Hozier, Lisa Hannigan, Rejjie Snow, Cathy Davey, Glen Hansard, Loah, Roisin Murphy and Gary Lightbody are among the figures highlighted on the cover of the Hot Press Yearbook 2018, which is officially released today.

Described as “the Bible” by experts as various as Dave Fanning, Louis Walsh, Eleanor McEvoy and Tom Dunne, the Yearbook is THE essential guide to the music, entertainment and media industry in Ireland.

However, this year’s Hot Press Yearbook puts a special emphasis on the importance of songwriting, with two unique features that are essential reading for the entire music and entertainment community.

In a special editorial, editor Niall Stokes makes the case that Ireland, and Dublin in particular, has the potential to become a European equivalent to Nashville, where music is estimated to contribute $5.5 billion annually to the local economy, out of a total output of $9.7 billion.

“To achieve this, we must engender a cluster effect,” Niall Stokes says in what is a wide-ranging editorial which sets out a series of steps designed to hugely boost the level of music activity which takes place in Ireland. “We will do that by creating an environment in which it makes sense for songwriters, bands, composers, record producers, recording engineers, film-makers, music supervisors and tecchies to come together to base themselves, and to work, in Ireland.”

This comes against a background where the renowned tunesmith David Kitt recently announced that he is planning to emigrate because of the exorbitant costs of living in Dublin, compared to the potential income a musician and songwriter can earn here.

It is indisputable that Ireland has produced some of finest songwriters in the world, and yet we do not have a music industry to match. From commercially successful singer-songwriters like Hozier and Johnny McDaid to experimental artists like Roisin Murphy; from those who have captured our national identity, like Brendan Graham and Glen Hansard, to those who are using new forms of music to upend what that term might mean, like Loah and Rejjie Snow, Ireland has long been a launching pad for extraordinary talent.

Against that background, Hot Press lays out a masterplan for how the Irish government can use concrete strategies to bring this hugely lucrative – and sustainable – industry fully to life, at a time when housing crises and diminishing revenues for artists have put individual musicians and songwriters under renewed pressure.

As part of this special emphasis on Irish songwriting, the Hot Press Yearbook also features A Songwriting Masterclass with Brendan Graham, the two-time Eurovision winner, whose ‘You Raise Me Up’ (written with Rolf Lovland) has entered the songwriting canon and become one of the most sung, and the most covered, songs of the past 50 years.

The Hot Press Yearbook also includes a Who’s Who of the key movers and shakers in the Irish music, media and entertainment industries; and a complete listing of all the major businesses and services in what is one of Ireland’s most important – albeit under-recognised and under-resourced – industries.

The Hot Press Yearbook is available to buy in all good newsagents or here: https://shop.hotpress.com/collections/annuals-books/products/hot-press-yearbook-2018