As Music Becomes More ‘Glocal,’ Songwriters Need to Rethink How They Do Business

When it comes to music-exporting countries — i.e., those that collect more royalties from other countries than they pay out — Sweden is patient zero for addressing the way streaming platforms and social media have changed how music travels (or doesn’t travel) around the world. Indeed, how Swedes address the new landscape can provide pathways that songwriters and producers in other countries can take as well.

Music has never been more global. Today, a musician can upload a song and reach a listener virtually anywhere in the world. But music is increasingly local, too. Streaming platforms and social media have allowed creators to build audiences for music performed in their local languages, escaping the homogeneity of U.S. and U.K.-dominated, English-language pop music. Algorithmically driven streaming platforms emphasize regional preferences, and social platforms such as TikTok provide local artists with an effective tool to reach nearby listeners. As a result of this “glocalization,” more local artists are reaching the charts in their home countries with local-language songs.

The shifts have been remarkable. As Billboard noted in 2023, less than a fifth of the top 10 songs in Poland, France, the Netherlands and Germany were local artists back in 2012. In 2022, local music’s share of the top 10 songs had risen to 70% in Poland, Italy and Sweden; 60% in France; 30% in the Netherlands and Spain; and 20% in Germany. “It’s about people valuing their own cultures, and the charts are basically a mirror of that,” Pedro Kurtz, Deezer’s head of music for Latin America, said in 2024.

While glocalization has done wonders for local music communities, it creates a problem for global-minded songwriters, according to a new paper, Sweden’s Music Industry as a Crossroads, from economist Will Page, the co-author of a 2023 paper that popularized the term. As more local music is consumed, Page warns that foreign songwriters in those markets will find fewer opportunities for their music. Essentially, more local hits mean fewer global hits will ascend the charts in France, Germany and other markets — and Page argues that this presents challenges for Swedish songwriters who have a long history of creating hits outside their borders.

The country that birthed ABBA and Max Martin punches well above its weight in the global music marketplace. As Page notes, Sweden has four times as many songwriters per capita as Britain and is one of four countries — including the U.S., U.K. and South Korea — that collects more royalties from foreign countries than it pays out. Sweden has the best export ratio of the four markets, meaning its ratio of exports (international income to STIM, the Swedish collection society) to imports (distributions to foreign societies) of 2.8 is the highest in the world.

Swedish songwriters’ success in foreign markets is the result of a confluence of factors. The country’s music industry has benefited from music education and government support for the arts. Also, Swedes tend to be fluent in English, the lingua franca of the global music industry. And as the entertainment business went digital, Sweden had high penetration of high-speed internet and was an early adopter of global platforms — both legal (Spotify) and illegal (The Pirate Bay).

The results have been inarguably successful. A quarter century ago, Swedish songwriters and producers were helping craft hits by U.S. artists such as Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC and Britney Spears, reaping the rewards of massive album sales at the peak of the CD era. More recently, many Swedes have songwriting credits on K-pop songs that are huge hits not only in South Korea but around the world. “For every krona that Swedes earn from Korea,” Page wrote, “they’re seeing another two kronas from their K-Pop hits being heard elsewhere around the world.” They also get twice as many streams from Latin America as from the Nordics, and they earn a larger share of Asia’s royalties than their country’s recording artists.

Things are clearly going splendidly for Swedish songwriters, but as the paper’s title suggests, the popularity of local-language music requires songwriters to rethink how they do business. If the future is destined to have more local hits and fewer global ones, Swedish songwriters will need to continue working with foreign recording artists — and branch out to new countries — to continue to bring home royalties. “Sweden has a rare comparative advantage in writing and recording music,” Page writes. “But it cannot be taken for granted as glocalization upends trading relationships.”

Songwriters, publishers and collection societies can take a number of steps in an increasingly glocalized world. Page encourages Swedes to “micro-target foreign markets,” as it has done with South Korea, where songwriting camps provide opportunities for local music with massive global appeal. BELIFT Labs, an imprint of South Korean K-pop giant HYBE, hosts songwriting camps in the Nordic region and collaborates remotely. “Nordic writers have a unique ability to express nostalgia and emotion through beautiful melodies, which strongly connected with K-pop fans around the world,” the label said in Page’s report.

Songwriters can also focus on emerging markets to escape the slowing growth of streaming and subscription revenues in mature markets. Latin America is full of potential. Page writes that last year, Swedish songwriters received twice as many streams from Latin America as from the Nordics. Another example is India, which has recently attracted investment from the likes of Warner Music Group and Believe. India is not yet a top 10 market, but its massive population of more than 1.4 billion will become more lucrative over time. Additionally, the Indian diaspora means local language music will be heard in the U.S. and Canada.

Approaches for dealing with glocalization will vary by country. Like Sweden, South Korea is a net exporter of music, but its market is dominated by K-pop companies that have figured out how to make pop music that appeals to both South Koreans and a global audience. At the same time, K-pop companies are effectively embracing glocalization by exporting their artist development approach to places like the U.S. and Latin America, creating musical groups tailored for local markets. Sweden, on the other hand, excels at exporting its songwriting and production talent and encouraging cross-border collaboration.

“For Swedish artists, the need to export is straightforward — when faced with saturation at home, the grass is greener on the export side,” Page explained. That goes for recording artists, songwriters and producers from other countries, too. As consumers around the world continue to adopt streaming platforms — many will become paying subscribers for the first time — the global music market will continue to grow for the foreseeable future. To capture that value growth, creators must figure out how to operate in a world where global and local increasingly overlap.