The collaboration between Warner Music Live and Nelonen Media has been talked about in the music industry.
The Emma & Matilda duo has previously performed at the Ö Fest festival, among others. Juha Metso
The Finnish Ö Fest festival tells on his Instagram account boycotting the artists of the program agency Warner Music Live at the 2026 event.
The decision is based on the collaboration between Warner Music Live and Nelonen Media at the end of October. In the future, Warner Music Live will handle Nelonen Media’s festival programming, artist acquisition and contract negotiations.
Helsingin Sanomat previously said that cooperation has raised concerns in the music industry about, for example, the concentration of power.
Ö Fest also refers to the concentration of power in its Instagram post.
– This kind of concentration of power to fewer and fewer actors threatens to make the music industry one-sided. The fear is that there will be even fewer opportunities for new emerging artists in the future and the programs of summer festivals will even out even more. Development is widely considered a problem in the music industry, but many people cannot or dare not open their mouths due to their position, the publication writes.
Annually in a secret place in the publication of the organized Ö Fest, it is written that the festival has been a project from the beginning, the focus of which is to defend the diversity of the music industry and “to be on the side of small up-and-coming artists”.
– That’s why we have decided that no Warner Music Live artists will perform at Ö Fest in 2026. As a small event alone, we cannot change the direction of development, but with our policy, we want to highlight this problem and contribute to the diversity of the cultural field, the publication writes.
Ö Fest’s organizers hope that the opening will spark a discussion about the direction in which the music industry wants to develop.
Finally, the publication states that the festival’s cooperation with Warner Music Live has gone without problems.
– We value the artists and staff of Warner Live. Our criticism is not aimed at them, but at the structural change in the industry.
Among Warner Music Live’s artists, at least Emma & Matilda and Tupe, who visited artist Edict’s gig, have performed at the festival in recent years.
Helsingin Sanomat previously reported that the Maustetyöt band’s two performances at next summer’s Suomipop festival were canceled. Aki Roukala, the artistic director of the Lördag record company representing the band, said that he had received information that the gigs were canceled for reasons of savings.
CEO of Warner Music Finland Ramona Forsstrom commented to Helsingin Sanomat that some changes have been made to Sanoma’s festivals since the start of the collaboration, but more artists from outside Warner have been added to the festival than have been canceled.
Also business director of Nelonen Media Kari Laakso confirmed that with the changes, the share of Warner Music Live artists has not increased.