Songs without Music
FACIR, GALM, PlayRight+ and Sabam for Culture
Issue 56 | September 2020
Agency
BBDO Belgium
Creative Team
Creative Directors Sebastien De Valck, Arnaud Pitz Associate Creative Director Frederik Clarysse Creative Frederik Clarysse
Production Team
Head of production Patricia van de Kerckhove Clients Belgian Music Fund Founders FACIR, GALM, PlayRight+ and Sabam for Culture
Date
June 2020
Background
Belgian musicians lack the funds to create and develop new music. With income from live performances gone as a result of Covid-19, this problem has increased. To tackle it, SABAM, the Belgian association of authors, composers and publishers and FACIR, GALM and PlayRight+ launched a "Belgian Music Fund".
Idea
The country's most famous and popular musicians, like K’s Choice or Clouseau, re-recorded their most iconic hits. After the intro, listeners then got to hear the lyric of the song, but without musical instruments or melody. Just the lead singer speaking the lyric. The message delivered was: “A song lyric is not music yet. Many musicians don’t have the funds to rehearse, play, record or produce their music. Support them on belgianmusicfund.be. Don’t do it for me, but for the K’s Choice / Clouseau / … of tomorrow.”
Results
The songs were integrated into the playlists of six of the major radio stations in Belgium, reaching over 3 million listeners.
The media attention sparked a debate about the future of Belgian music.
Our Thoughts
One of the depressing parts about editing Directory these days is seeing how Covid-19 has affected every nook and cranny of our lives. Culture has taken terrible punishment. At one point, 60,000 museums were thought to be closed and the lists of cancelled festivals, gigs and music events on nme.com or billboard.com are endless.
For the Ed Sheerans and Kaiser Chiefs, no worries. For every other artist trying to get a break, this is career meltdown.
If you want to help, go to belgianmusicfund.be