Happiness - a momentum that you have to seize

Like most other professions, the music profession is not always accompanied by luck. Many of us are not lucky - or is it just a coincidence? -to make it in the consumer society with their work, to make an impact, to be successful or to become wealthy. This happiness in the world of music is usually short-lived. In comparison to the enormous output of musicians as composers, songwriters, performers and stage artists, only very few works are ultimately received in the long term, and even the most illustrious names of «stars» fade within a generation at the latest.

Of course, the formula «happiness = success» is rather skewed and certainly not a sufficient definition of happiness. Happiness for music creators could also be finding what you are looking for as an artist: finding an independent and valid statement, the certainty that what you wanted has been fulfilled in the work of art. This is certainly accompanied by the satisfaction of knowing that both performers and a (perhaps small) audience understand this language, are inspired and stimulated by it. It is something of a feeling of happiness to be understood - and if some of it is passed on.

«But luck could also be that the music professions have social significance and recognition.»

That everyone who makes musical art is a common «yeast» to trigger movement, (re)thinking, joy and humanity in the «dough» of society. In this respect, the individual musician is not so important. This kind of happiness is simply about society's understanding that all creative artists are considered important, regardless of their status and reputation, because each and every one of them makes a smaller or larger contribution with their work. The degree of fame or artistic reputation plays no role in this.

We are still a long way off that in this country. It was only during the 2020-2022 pandemic that a social and political discourse began in Switzerland for the first time about the fact that artistic professions are - more than ever - systemically relevant, deserve recognition and, not least, have an economic value. The precariousness of many music professionals, which became clearly visible at the time, came as a shock to the wider public. This was reflected in the first legal foundations of labor and social rights, but also in the cultural policy of the federal government, cantons and municipalities, which has intensified since then. Nowadays, people are talking about the music professions and debating fair fees and social benefits. This was clearly stated in the Federal Council's cultural message for 2025-2028. Based on this, many cantons and cities have realigned - and in some cases strengthened - their funding policies.

With the use of digital technologies in the production of music and its capitalist mass marketing by globally active media and music companies, issues such as copyrights, licenses for creative art, the extended protection of authors and remuneration for the distribution or appropriation of music are currently becoming important topics in the Swiss Federal Parliament. All these signs of a more appreciative recognition of the music professions are only just beginning. In real terms, nothing has really improved for music creators since then.

For this to change substantially, a driver is needed. And that is the cultural umbrella organizations. For independent musicians, this is of course SONART. When the composer, music thinker and publicist Hans Zender [1] spoke of a «political act» in connection with «working on autonomous art», this is exactly what he meant:

«The work of art, the music per se, does not have to be obviously political. But its background, its production conditions, its exploitation and its economic and social compensation have a lot to do with politics.»

Happiness cannot be forced. But the active and public promotion of fair fees, a diverse and continuously expanded cultural policy, social security in working life and in «retirement» as well as clear answers to the challenges of the digital world are SONART's unwavering focus. I am confident that SONART can achieve this: this is how moments of happiness can arise.

«The work on autonomous art itself is a political act» [Hans Zender]

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1 Hans Zender (1936-2019), quote from the essay «Kulturpolitik» in «Waches Hören», Hanser Verlag, 2014