European music export organizations as hybrid policy instruments: Navigating cultural, trade and soft power agendas

This article examines the evolving role of Music Export Organizations (MEOs) as intermediaries between public policy and the music industry across various European contexts. While MEOs have gained prominence as cultural policy tools supporting internationalization, their mandates, structures, and activities vary widely. Through an analysis of 30 European MEOs, this study maps their emergence, functions, and positioning within broader cultural, economic, and foreign policy frameworks. The rise of MEOs reflects both a response to the global visibility of popular music and the influence of creative industries discourse within European policy agendas. The article proposes a typology of MEOs, identifying three main archetypes: the Public Cultural Agency, the Independent Industry-Led Export Hub, and the Grassroots Facilitator. These models reveal the sector’s organizational hybridity and its negotiation of multiple, often competing, policy rationales. Despite being framed around export and trade, most MEOs prioritize cultural development and support for emerging or independent artists, working with limited resources and unclear metrics of success. Their positioning reveals broader tensions in cultural policy between economic impact, soft power ambitions, and artistic diversity. Rather than operating within a coherent export model, MEOs exemplify a hybrid governance approach, shaped by local ecosystems and institutional arrangements. The article argues that while MEOs often lack the capacity to deliver on all their objectives, their embeddedness in national and regional infrastructures makes them increasingly strategic instruments of cultural policy, especially at the European Union level. By strengthening their autonomy and clarifying their missions, MEOs could support a more inclusive, sustainable, and culturally diverse model of international music circulation.