Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Swedish Grammy Award

Yes tonight is the Swedish Grammy Award. The wrong song will win like always .
It will be fun. To see my journey here follow us on Musichelp facebook
https://www.facebook.com/musichelpswedenab

or my Instagram on

https://www.instagram.com/peterastedt/




And here is an update with some photos.


Every year you just have to have a photo with Larsa from Merch Ants.

A video from the gala weher Petra is doing the live shit.

My former boss Lunkan and his new artist Mahan Moin.

Yes we were sitting on top floor.

And one of the before partys was at the Dezpots office,

Monday, February 27, 2017

Don’t promise to much

I got a demo the other day telling me quite much how I could get a number one hit.

DO YOU WANT TO PUBLISH A FUTURE CLASSIC?

(I already have one published so far)

Many music colleagues and also normal listeners has told me this song is something they never heard before. Unique. Many like the lyrics.


The song appears on an album that many haven’t heard. 


It can easy be redone to make a number one in Sweden.


Listen to the song ; 
*****

This is too much promises that this person can’t keep. So this I write before I have listened to the song. For this to be a future classic I need to have a substantial big pile of PR money. And to have that I need an artist. So just publish the song won’t change anything. I wonder if this person meaning that he has one song published or has written a song that really are a classic. I would guess the first part. Still that you have published a song doesn’t prove a jack shit.

So you have already played it around. Good for you. Still you probably should change your listeners ground (in these cases is usually their mother or some co-worked that after a hour of nagging just tell them that the song is good to get them to shut up). That a song is that unique is not realistic. It’s so rare that I won’t believe in it.

The song is already given out. Okay if this song was so unique, then it would have hit the charts when it was given out? I mean in the way you describe it, it’s so good that you can’t lose with it. And here you just tell me that someone just lost with it.

If take a classic hit you can actually redo the song in any shape or form and it usually works very well. Since it is a good song from the beginning. Already here it doesn’t look good. This person has promised to much. He has upgraded this song to big so my anticipation is over the roof.

Well not really. This letter would usually just be deleted in many companies. You can see on the text that the person doesn’t have a clue what they are doing. So even if the song would be a classic hit, you really don’t want to handle people with that megalomaniac style. I would love to have a system where I could get back the time  if I didn’t like the song. I know there is firms where I get paid for it. No I really want my time back. But here we go…I will listen to this future classic.

One minute later.

The future doesn’t look bright if this is a future classic. I could cope around a minute. Sounds like a really bad Swedish folk song. The lyrics are as deep as a puddle. And this puddle was filled with water drenched poo. Ohh I wish I could have my minute back.

Friday, February 24, 2017

These false prophets

I just saw a thing from a recordlabel that are promoting themselfs ”to only work with Vinyl” ”keeping the right feeling for music” ”keep the soul of good music”.

Went into their facebook page and first post I see is “***artist*** new album now on Spotify”.

One thing that really makes me angry is labels that talks about their passion and soul for music but are more greedy then the others. Same with festivals that claims they are the most peaceful and environment safe place. And then just care about the money.

These false prophets are the worst kind I know. Of course as a label or festival you care most about the money. Be open about it, you are running a profit organization. You just try to hide you behing nice words.



Thursday, February 23, 2017

Not another song about broken love.

Was just listening to a new artist. All the songs are just different themes of broken relationships. Okey this is what touch us much. Easy to write about since you need to get that out. Still the most successful songs is not about that. They might have that theme, but still make it to something positive like this two.






 Most of the time happy songs are the thing that people are looking for to play. Sure we love to have that really cry song from when we broke up one time. We really need more happy song in the demo phase. I don’t know how many of these sad songs we pick off because of the th3eme. So sit down now and write a happy song.




Wednesday, February 22, 2017

You can’t do things wrong!

Whatever I write in the blog you can’t do things wrong. Okey they are easier ways and yes you might not spend money on things that leads to nowhere. But you know what; if you do the world won’t go under. Everything is fixable, it’s not life and death, this is fun music.

Actually one of the bigger problems is doing nothing. I get more and more people relay terrified to release something. They might steal my copyright. Maybe I don’t get the best deal. Is this really the best way?

You will make errors. And in many cases you really can’t get the best deal or things because you are not there in your carrer yet.

