4music Bistro im LaSalle (Invitation only!)

An opportunity for Swiss and international music industry to connect is the yearly Matchmaking that happens on the first day of m4music.  
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Business Mixer Brunch

SAT 29 MAR | 11:00 – 13:00 | Schiffbau, m4music Bistro im LaSalle

As ever, we’d love to see old friends and new at our annual brunch buffet to catch up with each other’s progress in the past year, and plans for the twelve months ahead. Awaiting you and your friends will be the best coffee in town plus bread and croissants straight from the oven.

Long live tradition! Especially when it’s as popular as this, our Business Mixer Brunch. Alas, the demand for a place on our guestlist has become such that even our large venue threatens to become unpleasantly packed. As a result, we’ve had to tighten up our rules of admittance ever so slightly: Attendance is open to all professionals with accreditation for the m4music festival. However, registration is mandatory. We shall do our best to accommodate anyone on our list arriving before 11:30. After that it’s admittance only if there is enough room. 

Here’s the link to register (until Tuesday March 25, 18:00):  
https://forms.gle/wuPCDqsGxiKigtAp9

This event is co-presented by Sonart, Pro Helvetia and Swiss Music Export.
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Swiss Success Story: Bongo Joe Records

SAT 29 MAR | 12:45 – 13:45 | Schiffbau, Moods

A more unlikely location for an oasis of musical innovation is hard to imagine: Bongo Joe – record shop, café/bar, recording studio, concert venue and home of the record label of the same name – is situated right in the middle of Geneva, surrounded by private banks, luxury hotels and expensive jewellers. The fact that Bongo Joe was able to move into these spacious and geographically advantageous premises in 2021 is testament to the support the organisation enjoys in the social and financial fabric of the city. “Punks, bankers, artists, bakers and postmen – the whole of society is gathered here”, enthuses Cyril Yeterian, once a member of much-travelled cajun-punk band Mama Rosin, who launched Bongo Joe Records in 2015. The home of impossible-to-categorise acts like Yalla Miku, Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp, Bound by Endogamy or Yeterian’s own Cyril Cyril, Bongo Joe have gathered around them a vibrant community of truly adventurous music makers, connected in a worldwide network of likeminded pioneers of sound. Cyril Yeterian, the founder himself, will share at the conference how Bongo Joe Records achieved its success.

Panel conducted in French with German translation.
Link m4music: Swiss Success Story
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