Iceland Music welcomed friends and supporters to our Haustskál (autumn toast) at 12 Tónar on September 2nd. We raised a glass to the season ahead, with tunes from DJ Hermigervill and Spacestation.

Our director María Rut welcomed guests and gave an overview of the projects ahead. This autumn's work is as varied as it is extensive, but it all comes down to strengthening the infrastructure of the Icelandic music industry and boosting our export efforts.

Home

At home, the highlight is our annual Bransaveislan (Industry Party), held in early November in the days leading up to Iceland Airwaves, in partnership with Reykjavík Music City and Business Iceland. This year's programme will be more ambitious than ever and will be announced in the coming weeks. Bransaveislan then leads into the IA conference, where Iceland Music also curates the programme for one of its two conference days.

The Music Fund opened for applications yesterday, September 15th, with a deadline of October 30th at 3:00pm. As before, Iceland Music administers the fund on behalf of the Ministry of Culture, Innovation and Higher Education.

Other events this autumn include an introduction to the Mexican music market, a seminar on neighbouring rights in partnership with SFH, and a workshop with Christiana Sudano (Do Less Management) to help artists prepare for the 2027 music year.

Abroad

There's plenty happening internationally, too. Last weekend, the cultural festival Taste of Iceland took place in London, where our export specialist Leifur Björnsson joined Inspector Spacetime and virgin orchestra for a sold-out show at Colours Hoxton. Taste of Iceland continues this autumn with stops in New York and Vancouver, where we'll keep introducing Icelandic music and musicians to new audiences and opportunities.

That same weekend, María Rut was at by:larm in Oslo for the launch of Current, a new Nordic collaboration project aimed at better connecting Nordic industry festivals and artists. Árný and SCAM are this year's Icelandic participants, and both performed at the festival. At by:larm, NOMEX also presented its Top 20 Under 30 awards, with four Icelandic professionals honoured this year: Aurora Di Rienzo, Francesca Stoppani, Atli Freyr Hjaltason, and Breki Adiel Stefánsson.

This week, Leifur is in Hamburg for the Reeperbahn Festival, following Amor Vincit Omnia, Elín Hall, and Spacestation. In early October, Signý Leifsdóttir travels to Berlin with composers Áki Ásgeirsson, Bergrún Snæbjörnsdóttir, and Þórgunn Anna Örnólfsdóttir to take part in Month of Contemporary Music.

Inward

Iceland Music is also looking inward these days. This autumn, we're undertaking a full strategic review of our export work — putting everything on the table, examining what's working, what isn't, and how we can best support the export of Icelandic music in the years ahead. This work will be carried out in close dialogue with the music industry, and we're looking forward to sharing more soon.

Finally, together with the Cultural Research Center, we're wrapping up a major study on the music listening habits of Icelanders - how we listen, what we listen to, how we discover music, and, not least, what role Icelandic music plays in our lives. The results are in, and we look forward to sharing more soon. Afterwards, we'll be launching a campaign to encourage everyone to listen to more Icelandic music.

So it's safe to say there's plenty going on for us here on Austurstræti, with no shortage of exciting projects ahead this autumn. We'd of course recommend signing up for our newsletter and following us on social media to stay in the loop.

Photos

By Sunna Ben

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