Industry Partnership

It is widely known that Kosovo has one of the biggest Modern Music Industries in the Region and even more to the fact considering the vast numbers of actors in this industry compared to its population and the national circumference. Boasting a variety of talents, diversified genres and productions that break the national barrier and represent Kosovo’s musical heritage internationally and furthermore bring the most qualitative and top level industry players in the world. Kosovo’s rich tradition of music and its unique geographical position offer an array of sounds and influences that span the globe, versatile and adaptable culture that is a fuse of European, Asian, African culture with its unique Balkan hybrid. This geographical position makes Kosovo an originality magnet, marking since 2000’s, more than 2000 projects and more spanning from solo artists to large scale orchestras. Particularly the “self-made” Music Market in Kosovo is extremely developed compared to the population and land mass of Kosovo. Nonetheless this Industry “self-made” as such lacks the professional structure, sustainability platforms and the standard infrastructure that render this, one of Kosovo’s biggest exports, a market with no professional support.  80% of Kosovo’s sound technicians have no professional training, 70% of Kosovo’s performers have no knowledge of entrepreneurship and the professional performer guidance to be projected and developed further and 95% of Kosovo’s market remains with persons that do not know how to handle Music Legislation, thus Kosovo’s general entertainment industry lacks the basic structure for the protection and archiving of the immensely rich work that is generated.

 

From the ground up this Music Market as “self-made”, it is a “wild” one, with no structure, no institutional support, and no place for the exuberant creative energy to be channeled, developed professionally, no technical and infrastructural support to develop it. Kosovo has no professional luthier, Luthiery is exercised by individuals that have learned the profession intuitively and cannot be held as professionals of the field, therefore all the instrument building and instrument maintenance is done in Skopje or Albania, making this a huge and constant financial problem for any instrument owner in Kosovo. Most of the Music Industry events, because of the lack of professional technicians, have no limits or specified requirements about the correct usage of equipment and the acoustic’s laws and music legislation, rendering 80% of the Activities harmful for the public, boasting as known in common knowledge events regularly with 140 dB, a decibel level causing deafness, tinnitus and other health problems. The lack of professionalism not only diminishes this talent but also destroys equipment faster therefore adding the expense. The lack of professionals in the field has also halted many processes related to the performing arts, rendering the quality of work in theater, film, animation and all other mass media in the lowest professional preparation. There is no proper Music Legislation in place, with less than 5% of habilitated persons that know the field of Authorial rights. While these technical issues and lack of professional educational structure pertain the industry and the whole Music Market, each generation seeks education either in the region or in Western and Northern Europe.

 

This adds a considerable financial burden to the massive industry and the people since 2000’s, export’s all the talent outside of Kosovo, therefore diminishes Kosovo’s economical income greatly. The lack of professional support not only gets the greatly talented market outside of the country but it also renders a waist majority of newcomers more than 60%, halt their work because of the lack of documentation, archive, critique and overall sustainability structures.

 

However this industry as one of the biggest in the country has gained professionals since 2000’s in all the necessary fields of Modern Music, Digital production and Management that are educated in the highest ranking schools in Europe and have contributed to the Industry greatly. So this makes for fertile ground to start an educational platform and structure that can keep the market in Kosovo, lower the financial burden on the people of Kosovo and also attract regional and international students and partners, therefore increasing the market exponentially and the overall economical income. As Kosovo’s biggest export and cultural representative this industry and its participants can not only benefit for themselves but can also make for an original and a slightly more manageable studying situation for all regional and international students and therefore, can attract a mass of young potential to come and share and diversify the cultural landscape and professional preparation and can increase the countries tourism. However, there is a lack of research on labor market needs in Kosovo, especially in the field of modern music. Of few existing reports on research market, it is worth mentioning a recent analysis on the Private Sector of Services 1 conducted nationwide, which found that in many industries the lack of professional preparation for employment is a great problem. One of the greatest challenges for employers is recruiting employees with the basic necessary skills for employment. Potential employees lack, to a great extent, educational background which would equip them with soft skills, creativity, critical and analytical skills, problem-solving skills, self-initiative and foreign language knowledge. This report acknowledges the lack of a comprehensive research in this field, and recommends more research in the central level, which would shed more light on sectorial needs for employment, which would lead to a better match between educational programs, professional preparation and job market needs.