Write. Perform. Connect.
Join CRESCENDO, a Creative Europe co-funded program connecting Europe's next generation of artists through international songwriting residencies, showcase festivals and long-term career development.
SHOWCASE FESTIVALS
Three Festivals. Three Regions.
One European Music Network.
Experience Europe's leading showcase festivals in the Balkans, Scandinavia and the Baltics.
Each festival offers far more than a performance opportunity.
Artists collaborate with local creators, perform for engaged audiences, meet music industry professionals and gain meaningful access to entirely new music communities.
Rather than trying to enter new markets alone, CRESCENDO helps artists build authentic local relationships through creativity and collaboration.
SoAlive
Sofia, Bulgaria
Viva Sounds
Gothenburg, Sweden
Riga Music Week
Riga, Latvia
HOW IT WORKS
One Week Can Change Your Career.
Three times every year, twelve artists from across Europe are selected for an intensive creative residency.
Participants are carefully matched into four international songwriting teams before spending eight days writing, rehearsing and developing entirely new music together.
Each residency concludes with a live performance at the host showcase festival, introducing these new collaborations to audiences and music professionals alike.
12
Artists
4
Songwriting Teams
8
Creative Days
1
Performances
OPEN CALLS
Your Next Opportunity Starts Here.
New music co-creation, eight days, three artists in a room
CRESCENDO is a four-year project built around one very simple idea: put twelve artists from different European countries together for eight days, split them into four small groups of three, and see what they write.
Three times a year, once in Sofia, once in Gothenburg, once in Riga, we host an eight-day creative residency, each one with a brand-new cohort of twelve artists. You arrive together with eleven others, matched into a trio in advance through a mutual process, and you spend the week writing and rehearsing something new from scratch.
On day eight, your group performs live at the host showcase festival. Across the four years of the project, around fifty new musical "side-projects" will have been born this way - none of them with the same line-up twice. These new and unique "side-projects" will then get the chance to be invited to perform at the other partner showcases and beyond.
The music you write at the residency doesn't end when you fly home. The live sets are recorded. Images are documented. Mermaids & Albatrosses (Portugal), an independent, MERLIN-member distributor, releases the audio digitally, with 100% of net digital revenues going to you and your collaborators. CRESCENDO also looks after the proper publishing registrations, and MERMAIDS acts as your publisher, pitching the tracks to over 300 music supervisors worldwide for film, TV, and brand placements. MusicBloom (Italy) helps your project circulate to other European festivals. WARM (Denmark) handles radio plugging. FACTORY-92 handles promotions and communications. And throughout, you'll have access to capacity-building workshops on how to develop an artist career, management and internationalisation, music publishing (how to effectively look after the song rights), synch (how to license your music for film, TV, ads and games), metadata literacy (learning the music publishing acronyms and their importance), smart artist websites pooling together your digital presence in a useful way as well as other relevant topics identified by artists, for artists. This capacity building component is led by Networking Music, FMC, .MUSIC, and VALUNODE.
You keep everything that matters: Your masters are yours. Songwriting splits will be documented for proper registrations. If you already have a publisher, nothing changes. If you don't, Mermaids Publishing offers a transparent publishing deal so the team can pitch your songs for synch and collect international digital royalties on your behalf via SUISA / MINT Digital. All your rights will be safeguarded and professionally looked after.
Twelve independent music organizations across ten European countries, co-funded by the European Union under the Creative Europe Program. (LIST for press release, not sure if needed for Artists?)
Songwriters, producers, and performing artists based in a Creative Europe country who want to write across borders and bring their music into international circulation. Gender balance is mandatory across every working group. CRESCENDO aims to foster the development of music careers, not just for the new side-projects that are created, but also for the individual artists that participate in CRESCENDO - you tell us what you need!
If that sounds like your kind of week, we want to hear from you.
OPEN CALLS
Your Next Opportunity Starts Here.
New music co-creation, eight days, three artists in a room
CRESCENDO is a four-year project built around one very simple idea: put twelve artists from different European countries together for eight days, split them into four small groups of three, and see what they write.
Three times a year, once in Sofia, once in Gothenburg, once in Riga, we host an eight-day creative residency, each one with a brand-new cohort of twelve artists. You arrive together with eleven others, matched into a trio in advance through a mutual process, and you spend the week writing and rehearsing something new from scratch.
On day eight, your group performs live at the host showcase festival. Across the four years of the project, around fifty new musical "side-projects" will have been born this way - none of them with the same line-up twice. These new and unique "side-projects" will then get the chance to be invited to perform at the other partner showcases and beyond.
The music you write at the residency doesn't end when you fly home. The live sets are recorded. Images are documented. Mermaids & Albatrosses (Portugal), an independent, MERLIN-member distributor, releases the audio digitally, with 100% of net digital revenues going to you and your collaborators. CRESCENDO also looks after the proper publishing registrations, and MERMAIDS acts as your publisher, pitching the tracks to over 300 music supervisors worldwide for film, TV, and brand placements. MusicBloom (Italy) helps your project circulate to other European festivals. WARM (Denmark) handles radio plugging. FACTORY-92 handles promotions and communications. And throughout, you'll have access to capacity-building workshops on how to develop an artist career, management and internationalisation, music publishing (how to effectively look after the song rights), synch (how to license your music for film, TV, ads and games), metadata literacy (learning the music publishing acronyms and their importance), smart artist websites pooling together your digital presence in a useful way as well as other relevant topics identified by artists, for artists. This capacity building component is led by Networking Music, FMC, .MUSIC, and VALUNODE.
You keep everything that matters: Your masters are yours. Songwriting splits will be documented for proper registrations. If you already have a publisher, nothing changes. If you don't, Mermaids Publishing offers a transparent publishing deal so the team can pitch your songs for synch and collect international digital royalties on your behalf via SUISA / MINT Digital. All your rights will be safeguarded and professionally looked after.
Twelve independent music organizations across ten European countries, co-funded by the European Union under the Creative Europe Program. (LIST for press release, not sure if needed for Artists?)
Songwriters, producers, and performing artists based in a Creative Europe country who want to write across borders and bring their music into international circulation. Gender balance is mandatory across every working group. CRESCENDO aims to foster the development of music careers, not just for the new side-projects that are created, but also for the individual artists that participate in CRESCENDO - you tell us what you need!
If that sounds like your kind of week, we want to hear from you.
Questions? We'd Love to hear from you!
Get in touch with the CRESCENDO team for project inquiries, media requests, partnership opportunities or questions regarding applications.
WHY CRESCENDO
Building Stronger European Music Together.
Creating opportunities beyond borders.
Independent artists have never had more ways to release music, yet building sustainable international careers has become increasingly challenging.
CRESCENDO exists to strengthen European collaboration by connecting artists directly with new creative partners, audiences and professional networks.
Through cross-border songwriting, live performance and long-term career support, the project helps independent European music travel further while celebrating Europe's cultural diversity.
PARTNERS
CRESCENDO brings together leading organisations from across Europe's independent music sector.
Together, these organisations support participating artists throughout every stage of their journey—from songwriting to international audience development.