A groundbreaking national initiative to protect, enhance, and future-proof the digital presence of Wales' most iconic music.

In 2024-25, Dark Arts delivered the pioneering Optimise Music Wales project in an effort to preserve and enhance culturally significant music and artists from Wales. Funded by the Welsh Government, we were able to support 20 notable artists to help the musical heritage of Wales remain visible, competitive, and accessible for future generations.

Why is digital optimisation important in music?

  • THE INTERNET AND TECH ARE IN A CONTINUAL PROCESS OF FAST PACED EVOLUTION.

    New hardware, platforms and functionalities are constantly being introduced, offering ever more effective ways to cut through the noise and connect with audiences.

  • NEW MUSIC RELEASED TODAY IS OPTIMISED ACCORDING TO CURRENT INDUSTRY BEST PRACTISES.

    Modern promotion uses every up-to-the-minute function and trick in order to give new releases an advantage in an algorithm and attention focussed digital world.

  • BUT THE PACE OF THE DIGITAL WORLD PRESENTS SIGNIFICANT CHALLENGES FOR CATALOGUE MUSIC.

    Iconic artists with large quantities of culturally important catalogue face significant challenges to keep their music culturally relevant.

Challenges for artists with significant catalogue

Industry bandwidth

Limited capacity of the music industry to manage the volume of assets it owns.

Multiple stakeholders

Multitude of rights / stakeholders potentially responsible for an artist’s catalogue.

Pace of change

The need to constantly adapt and build presences on new platforms.

The work never ends

‘Golden Gate Bridge effect’ of updating extensive catalogues of assets to current standards.

Recovering lost IP

Locating original assets such as master tapes, videos and photos, recovering platform access and passwords.

Seizing opportunities

Reacting to shifts and spikes in popularity of repertoire in an always on digital culture.

If you stop rowing upstream, you don’t stay still, you go backwards

When an artist’s digital spaces and assets are not kept up-to-date with current standards they risk losing relevance and fading from sight. With fewer people discovering and engaging with their music, their audience and influence naturally diminishes.

On the flip side

Good optimisation practises give older repertoire a new lease of life and help artists gain an advantage in a highly competitive digital culture. A well-optimised digital footprint improves visibility, relevance, engagement and fandom creating a positive feedback loop with platform algoithms which are designed to amplify success.

How did Optimise Music Wales work?

With the funding support of the Welsh Government, Dark Arts was able to address these challenges and support 20 notable Welsh artists directly via the Optimise Music Wales project.

Through a package of a targeted support we helped many of the most prominent and important artists in the history of Welsh music to identify opportunities to improve their digital spaces and IP.

By providing a roadmap to improvement, we aimed to help protect iconic Welsh music, providing a foundation that inspires and facilitates new, original music from Wales and ultimately contributes to the sustained growth of the Welsh music industry.

  • Digital Healthcheck

    Identifying platform level optimisations across web, social media and streaming platforms.

  • YouTube Audit

    Identifying content level optimisations across an Official Artist Channel (OAC) on YouTube. 

  • Consultancy

    Consultancy calls to discuss the reports item by item, answer questions, propose solutions and strategies.

Optimisation on a national level

Optimise Music Wales is the first national catalogue optimisation project of its kind. It demonstrates how targeted, expert-led support can help protect and promote national music cultures in the global digital market.

Why this approach works:

  • National focus prioritises importance of cultural heritage of music over high-earning catalogues.

  • Centralised approach ensures support is not tied to a single label, distributor, or genre.

  • Prioritises inclusivity ensuring support for independent, women and Welsh language artists.

  • Designed to upskill artists and managers for sustainable future management of their catalogues.

If an artist’s digital spaces and assets are not kept up-to-date, they risk losing relevance and fading from sight. With fewer people discovering and engaging with their music, their audience and influence naturally diminishes.

On the flip side, a well-optimised digital footprint improves visibility, relevance, engagement and fandom. Algorithms thrive on engagement, amplifying success and creating a positive feedback loop.