Happy New Year

Well i'm working on the year movie for Musichelp. I hope to get it out next week. I hope the new chnages we have done the past mounths tale quick effect during 2017.

Well here is last yeasrs Musichelp

Last working houers this year. I'm excited!

Yes I’m doing the last couple of hours before I logg off and will be on next year.

I guess it's the last hours of the old system that we now have spent months to change and launch next week. It will be fun.

Next year will be more selective. Commercials, TV and movies are kind of outdated. Big conferences are out, getting into more local ones. It's the feeling of 2006 all over again. A fresh start with a new thing, but working against old mindsets.

Yes I remember the struggle 2006. The old mindset was still physical products. The ones that spoke about that are now gone from the business. The new one they laugh at are now kings like Spotify.

I guess though that Spotify can easy be the old one gone in 2026. And the people that only talks about playlists will be out of the business by then.

Yes I really feel that I’m on to something new. Back in 2006 it was the new way of making PR through commercials. And yes I made a good thing about it.

I'm excited!

It’s easy to be Star struck.

I just saw some changes that a band went from one label to another label. The interesting here is that I know both labels so I get the story from both sides. Of course the new label is really happy to have this band, the label they left are happy to get rid of them.

And when you look on the information the band gives on their social media it looks like a really good contract. But now when I can get the inside information it doesn’t look that good. Some small paragraphs and owning ow masters will make it difficult to make money for the new label. Also the old label will not give away their fanbase witch was held by them.

I know the band is still stars struck. But I think the honeymoon will be short lived. The things the new label put in is really not that impressive. More like a step backwards for them.

Yes things might look good on the outside looking in, it’s a totally different story when you see the whole picture.

A Managers biggest mistake

I had a meeting with a new manager the other day. This Manager is really hard working and a great person, but was upset that he didn’t get the opportunities for his bands. He was seeking advice how to do it.

The problem is that the bands he has is really not that good. Its average bands that there is thousands of. And the band is really not doing any progress most of the things is the manager who was hard working.

I recognize myself in it when I started my second record label and took in bands that I really liked myself and was busting my ass off to get out there. It never went anywhere and if it was today I don’t think I would have picked them up. This is thing that you learn by mistakes. Today I have much easier to evaluate an artist, some of it has to do with new tools that has gone out the past couple of years. Most is though experience. You just feel when it’s right and when it’s wrong. Sure you did that back then, but you wanted so much to get things right that you just put that aside.

So what to tell the poor dude. I really can’t get to him that the problem is that his darlings is really crap. At the same time I have seen so many good managers leave the industry thinking that is too hard for them, when it actually was wrong with the product, not their work. Which is a shame.

Another sad part is that these bands really don’t appreciate the work that the manager does. I meet one of the members on a Christmas party. And he was more complaining that they were not playing on the biggest festival in Sweden. They only got the second biggest on a small stage.

The truth is that to get this crap band on to a stage at all on top of that on the second biggest festival is more work than putting a man on the moon. They should celebrate their manager as a hero. Instead they were checking out if I could take them to “the next level” instead of the manager.

Most manager mistakes is actually to have crappy bands.

RIP George Michael

No I was never a bigger fan of Wham! or George Michel. But he has done some really iconic songs and was a part of the music I grew up with. Some songs really stuck. I guess 2016 still claims big names. I guess the industry is changing faster because of these people's deaths. Still many died too young.

Don't be like this..

We got this to our record label inbox, Of course I’m censor who it was from. But it's a typical email we get several of every week. People that hasn't done their homework and now face a problem.

Hello my name is *******. This year 2016 I released a cd called ****** . I am
now looking for someone to distribute my new cd.  Jazz/pop rock genrer.
I am from Sweden. I am not a signed artist. I have produced the cd and Swedish
broadcasting Corporation has produced the recording. Which distributors do you prefer ?
I have 900 dvs physical at Home.

Kindly *****

I really don’t know witch planet this person is on. First of all the CD (or is it a DVD look on the last sentance it says dvs...this could easily be DVD:s) is already released. The person has already printed over 900 copies of the shit and now realized that she need a distributor. And since almost every record store is closed in Sweden by know finding distribution for a product like this…well it’s probably smarter to get down and buy 5 tickets to the powerball lottery and actually take out that you are going to win and spend the money beforehand.

