Tallinn Music Week

Operated by Tallinn-based company Shiftworks OÜ,[1] it showcases emerging artists from all over Europe and beyond, provides a networking platform for music and creative industry professionals, and introduces the city of Tallinn.

[5][7][39][40] Throughout the festival's existence several international industry experts, artistic figures and pop mavericks have participated in the conference panel discussions, among them Seymour Stein, the founder and president of Sire Records (Madonna, Ramones), influential managers Simon Napier-Bell (The Yardbirds, Marc Bolan, Wham!

), Petri Lunden (Cardigans, Europe), Edward Bicknell (Dire Straits, Scott Walker, Bryan Ferry), Peter Jenner (Pink Floyd), artists-turned authors Viv Albertine (The Slits), John Robb (The Membranes, Louder Than War), Bob Stanley (St Etienne), renown acts like Glen Matlock (Sex Pistols, Rich Kids), polymath musician Barry Adamson, Russian feminist punk rock protest group Pussy Riot, influential musicologists like Simon Reynolds and Adam Harper and many others.

Since 2016 the TMW conference has expanded from music industry topics towards a wider social agenda and presented various visionaries from different subject fields, among them the US-based entrepreneur and philanthropist Hamdi Ulukaya, artist and activist iO Tillett Wright, gene researcher Lili Milani, MEP Felix Reda, Silicon Valley’s business angel Fadi Bishara, city developer Gunvor Kronman, pioneering post-punk designer Malcolm Garrett.

[3] In 2014, Experty.by's Źmicier Biezkaravajny via Belorusy i rynok said, “The Tallinn one is attractive primarily because it is one of the highest-rated but at the same time affordable events in terms of opportunities for a little-known artist to demonstrate its work to a foreign listener.”[6] In 2016, Tom Hawking on Flavorwire pointed out that "/.../ the Estonian national government clearly has no problem providing state funding for such an endeavor, as well as getting involved in other, more hands-on ways.

"[48] In 2017–2018 The Quietus has published articles on Estonian experimental music and acknowledged TMW for “promoting leftfield adventurous artists and feeding off questions of gender identity and social righteousness”.