Okey so you sing a shitty deal and they take control over your song. What the hell, write a new better one. The only mistake you can’t do is that you give that one away as well. If you don’t learn from your mistakes well then you are in deep shit.

But most learn, and they actually do things fine as long they do somethings. So the two death rules are, not do anything, do the same mistakes all over again. Part of that everything is fixable.


Tuesday, February 21, 2017

It’s not in the studio it actually happens!

I was talking to a band the other day and they were so happy since they will go and record in USA.

- We gonna record with *** a producer name***.

Thinking to myself, who the fuck is that? Okey this is not my style so maybe this person has done things I don’t know. But for one thing sure, this is not a household name. On the other side mention a producer who is? I guess Max Martin, George Martin, Dr Dre.

But even legendary producers like Rick Rubin are to the bigger audience kind of unknown. Most my friends that are not in to music don’t know Rick Rubin, Mutt Lange or Bob Rock even though they did classical albums.

I looked up that producer afterwards, and yes the producer has done some famous names. Still probably not one of their more famous work. Still I guess it’s probably someone that will do a good job making the recording sound good.

So my next question was:

- Cool, how are you gonna release it?

The band just looked at me. And I could see that they didn’t understand what I asked.

- Well we gonna release it through our label!

Duh…I know that. But since you spend hell of a lot of money traveling to USA. Recording with this producer (I guess the producer cost to hire) and hire studio time. I was more interested how you got to get it out to the audience. What I was seeking after was to see if they knew that a producers name is usually worth NOTHING. Yes it’s a teddy bear for some journalist to write about it. But it becomes more and more irrelevant. If you spend all this money you should have some darn plan to release it. In this case the artist is signed to a small shitty indie label that just discovered the word internet. They still care more about the physical copies then streams and lives quite much in the old world. Sure you can pull some stunt tricks in local media about the producer. But over all, hell no, it won’t drive any fans or sales.

Okey in this case they will blame it on the style. That this is harder for an audience to find, to listen to and they are smarter then the other. Yada Yada Yada, I hear this all the time for artists that fails. The error will be that they spend all this money and have no plan how to get it out. When it gets out it will crash.

If I had only two dollar left, I would spend one dollar on PR, said Bill Gates. I can just see this project spending four dollars on the recording. And here it is, I see it so many times before. You put your trust in the recording, not the PR. Because that is what you as an artist think is fun. Still that is not what breaks an artist. Actually I would rather talk to the PR team of a famous album then the producer. The strange part that never happens. All the TV shows is about this band and producer describing how they made a certain sound. In the end of the day it was the PR team that made that sound famous. If you didn’t have them it would have ended up in that large majority of “great” recordings that no one has heard of.

And yes, whit a higher PR budget you can get a lousier recording to get more heard. Just look below.






Monday, February 20, 2017

It's not hard to release music!

This will maybe not be the nicest post I have done. Still it needs to be told.
I was on a talent competition a couple of years ago (read in the age of CD). We were hanging in the green room since I was part of the jury. In this jury was also an artist who has done quite much do it yourself releases. And the artist said:

- It’s really complicated to give out a record. All these forms from NCB (mechanical rights) and how the layout measurements and all you have to know.

- No it’s darn simple to give out music, the other guy in the jury said. You are just lazy not putting yourself into something that is written on the homepage quite easy.

And the room went silent. But it’s true. It’s not at all complicated to give out music. Sure one or two forms with the PRO and some info for uploading (and back then some measurements for the cover). And today it’s even easier to get things out.

Still that same question comes over and over again; it’s so hard to give out your music. And then the person only thinks about the recording process and filling out the formula at the digital distributor (which is usually very simplified if they go to an armature distributor, they should see the forms on the real ones).

If you think this part is hard and consume time, you should not give out music. Don’t release music if that is the case. Actually nowadays there is more information what to do than ever. And it’s not hard to understand or get a tutorial of. No it’s because that you are in the part that person in the jury talked about, lazy.

I usually check out with bands telling me that it’s hard how many internet courses they have paid for to find out how to market the product. Usually it’s zero money; occasionally they might have spent a small sum on something. Then I ask how much they spent on gear. Well that is usually ridiculous high and sometimes they have also spent a large sum of money in the studio and spent much money on a producer. And don’t get me going how much they paid for the damn video. But marketing, no.

It’s really not complicated. It’s just that you don’t want to pay for what you need.