Second even though this person printed the CD what’s the deal with the Swedish broadcast cooperation, does it really have all the paper on this? Since they are writing an email like this I wouldn’t trust a word that everything is in its order.

And the genre what is Jazz/pop/rock? I guess this is some stupid Jazz project, the people that plays Jazz usually don’t have any knowledge and should immediately stop giving out music. Jazz is no music is just a sound, not music.

Then to the question: Which distributors do you prefer? What I should just stop what I’m doing and start helping this utterly stupid project. People like this should be stopped by NCB already starting doing stupid things like this.

The thing is also most of this information is online, if you just start to use Google and do some search you will find it EASY! Just hate artist that do stupid stuff and then wants to be curled like a small child.

When you later meet people like this on different kind of meetings they always take up time by complaining that is so hard din the music industry. I guess it becomes harder if you just do it this way.

Merry X-mas

Yes we celebrate X-mas on 24 of dec in Sweden.

Trumps in the Swedish scene.

I guess one of the things I want get rid of is people that says they are one thing and then prove to do another thing. A bit like Julian Assange and Wikileaks.

I'm a bit tired to defend them and be nice to them and watch them destroy things that people build up.

Usually they talk about things, a bit like religion, that yeah we are so nice and friendly. But with them getting power you just discover that the whole thing is built up like Hitlers nazi party. Last time they had a festival that went to hell.

And now I see this people again with government money doing the shit all over again. So should I just tell the truth or just let people know what fraud is to happen is the question.

Well stay away from it, some might say

Yes but at the same time see many good people that are nice get crushed and that will also effect me. The Swedish scene is small so when idiots get in it can effect a lot of things.

Same with a new company going around and tell unknowing government foundations that they should be more open to independent music. They claim to represent the independent music scene with over 300 independent record labels. But when they get paid to do things for all of them they just book their own artists. And no one else can get in.

We have seen it before and it took years to get it right. And now I see this on the horizon again. If we just had enough with that Trump becomes president, we have a bunch of mini Trumps doing shit in the Swedish music climate.

Don’t forget the closest ones.

I really did this mistake a week ago. I forget the people that were closest to the artist. Instead we were just chasing new audience all the time and this day we had a show in their hometown. Since it was kind of close calls we didn’t have time to promote. In the end we didn’t do anything.

Still people that have been fans of the band since the start, the ones you don’t think of suddenly showed up. And what we had forgotten was that we haven’t played there for at least two years.  So when they saw the new show and how much the band has developed they were really excited. You can see that they started to go on social media again and even though we already had them it made a bigger noise.

Yes never forget the ones you already have.

Jobbiga artister undviker man.

Jag såg att de skjutit på dokumentären av Lill Lindfors på framtiden efter en massa strul. Produktionstekniskt strul hävdar de, men i det här fallet kan jag äta upp min gamla trucker-keps på att det hänger ihop med att Lill Lindfors personligen. Anna Wintour (Djävulen bär Prada) är tydligen en kattunge i jämförelse.

Redan för 20 år sedan satt jag på SVT i ett redaktionsmöte för ett populärt tv program. Jag var ny så jag satt mest och lyssnade på när de diskuterade vilka artister och gäster de skulle ha till programmet. Någon föreslog Lill Lindfors.

-           - Nej för i helvete, hon är super jobbig. Hon vill ha ljuset på ett visst sätt, precis som Kim Anderzon har de lärt sig att ett visst ljus döljer rynkorna. Så det blir att ljussätta om hela studion bara för hennes medverkan. Hon ska överse allt vad man gör. Ni får söka ny producent hellre än att ta in Lill i programmet.

Det här var en väldigt lugn producent som nästan aldrig tog sig ton. Men nämna Lill Lindfors var som att svära i kyrkan. Under hela min karriär inom TV så fick jag höra det flera gånger hur de ratade bort henne för hon helt enkelt är för jobbig och har ett kontrollbehov som går mot gränsen till någon bokstavskombination.

