Swiss music funding favors classical music, study finds

Public funding for music in Switzerland goes mainly to classical music, while long-term contracts leave little money flexible, according to a new comparison of six cities reported by SRF.

The research by the Music Diversity Initiative compared music funding per resident. It found a wide gap in support for pop and other contemporary music: Geneva spends 43.50 Swiss francs per person on “Musiques Actuelles”, compared with 20.40 francs in Bern and 10.20 francs in Zurich. The category includes pop, rock, jazz and hip-hop.

Classical music receives between 76 and 95 per cent of the total music budgets in the cities studied. In Zurich, the figures are 223.50 francs per person for classical music and 10.20 francs for “Musiques Actuelles”.

The initiative says the funding imbalance is built into the system. More than 80 per cent, and in some cases more than 90 per cent, of funds are committed through multi-year agreements with the same institutions. These include pop and rock clubs: Lausanne’s Les Docks receives 953,000 francs a year, Zurich’s Moods 917,900 francs and Basel’s Kaserne 357,423 francs. The initiative says this leaves only a small pool for independent, project-based work, constraining innovation and diversity.

The research found that French-speaking Switzerland provides more per resident for contemporary music than German-speaking cities. But it also cautioned against comparing those figures without considering each city’s total budget. Geneva’s overall music budget is much higher, and the share it allocates to “Musiques Actuelles” is lower than the shares in Basel and Bern.

The report’s distinction between classical music and “Musiques Actuelles” has also prompted questions. The article notes that this division can present the funding picture in an overly dramatic way and may not reflect current realities. Initiative committee member Janina Neustupny said the research was not intended to pit musical genres against each other or make funding demands.