Friday, February 17, 2017

There is no walls!

I just saw an education program flash  that you would meet industry people in thier program.. This myth is still here? Yes you probably have read about Madonna who used gaffa to stick her demo to the windshield on the A&R:s car. And yes back in the 80:s there was hard to reach these people. They employed people in the reception who only job was to say no. Today they are all out there. You reach them on facebook, linkedin, twitter, e-mail and even telephone. It’s really no wall to protect them now.

Of course when you reach them you have to have a good message. There is no point contact the CEO of Universal with a new artist. It’s not that persons job go to the A&R recruit. And when you are there, have what they are seeking for.

Most of the times when I not answering is because the question is put in the wrong way. You try to sell me an artist that you can easy see that is not ready yet.

And the opportunity’s to meet industry people has never been greater. There is a showcase festival, industry convent every week around the globe. Of course you have to buy a ticket and spend some money but you will find interesting people all the time. It’s really not that hard.

Actually the educations programs are not really optimal for networking. So paying money for that is waste. If you need to learn rules and other stuff they are ok. But networking, spend the money somewhere else.

And know what you want to talk about when you meet these people, I never seen any education teach that out so that just have to be a lession to be learned in real life.

Thursday, February 16, 2017

You will betray old friends!

This problem you almost every time encounters. It’s not a pleasant problem and can lead to quite much pain. Many artists take in friends when they are small to do things for them, like taking the Promo Pictures, design the cover art and shoot the video. Sometimes it even that close that it’s someone’s girlfriend/boyfriend who is doing the production, or even the band doing the production.

A part of the silence deal is that these persons will shine when the artist make progress in the ranks. Unfortunately it will never work. The higher you go narrower it gets. I know at least three repressing in our catalogue that was an extra cost since the cover was made by a girlfriend/boyfriend in the band that didn’t know how to deliver things in the right measurements. Money we then lost on PR. And all these countless hours we have waited for someone to deliver a thing and when it turns up doesn’t hold the normal qualifications.

And it’s hard. Suddenly you someone has to go home to their partner and just tell them, well you are not good enough, and we have to choose someone else.

We actually see the same pattern when we sign bands. It’s not unusual that right when we sign the band a member jumps off. Usually it’s because it became real, before it was on a hobby level suddenly the demands on you are so much higher.

You always come to the step where it becomes too big. If it is a real friend they understand and works on shine that they did these early works and get other stuff to become bigger with. Sometime it’s just becomes nasty, the super fan becomes the big hater. This part is never easy.

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Old people and labels.

I just got a message from an older person in the industry. A tip off seeing a band that plays in Stockholm next week. The whole message end though with that the band is signed to a label like asign of proof that they are good.. Yes the label was something to recon with in the 80:s. Now they are just a shadow of a powerhouse. In fact most artist does a better job themselves then being on this label. And looking on the numbers anyone does a better job and this. I just feel sorry for the artist

But that is usually what I look for when I pick the team around an artist. People that talks about finding other people to do the job, or worse just talk like the job is done when you are signed to a record label. Then they are not for me. I’m looking for people that actually talks about that they can do something concrete for the artist.

It’s frustrating to have these older industry people around. Since they give artist a hell of lot of false information. They are so disillusioned about the record deal like a 5 year old and Santa Clause. Yes it is like annoying that you would have a friend that is 50 years old and for real believe in Santa. First it might be cute, second you really start to worry about their mental health.

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Valentines Day

Yes, music is really a powerful thing when it comes to love. You always hope that you can connect to your fans in this level, if you do you have them forever.

Here is some cool love songs. Yes you can see my picks that i'm old.






Monday, February 13, 2017

Work with your next single before your next single.

Yes before you release your next “this gonna be my next hit” you actually need to have a demo on the single after that hit, and that should be better than the first one.

Often the team wants to be sure that you are capable to come up with something better when they promote the latest. It’s a myth that the artist locks them self in a cabin and records new stuff and just comes up to the office and present it and its perfect.

Most time that has happened to me it had failed so miserably. They have been lost in the process and all things that go around in the industry. Things that affect the PR work and the way this actually could be a hit.