Hon var helt enkelt en av dessa artister som man drar sig i det längsta att boka. Visst de blir bokade ändå, oftast av nykomlingar som inte kan historien bakom dem. Fast ryktet går snabbare i många fall så de värsta sakerna hinner stoppas. Själv lyckades jag undvika Lill under TV åren, dock den andra producenten nämnde Kim Anderzon råkade jag ut då vi som gröngölingar gjorde en egen TV serie och någon kom på att intervjua Kim. Under tv seriens två år så var det mardrömsreportaget nummer ett. Man kunde inte filma henne i närbild för då syntes rynkorna. Hon tyckte bakgrunden var för röd så vi fick åka ut två gånger extra för att ta nytt material.

Artister som gör sig omöjliga helt enkelt förlorar uppdrag. Det finns liksom en inbyggd lista inom branschen där du sjunker och får sämre och sämre uppdrag.  Visst det är alltid någon ny som inte vet. De stora jobben försvinner för där finns det alltid de som vet.

Därför är det ingen idé att se dokumentären om Lill. Det kommer vara ett statligt stöd till hennes egen biografi eftersom inget ofördelaktigt kommer slinka förbi hennes kontroll. Kanske kan det bli intressant när hon är död och någon gör en riktigt dokumentär. Även om man inte pratar illa om de död så i Lills fall verkar många kunna göra ett undantag.

Nutcase Monday

Monday…and you get the usual nutheads. There is no point of writing the first email to support on a Friday evening 11pm. Then write mails from different e-mail accounts during Saturday with the same question. Then on Sunday morning write the question again but in a slightly different way, several times. Then on Monday, scream that you don’t get any answers.

The sad part is that the answer is written on the homepage several times on various places.

And no just because you play classical music and is head over a full orchestra gives you the reason to act like a dick head. Actually it’s scary that a person with that occupation doesn’t have the knowledge to send a Wav file instead of a MP3 (198 kb/s).

Yes it’s Monday.

Why this shit tradition Sweden

A lot of travel this week. I’m going to all over south of Sweden. It will be fun if it’s not a snowstorm. Well it’s Lucia today as well. I don’t know but that means all stupid people with small kids that never drives should drive on the roads.

Yes Lucia a kind of a Scandinavian thing. I guess they have it in Italy as well. What it is, that the small kids dress up in a nightgown and sing songs that really makes no sense (we don’t give a shit if Staffan was a groom) . The teenager sees an opportunity to get hell of a drunk. And most adults hate it, except those who has small children, it get back to that. And really old people that shit them self’s and really don’t know where they are, well they just have to witness the whole thing whether they like or not.

Also kind of tradition that Lucia is a blond girl with long hair. I don’t know why, St Lucy that celebrates was Italian. And they usually are black haired. Especially in the dark ages. A department store had a pictures of a black kid ( can’t really tell if it is a she or he) as Lucia and who Sweden went ballistic. Some was really against it, some thought it was really good.

This is so Sweden. Things like this occupy their brains. That a totally maniac called Donald Trump is doing things or that children in Africa starve. No no that doesn’t bother the Swedish people. No if Lucia should be a boy or a girl or be Chinese or Italian that they can debate.

They really don’t see the bigger picture. That today it will impossible to reach people because they have taken the day off to see their damn children in a nightgown singing bad songs. And they will block the whole damn city with their cars. And yesterday they shut down the food store to have damn Lucia in it. Can’t you see what it actually does….spread diseases! Yes that was going on. All these kids will get a hell of a chance to spread germs to the adults and then all Sweden has the flu until x-mas.

It happens every year. At least in the good old days the kids had real candles and something could at least get on fire. But they have even taken off that tradition.

Old farts and their record labels

Sometimes you get in artists that really just was famous for one song in the early 90:s bust still think they should be treated like a star. Yes you should drop all the work you are doing to handle whatever insignificant problem that artist has. Most problems are like, I don’t get any gigs can you get me gigs! How do I get same listeners as this artist, we are you in the same age (make reference to an artist that actually made more hits and still today are something to recon with)! It was better in the old days then you really made money out of music!

Of course is this problem that the artist is lazy and the new system actually demands that you work. And in many cases they have opened record labels themselves, since really no one wants to work with them. But they only want to have a label, doing the work and take responsibility. So the conversation goes.

