What is the first thing when you think about Finland? Hockey? Well, I’m from Canada and whenever I meet a Finn, they assume that I am a hockey player or at least a fan. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. Although born in Edmonton a real winter city, snowy and icy, I grew up on Vancouver Island on the west coast where our winters were full of rain and cloud with bouts of sunny skies. So “why Finland,” they ask me? Like most foreigners who have come here and end up staying: to study or for that funny thing when two people meet and fall in love. Yet before I came here, like most, had no idea what Finland was all about.
Finland has gotten a lot more attention lately and for good reason. It has been a globally top ranked country across the board from stability, freedom, equality, innovation, transparency and much more. Only there is one important aspect that is not globally rated: Honesty, and if it were, Finland would be at the top as well. I can account for this from personal experience having lost my wallet twice and getting it back completely intact both times. I had even lost my new camera and had it returned to my door in person with a, “don’t worry I didn’t look at all the pictures.” Yet never in my life have I experienced such honesty as a semi-acquaintance’s recap of his recent heart wrenching break up with his long-time girlfriend in response to, “Wassup?” Dude, ouch!
You may be thinking so what? So, I came here to study music and my extravagant and somewhat naïve romanticisation typical of a lot of North Americans, of a European life in music, because anything across the Atlantic was Europe, didn’t match reality. It got real.
Finland is not Europe and I was very quickly enlightened by the locals that it is not Scandinavia either. It is Finland in its own right. Finland grew from the swamps of the glacial tundra, broke free from the occupation of Sweden and Russia with its own culture and its own language and climbed to the top of the world in Education, Information Technology and Social Rights. This was only possible with the raw truth of an unforgiving land where winter dominated and the brutal honesty one needed to work hard during the fairer months to survive the long cold dark winters. It is from this grain of truth that is inherent in the people who live here that life continues to thrive.
The peeps here at Musicinfo are no exception, in true Finnish form honest to the bone. There is a reason that a business like Musicinfo with partners in China exists in Finland. With direct flights from Helsinki to Shanghai and the rest of the world, connecting the West to the East, Finland has been referred to as the centre of the world. Even last year Finland has acquired a trust unbestowed to anyone else, by China entrusting their dear pandas to us.
It is May and we have all waited for this moment, for the lengthening of the days and the Birch to sprout its green and the flowers and animals to spread its seed of love; for Spring to finally arrive. Music distribution to China is just the first step in the courting ritual of your new audience. They’ve got your number. Do you just wait for them to call? You’ve gotta let them know you are alive and your heart beats with desire to make a connection. You’ve gotta let them know who you are and impress the message that you have composed in your music. Send your picture, your video and a note to where they can find you through Musicinfo’s Social Media Promotion and Video Sharing. Musicinfo is here to spread the love of music, yet our work is never done as even now winter is on its way.
Juri is a naturalised citizen of Finland originally from Canada working with the marketing team at Musicinfo.
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