So most of the times I ask the artists to have songs ready before a release. And this is the process in most industries. When cars release one model they are close to the next one. When Disney releases one movie they are almost finished with the next one. But so many times before we thinks we are special in the music industry, but we are not. And of course when I work with the bigger teams internationally it’s totally normal. I just hear a Swedish artist that only released 2 singles has written 100 new songs so the team has a lot of to choose from.

This is also the reason why many artists fail direct after theri first album. That album has taken years to create and when it’s out, well there is nothing new and they think they have the time to create album two that should be ready in a couple of months.

Friday, February 10, 2017

Next phase is much harder

It is Eurovision song contest in Sweden again tomorrow. Last weekend they had a Youtube phenomenon as one of the contenders. Millions of fans on YouTube. Still couldn’t win, get just on a 3 third place. This is the new thing. We look too much on the figures. Those millions of streams on Spotify (or YouTube) don’t mean a shit when you play live. Still many thinks that the figures should be a way to figure out next band to book or to sign.

Yes we are going into the next phase! An artist has now suddenly have to control several different fields. Live is one field. Bigger news outlet is one field. Streaming and online is another field. And these fields don’t even have proper PR tools yet. It’s going to be really though to get an artist in the level to make money. One field in particular will only pay peanuts.

Thursday, February 9, 2017

Keep one project.

You see it too often. Artists that has a band, but put everything before that band, usually other projects. One thing I’m usually very suspicious by taking in us artist that has other careers. You ask them the question what is priority number one, and it’s always the band.

Still so many times you see them post more in social media about their other jobs. The other jobs can be that they are touring musicians with other bands, dancer or actors. But even just a plain job as teacher or their hobby.

You work yourself to death to release their single, video,  album whatever still when you ask what they do it’s mainly, well I have so much to do with my other work. Then you really know they are only releasing for a hobby. Someone that is interesting in something goes back to it all the time.

It’s like my pinball. I love my pinball and I really would like to have more pinball games. But to be honest if the pinball crash and I have to fix it. It can stand still quite a long time before I take me sorry ass to solder that error in the game. Yes it’s fun but not my priority.

I guess around 90% of the artist is not in that priority zone.  But it’s hard to see who is really dedicated until you have worked with them for a while. Usually it’s the bands that you don’t hear so much from. They are more waiting that you should call and tell all the hard work you have put down, so they can say no to 50% of it since they don’t have the time.

In Metallica they forbid their members to have side projects. Queen survived on that all members had side projects. I don’t know what is right. You lose interest of something if they don’t get back with their part of the work.

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

You must get the music right.

I usually write that it’s more than just the music. That said, only works if the music is really good. Because you are up against millions of people doing music. If the music is not up to that standard, well it doesn’t matter if you do all the other things right.  These things only works if the foundation of the structure is correct.

I just saw one of these things. A band sent me an invitation to a festival I’m visiting to see their show. Very nice letter, okey you can easy see that they send it to every one of the industry people for the festival. Still that is okey (even though it was kind of odd writing to work with us since we only work internationally and the band sings in Swedish).

All the links was there, their homepage look awesome. They have released 3 albums in their existing five years. Has done some interesting shows on a lower level.

So they have done all the other stuff right but when it comes to the music the homework was not done. And then all the other stuff won’t matter. Over 5 years and 3 albums they had 29 followers on Spotify.  About 2000 listening and 56 followers. That says it all, the music sucks. Over that time you have to think about that maybe the error is somewhere in the music.

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

The musical Nigerian scam letters part 4

Read my posts from 1,3 and 6 of Feb to get the whole story about this fraud. Short is that a manager / A&R contacted The Magnettes with an offer to help them out with anything. It was like a  Nigerian scam letter. So I answered just to show how you look through a thing like this. Now we are one answer in and she gotten direct to the money. So I answer, as usual my blogg comments are in blue.

Hello *******

Good to hear. We have founding, we have the Swedish government founding the project and two sponsorships with two well established beverage companies.
*** Witch is true that we have. But we would never get out money to spend on a Nigerian music scam.

Yes Billboard is not cheap, but we need to have a goal. Also we need some Spotify playlist placements.
**** Here I add another important feature. Spotify, it’s a must. And I know she doesn’t have the knowledge about it, so I added it to see if she mention it or just goes on with the money.

Regards

Peter


And here is the answer:

Perfect. You seem perfect for us then.
Kevin. did you send him my email with some more info about the one -on one?
*** No I never got an e-mail more from Kevin.Poor intern sitting whole day sending fake mails to people.

