After a short, deserved hiatus guest blogger Eduardo Alonso from Glue is back with another look at the Finnish music business in the light of giant Universal’s recent acquisition of three big, local labels and asks the relevant question: Will this be positive for the Finnish music scene locally and internationally?

I was thinking about a semi-smart topic to resume this blog about music in Finland (my apologies for last month’s absence) when I read that Universal Music has bought an important chunk of the most significant Finnish music catalogue. The giant record company has announced the purchase of the three big labels Siboney, Johanna Kustannus and legendary Love Records.

When I heard the news, I immediately thought that this might not be a positive thing. History tells more often than not that this is the case when big record companies take control. The news is especially worrying in a small market like the Finnish music industry, which is controlled by a handful of companies and people (thankfully, there’s a good bunch of high quality indie and self-releases).

With the acquisition of Love Records, the multinational company will now own an important portion of Finnish popular music history. Love Records, founded in 1966, gave a voice to many emerging Finnish rock and pop bands, including Hanoi Rocks, Hurriganes, Dave Lindholm and prog-rock pioneers Wigwam. The label also released jazz, folk and radical political music. Of course, this move can mean the reissue of many hard-to-find gems and also Finnish music might become widely available, but still it is a bit sad to see the catalogue go.

Apart from the back catalogue, it will be interesting to see how this operation will affect the present roster of the labels and future signings. In the latest years, Johanna Kustannus has supported the indie scene and signed some of our favorites bands such as Kiki Pau, Delay Trees and Cats On Fire.

Theoretically, the support of Universal Music should mean a bigger support for these bands, but it will be interesting to see how the labels evolve from now on and if this support will help Finnish music industry to catch up with the frontline of Nordic music and stand stronger in the efforts to conquer the international markets, which is the particular El Dorado of Finnish music industry – or, if the scene will become rigid and boring. I guess only time will tell…