More than a hundred meetings of music professionals from Serbia and four performances by domestic performers in the official program of the festival, are the results of the first official and united performance of the Serbian music scene at the largest festival and music conference in this part of Europe – MENT in Ljubljana.

Meet the Serbian Music Professionals: Over 100 meetings held with industry experts

The ninth edition of the festival brought together over 6,000 music fans and 700 experts from the music industry from a total of 31 countries. As part of the “Meet the Serbian Music Professionals” program, 11 organizations from Serbia participated and held almost 110 meetings with representatives from Estonia, France, Slovenia, Slovakia, Austria, Croatia, etc. Within this concept, EXIT Festival, Arsenal Fest, Dom Omladine Belgrade, Belgrade Beer Fest, SKYMUSIC, Vrigin Music Label & Universal Music, Bassivity digital, SKCNS Fabrika from Novi Sad, SKC Kragujevac, Kontakt, Charm Music Serbia and Kvaka 22 participated, while Glitch Records, Krokodil Studio, Pop Depresija and Kišobran, Radio Belgrade 1, Oblakoder Magazine, and Believe Serbia also participated in other segments.

As part of the official program, a reception was held for the first time under the organization of Serbia Creates Music, where delegates had the opportunity to get acquainted with the program and activities of local organizations. Four performers who performed in the official festival program – Bojana Vunturisevic, Dzipsii, Proto tip and Klotljudi, undoubtedly caught the attention of the audience and the music industry experts. As part of the conference program, delegates from Serbia participated in a total of six panels that addressed the music industry, music export, music platforms and promotion channels, new performers as well as new trends in music.

A new era for the music industry in Serbia: support for representation in the international market

Ana Ilić opening Serbia Creates Reception, photo by Kaja Brezocnik

“The long-term benefit of this joint performance of our music scene is certainly the development of the music sector in Serbia through the realization of new international cooperation, exchange of experiences, as well as presenting and networking talented local artists with relevant international participants in this developed industry – agents, bookers, festival organizers, labels. This is a way to support our professionals and talented performers to present themselves on the international market, but also to present Serbia in the light of a creative and innovative country,” highlighted Ana Ilic, advisor for creative industries and tourism who leads the national platform Serbia Creates.

“This is a new era in promoting music and the music industry from Serbia, and it’s an important turning point for all of us who professionally engage in music. For the first time, we have a serious structure supporting the representation of Serbia’s music industry, and we hope that this practice will continue not only at MENT but also at other conferences around the world,” said Nikola Jovanović, one of the delegates and Vice President of Virgin Music Label & Artist Services and Head of Society Relations at Universal Music (Western Balkans)