Peter, I always get artists started with an intensive one on one.
We go over all your goals and how to achieve them, current state of the industry,
Politics. And make a sold strategy. Takes me about 1.5 hours.
(Cost is 425$) You'll walk out with a very good sense of where all your possibilities lie.
*** This is a overprice. We actually sell this thing on Musichelp , but of course we never go out and flatter artist and then ask for money. On our end is that if someone wants to consult us we charge 80 dollars for 3 hours and a plan. And there is many serious companies doing this like Cyber PR.
Second go over my goals? We have told you our goals like Getting on playlists on Spotify, getting and audience, touring releasing a single and getting on Billboard. Well the only thing you got a hold on was Billboard and money.
Also she would see that on the artist career that it has been people involved already that has taken these discussions several times. We don’t need to pay to do it again. And that should be quite clear in the biography we sent.

This session is the foundation of my relationship with any long term artist.
It also allows me to gauge if you have what it takes (mindset has a lot to do with it)
since I have to be picky about every act I spend time with.
*** As a Nigerian scam letter she direct wants to see if you are willing to spend money. She doesn’t commit to anything. She will tell you the goals you already know. She also plays on that she is picky. Well picky with the ones who pays. Here should it be that you are pick who you buy information from.

As u know I take on new artists VERY
But, I just say have a really good feeling about it.
Not sure if you received the email from kevin.
But confirm with me you want it and I'll have office grt you in ASap.
*** No I never got an e-mail from Kevin. Here she also play out the card that The Magnettes is special. And if they have the real mindset they pay the money. The problem is that if you have that kind of mindset, well you don’t have the right mindset. If you are going to survive in the business you need to have the facts yourself, not form some people that just want to charge you for nothing.

******
Sent from my iPad


*** Well this one I can’t answer on. She will only go back that we should pay for her services, and if we don’t we are not serious enough. I have seen many of these people over the years. Some have things really to add. So part of it can be true. At the same time they never break any artists what so ever. The artists they hang on to as claim to fame usually left them and got another way and got successful. 
If you should pay money you should seek out for yourself and find the opportunity to pay for. Today it’s actually hard to get a PR firm even if you can pay for their services so even if you paid a shark like this they won’t get that firm anyway. It’s all about the story you bring to the table. That story you build yourself, that can’t be bought.

Monday, February 6, 2017

The musical Nigerian scam letters. Part 3

Read my posts from 1 of  Feb and 3 of Feb to get the whole story about this fraud. Short is that a manager / A&R contacted The Magnettes with an offer to help them out with anything. It was like a Nigerian scam letter. So I answered just to show how you look through a thing like this.

Here is the answer, my comments is in blue. This letter came pretty fast after we answered a couple of hours. It doesn’t come from the address the first one was sent from. The first one is froma info@**company name***.com  this comes from ***her name***@**company name***.com  and on CC is a Kevin.

Hi Peter,

Just a sidenote, in addition to other communication coming your way,
We can help with a billboard charts for sure.
*** Interesting part is that I didn’t get any other communication. But I can easy see that the first letter is something they send out to many artists at once. And if someone is responding she takes over on her personal address. But here she was a bit to fast. Same time, the quote of the Billboard is just a longterm goal. Mainly we sork to get a big audience.

We developed an artist from scratch, who just had a number one breakout single.
We had several billboard hits last year. Dance charts is what needs targeting first.
*** Of course she has read my e-mail otherwise she wouldn’t have my e-mail. It’s true that one of her artist has a billboard top ten last year. BUT it has nothing to do with her. This was a Norwegian artist that picked up a singer for his single (just like Avicii use different singers to different songs). Still this was chosen by the Norwegian team and not this manager. Afterwards the artist got signed to a big American label, which is understandable with that success. Still has nothing to do with her. If you check all her other artists they don’t go over 10 000 streams in most of the cases. I would be fun to have a chat with this artist that she is bragging about. See if he even mention her doing something.  So these several Billboard hits, it’s the same artists and it’s remixes of that famous song. The thing she is not able to recreate this success in that way.
And Dance charts, this is The Magnettes, they are a pop group. Targeting the dance charts is probably not even smart.

