Where's the fun in that?

The compelling sound of £8.9 million

T in the Park, the MTV awards and charismatic bands galore add up to a whole load of fun. The fact that Franz Ferdinand was just one of 17 Scottish bands invited to perform at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas this May indicates the wide appeal of the contemporary Scottish sound. The way, of course, has been paved by star acts like Annie Lennox, Wet Wet Wet, Texas, Travis, Garbage (the US band fronted by Scots singer Shirley Manson) and Belle and Sebastian. But the inspiration keeps on flowing, year on year, with bands like Speedway, Mull Historical Society, Idelwild, Bis and Snow Patrol. And now, the foursome who name themselves after the Austrian archduke, whose assassination helped trigger World War I.

Glasgow is the nexus of the contemporary music scene, with many of the new wave bands either hailing from or making their home there. Celtic Connections is a massively successful festival held in Glasgow every January and provides a showcase for Scottish music that promoters from around the world attend. T in the Park (sponsored by Tennents Lager, Scotland's best-selling brand that also massively supported the music scene in the 80s) is in its twelfth year and is one of the most acclaimed music events in Europe. It started out in Strathclyde Park in 1994 but moved to Balado, near Kinross in Perthshire in 1997 in a year that coincided with brilliant sets from both Texas and Travis. Every July it unfailingly has an impressive line-up that this year included The Darkness, Snow Patrol, Black Eyed Peas and the boys with the bogus Austrian connection. 52,000 fans attend every day, it's firmly established as Scotland's most popular weekend out and it generates around £2 million for the local and national economies.

But the event that has really put Scotland on the world music map was the 10th Anniversary MTV Europe Music Awards held in Edinburgh in 2003. The show, hosted by Christina Aguilera and featuring Beyonce, Kylie Minogue, Justin Timberlake and Travis amongst a host of other international stars, was beamed around the world in 77 hours of programming by MTV's global networks. MTV's viewing audiences showed a remarkable increase over the previous year, hotel occupancy in Edinburgh soared and bookings were valued at £2.2 million and the overall benefit to the Scottish economy has been estimated at £8.9 million, over double what was anticipated. The icing on this very rich cake is that MTV Europe proclaimed the event the best ever, stated categorically that Scotland is a world-class destination for high-profile events and presented Edinburgh and Scotland with a special MTV Award (normally given only to the winning performers) in recognition for the support they received.

A changing climate

The greatest encouragement to young musicians hoping to make it on the music scene is seeing that others have done it before. As Alexander Kapranos, lead singer of Franz Ferdinand, said in a recent interview with CNN: "When you see other Scottish bands having done it before, like Belle and Sebastian, or Teenage Fanclub and Orange Juice. . . it gives you encouragement to see that real people, real ordinary people can get it together and you don't have to go through some kind of. . . manufactured Pop Idol scenario to actually get together and make music. We're just four friends who got together and wrote songs ourselves. . .

Of course success never comes without help. Being signed up by Domino Records has helped put Franz Ferdinand on the map and the export of 17 bands to Austin, Texas was helped by a grant from Scottish Arts Council. Although this was a one-off, Ronnie Gurr of Scottish Arts Council believes that grants for Rock 'N' Roll are long overdue in Scotland. They're commonplace in other countries.

But there are signs that the climate is changing. Increasingly it is being recognised that the Creative Industries make a huge contribution to the economy. Approximately 100,000 people work in the Creative Industries in Scotland, generating £5 billion and contributing 4% to Scottish GDP. Furthermore, Scotland has a greater share of Creative Industries employment than any region in the UK, outwith London and the South East.

Two organisations supporting the music industry in Scotland warrant special mention. The Scottish Music Centre (SMC) in Glasgow dates back to the 60s when it began as the Scottish Music Archive housed at Glasgow University but it has recently been re-launched as a Centre that will serve all genres of music with resources and expertise available on-line. The new centre will offer a gateway to resources and information and will support the promotion of all Scotland's music both at home and abroad and encourage the cultural, social, educational and economic growth of music in Scotland.

NEMIS (New Music in Scotland) is a Scottish Arts Council funded project that was set up in 2001 to help nurture Scottish pop music by providing a network for Scottish artists, labels, music businesses, media, recording studios, venues, radio, creatives and professional services within the industry. NEMIS offers advice to anyone working within the industry, assists in marketing and promotion of the industry through show-casing of bands regionally, nationally and internationally, offers discounted rates at trade fairs, produces compilation CDs and provides music industry workshops throughout Scotland.

Finally, as this feature goes live, Napier University is holding a week-long Rock School for teenagers who want to learn more about performing in a band and the business of actually going out and preparing for a gig. There should be a lot of fun in that.