You need good funding though. Do you have funding?
*** And here it comes. You need money. And of course with unlimited cash you can break anything. Then you hire people doing the stuff and cut a piece for yourself. The problem is that kind of money doesn’t really exists. It has been done with Taylor Swift but that is something done by a parent, not a manager. And if I had that money why don’t go direct to the source and hire these people. It’s mainly PR people and recording people. Whit that kind of money I can go to Max Martin nad get a special written song by him, it’s just a price.

Billboard isn't cheap. We have a 97 percent succesrate with charting to billboard.
*** Well if you look ion her homepage and the artists there, except for one they have not been on Billboard.

We need the prep time, the funds, but it's pretty much a done deal.
*** She is going direct against the money

Anyways, I'd love to see you in consult, as kevin reached out to you for with an email
Composed by me.  And we can discuss all details and I can tell you how you
Can reach all of that, let you in on internal secrets and politics etc... And support you in any way I can.
*** She is just plain stupid. Of course I’m not new to the buissness . And since I check her Linked in (see post part 2). I can easy see she is not THAT connected. In fact she is just a middelman. Of course with a huge sum of money she can go around and get people. And that could easily been seen in the bio. And I signed with my name, if she just checked that out she would find out that I spoken on all of the worlds big confernances about the music industry. She don't do her homework.

*******
Sent from my iPad
*** See that she is in desperate need of money since she answer direct from her Ipad only talking about the money. Nothing that they reelase anew single, nothing about their record label, nothing about co-writes, just money.

So who is this person? Well I did my research. She is not even from USA. She is from Europe. Tried to make her own career as an artists. Failed after doing the general error number one. Got signed to major label in a small European country. That is never leading anywhere. The only claim to fame is that an Italian radio station played her song. Probably got dropt after one single.

Moved to USA and released some singles of her own. The interesting part is that nothing of this is on Spotify even though it was released from 2009 until 2014. I guess that is because it was done in an amateurish way. It also shows that she has not knowledge about Spotify and the new streaming ways.

So she moved to USA a couple a years ago. Her songs really sucks. She is not a good songwriter. So to make money she now preys on other young artist to get their money to support her non existing career. The homepage is full of pictures of her standing next to old duded that did a hit song 20 years or more ago. She plays on that it is  just a person that does your career. If you read my blog post “What is success”
http://ihuvudetpaenar.blogspot.se/2017/01/what-is-sucess.html

You see that it is a team not a person who is doing things.

Most fun part. Whay hasn't she got on to The Billboard chart if she know how it's done wuith her own singles?

So what kind of money is she talking about? And what is her first move? I answered this mail as well. Stay tuned for the rest.

Friday, February 3, 2017

The musical Nigerian scam letters. Part 2

Read my first post 1 of February about the start of this letter. It’s a preying shark that try to lure young artists. I answered back on the e-mail The Magnettes got, but from my e-mail, my comments are in blue.

Hello ******

Thank you for looking into The Magnettes.

We are looking for different opportunity’s for the moment, the goal is to get on the Billboard chart top 10 one day. The band will release a record in March done by Christian Cummings (Icona Pop, Florence and The machine, Tiesto, Cage The Elephant).
New single Sad Girls Club comes 20 of January get a prelistening here
*****secret link ********
****If you want to hear the song I linked it’s released now you find it here
https://soundcloud.com/themagnettes/the-magnettes-sad-girls-club


The other part is that the band writes for different other artists and with other writers. They are going to NYC in February to write songs. We hope to add on more writing sessions while in USA in February.
**** Here I give a hint that, yes we are already quite connected, but can you offer something.

They will do a USA/Canada tour in June/July, UK/Ireland tour May, And we try to add things around that.
**** This is also something that a normal new band don’t have several tours in different countries.

Here is a kind of extended bio what has been done.

The Magnettes release new single “Sad Girls Club” 20 of January 2017. The fourth single from the upcoming album “Ugly Youth” that will be released 31 of March.
  -  The Sad Girls Club is not something we invented. It’s a movement that we’re part of. It’s the idea of a sanctuary for whatever reason, that treats you as the person you want to be, where you’re allowed to be sad, different or plain hostile. To counter-react to a world that tells you to smile when everything systematically sucks. This is our party and we’ll cry if we want to. Tells Rebecka Digervall from The Magnettes.

The Magnettes started when Rebecka and Sanna met at six-years-old in their hometown of Pajala (very far north in Sweden close to Finland and Russia). By the age of 14, Rebecka had written a plethora of song for them as a duo. In 2012, they released their first official tune “Paper Cut” and performed across Europe and Russia.

2014 The Magnettes got Tomas Bäcklund Thuneström as the member that plays all electronica and drums. They also started to put in their minority language “Meänkieli” into their songs. They went to USA for the first time and played on New Music Seminar in NYC. Back in Sweden The Magnettes also appear as the main subjects in Hans-Erik Therus’s documentary ”Pajala State Of Mind”, featured at the Gothenburg Film Festival, the Tempo Documentary Festival Stockholm  and has been broadcasted on Swedish national television.

Spring 2015 They went back to USA to perform at SXSW the world’s biggest showcase festival. They ended the whole festival with the last gig on legendary Stubb’s The SXSW got them booked to The Great Escape in Brighton, UK just a month after the USA trip.

They returned to USA in autumn of 2015. Before that they played Live at Heart in Sweden. Then to Barcelona to play on Future Music Forum and head to two shows in London. The USA tour took them to Los Angeles, San Diego, San Fransisco and the tour ended in NYC and shows on the showcase festival CMJ.

During CMJ it went official that the band signed with the American record label Digsin and the first release was ”Bones” on their new label.

2016 They played on Where’s the music in Sweden and BY:Larm in Norway and went as opening act for Ida Gard “Womb tour” in Denmark They released the new single ”Killers in a Ghost Town”.
In May 2016 they went for their fourth trip to North America, this time to play on Canadian Music Week in Toronto and in Nashville. Over the summer they played several Pride festivals in Sweden and hooked the Swedish gay community by storm.

Autumn 2016 They went back for playing on the festival Youbloom in Los Angeles and record new songs at FTO studio in NYC. They also released their third single “Hollywood” with a video recorded in Hollywood by Michael Frost.

Quotes:
Drowned in Sound: One of five of our favorite discoveries on The Great Escape
Essentially pop: The Magnettes rock our very “Bones” with new single.
The 405: Killers In a Ghost Town,' is a black-hearted love song and call to arms for every bored teenage girl who's outgrown her small town's offerings.

Links:
Homepage
http://www.themagnettes.com
EPK video
https://youtu.be/QhSQZKOEMPs
Videos
Bones
https://youtu.be/pnRfe4wwxt0
Killers in a Ghost Town
https://youtu.be/vf6Yd6h_1CI
Hollywood
https://youtu.be/yLjYNIzibyA
Live on Stockholm Pride
https://youtu.be/pqzweyj-grc
Club gig in Sweden
https://youtu.be/7NIdMslTCmU

regards
Peter Astedt
The Magnettes


*** The rest is also kind of open. You see that they played SXSW, The Great Escape, Candian Music Week and are signed to a record label. And some nice quotes from big bloggers. Of course you need to understand here that this band is signed and someone is working with it that has some kind of network. Working with Christian also means we have really professional team for recording. So I sent it back to the Shark. Hang on to see what the answer was.

Thursday, February 2, 2017

When you get offered a stupid deal.

You can see it on the layout of the message. Those offering that you know already from the start that it would even work. If you read a car ad saying this:

Rent my car. You get the chance to rent my kind of old car. You pay me a monthly fee and you get access to my car if it is available. Of course when you drive it you have to fill it up with full gas even how much the tank is empty when you start.

That is not a good deal for you. It’s a good deal for me. If you really need a car and can’t get it in another way. Well then it could be a kind of a good deal. It’s not perfect but I’m so desperate that I need it. Right now though I think you can just go down to the nearest car rental and get one on a better deal.

Also, the access, you only gets it when I’m not using it. You never know maybe I use very often so you are paying rent for a thing you can’t use.

Of course this is quite clear as a stupid deal. The thing in the music industry you get offerings like this from artists on a quite regular basis. Sure it’s another terminology, but the principals are the same. You should work for free, don’t get any security or rights and I can kick you out anytime I want.

Okey the artist really not understand that they are saying this. They just thinking mainly what is best for them.

I got this deal on the table a week ago. We want you to find a record label for us. You can borrow or songs, you don’t get any rights in them. And if you find a deal with a record label you get 10%.
I was most wondering 10% of what?

10% of the upfront payment from the label was the answer.

This actually not coming from an artist, this came from a manager, a pretty know manager. So in reality I should do the mangers job and maybe get paid for it. Most deals actually don’t have a prepaying so the reality is that I would with 90% don’t get paid.

If this band was very famous then it’s another story. A bit same as if I need the car. Now it was totally unknown and the manger has been around to all labels and I guess no one really had an interest for this project.


Even more funnier is that I thought it was amusing so I actually said we could take a meeting in the city since I had 2 hours to kill between two meetings (read I try to get a cup of free coffee). But they were scheduling around and in the end they couldn’t meet me up on normal office hours, just in the evening. I never got back with a new time.

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

The musical Nigerian scam letters. Part 1

This e-mail came to The Magnettes. They get a lot of these and to sort out the frauds from the real ones they send all stuff like this to me to take a look at. Her I will guide you have to check if this is real or not real. I go in with comments in blue.

Hello Magnettes!

My name is ********** and I’m an A&R and Artist Manger.
*** Well it’s hard to be both. Okey I’am both, but never on the same time. I would not be a manager and use my A&R work to sign a band, it’s not ethical.

I found your music while scouting the Internet for new artists.
*** This actually happens, some of my biggest deals came through people find artist on different sites.

My management firm, ******* , selects and develops a few new singers and songwriters globally each year.
*** Here they already try to feel special. They only take in a few. Well if they were good enough they don’t need to scout the internet. The good ones get approached. Or they charge you so most people won’t go with it.

Currently we are looking to add one or two artists to our roster.

My professional team, who has been behind big industry household names such as Sia, Celine D, Pink, Coldplay and many more, includes Top 40 songwriters, Grammy nominated producers, A&R folks, Billboard promoters, managers/ PR representatives etc...
*** Here you can easy see that it’s fake. Sia and Coldplay won’t have the same setup. Coldplay is from UK and Sia is a songwriter from USA. And in this case Pink was done by some friends of mine and this person was not in there. I actually mailed and asked them about it and none of the team members knew this person. If it is real usually they say the same names from one company. Like Mute had Depeche Mode and Fad Gaget. Then yes but here is so spread out it’s not credible. Of course they can have worked with all of these as song coaches, merch salesmen, humpers whatever. But not likely to be a significant player in all these artist career.

We are located in New York City, but are also completely set up to work long distance.
We specialize in managing singers/writers and Emerging Producers from outside NY state and USA country lines. Giving them the same accessibility as NY local talent and helping them make beautiful career records, collaborate with hit songwriters, and find opportunities through our MGMT team. We also sponsor artist Visas (for the committed artist).
*** The Magnettes is a pop group. I guess she hasn’t checked so good after all. Sponsor artist with Visa, well they would be petitioner witch cost them almost nothing. And if you want to be on the ground for music, NYC is not the place everything has moved to Los Angles.

There is nothing we can’t do with for you, no matter what your genre is or what you want to accomplish.
*** Of course you can, it probably has a price tag too.

The drive to sing or make music is so much more crucial to us than the experience/track record.
*** Read , how large is your wallet.

You can look us up in much more detail about at *****homepage********

If you feel you are ready for something like this, we would like to learn a bit more about your goals and any recent musical developments (if you have them.)
*** Hmm if you really read about The Magnettes you would easy find that they played on the biggest festivals in the world. They are signed to Digsin in USA. Clearly they just send this out to all artist they can find on a page like Soundcloud.

Looking forward to hearing back!

Here’s to a great 2017.

-*********

Already here I can tell this is a fraud. To many things is not adding up. Still I find it annoying that people are preying on young kids that have a dream. I checked out the homepage of this. And there you find out that this person knows people that have on low level worked with Sia, Celine D, Pink, Coldplay. One is a manger that is really shady and prey on young artist in the same way as this person.

Then I did one thing that maybe an artist has hard time to do. I have a large network on Linked in. If this person is even half as connected as me they will show up with some mutual friends. Even artists that are pretty unknown shows up with mutual friends on my Linked in.

She only get on as a 3:d contact and that is on a really shady guy that I really don’t even count to the music industry. That’s it. She doesn’t have any bigger network or knowledge.

Still I want to know what the price tag is. Because this has a price tag. So I answered it….It will come more surprises and stuff I promise.