-        -  I want to get out this record, how do I do it?

-          -You upload it on the webpage under your account.

-        -  That is much work; can you do it for me?

-        -  Well if you pay me extra. But you have to send me the codes like ISRC and EAN/UPC.

-          -How do I get those? Can you do that for me?

-        -  Well not really, to be safe you should have them yourself.

-         - Yes it needs to be safe, all the money should go to me, I own everything.

-        -  Yes and the safest is that you have the songs registered so you have the codes.

-         - It’s so much trouble. Can you do it?

So you fix it for them. You tell them what you do and where to get the money afterwards.  Five years later or more they popup and screams, where is my money? Of course they never went to the places you told them. They didn’t do the things that were necessary. And once again they think that you should just drop everything you have going to help them with their not really problem.

There is a reason why I don’t listen to people talking about the old times, I just despise them. Luckliy there are good old artist as well, but they talk future and work hard.

Sunkit

Whooopla. My friend Burt von Bolton has a really cool club called Sunkit (translated...well googel translate says Trashy, but it has nothing to do with Trash metal.). It's a club where they play all these songs you just wonder why someone put them out. And had the guts to do it.

The club is always packed and it's really great. The thing is that he also feed us in the facebook feed with stuff that is just so good. This came today.



This is the real "Sunkit". I love it, made my day. I will just take another rom and coke and listen to demos.

Here is some other great feauters from Sunkit, unfortunaly most of the really good ones are in swedish. So here enjoy this friday.

Stupid imature people

I want to give out my music and someone should fix that for me. I really don’t want to investigate how it’s done I just want it done and then I should make a lot of money.  But my music sucks so badly that no one wants to give it out. In the past then it was tough luck. The good part was that the system was not flooded with stupid people that throw their hands in the air confronted with any obstacle.

Internet changed all that. Today it’s not even hard to get out your music. But what has surpassed the artist is that you have legal responsibility if you give out music. Even worse you have to think. And in my daily job you have a clear view that quite many don´t think at all, they really think that giving out music is like doing a facebook post.

First they complain that is hard to understand (which is not, it’s really not harder than third grade in school), especially when almost everything is written online how to do it. Then of course they take the easy way out and then complain that they are getting fooled by not secure their rights. Since the smart system that actually works you need to think what you are doing.

I don’t know how many times a day I just think: well you should not give out music at all.

And really it should have been this way. If really no one accepts the artist believes in the music, it actually should not go out. What happens is that all systems are clogged with music that really no one wants to hear. Many complained that the record labels was the gatekeepers, and record labels complained that radio/media was the gate keepers. But it really assured that most of the shit was not out there.

And what is out there is a bunch of people that won’t take any responsibility and just complains that their music is not much listen to as Madonnas.  And they really don’t want to do anything to get people to listen, maybe because it sucks.

The Mommyheads tells how it is. At least they are a great people and do great music.

Are Guns 'n' Roses uncool or my phone company hip?

I just got a message from my phone company that I can buy cheaper tickets to see Guns ’n’ Roses in Sweden this summer. I spoke to the guy that handles some of Coachella where Guns ‘n’ Roses was first booked as a reunion. He just smiled and said it was not worth the money for booking them.

And I’m bit puzzled. Has Guns ‘n’ Roses become so unhip they use my phone company to get out there. Or is my phone company hip to choose a real cool band to advertise with?

Usually around x-mas you see all kind of uncool companies do Christmas shows with artists that you wonder where they are the rest of the year.  And it’s the most uncool names you can come up with that going to sing Christmas songs when your company has a Christmas dinner and you need to get really really drunk to just bear with it.

In Sweden you know that an artist is so out when they play on these Christmas things or play on the cruise ships between Sweden and Finland, if it’s not a special arrangement, there are cool cruises with special themes like the Punk boat and so on.

Well I would like to see Guns ‘n’ roses. I have never seen to original lineup play (but bought condoms with Slash on Stringfellows in London and party with the rest of the band...it's a totally another story). But how long do I have to wait for Axl to get on the stage? Well the date they play here I’m in USA seeing the next Guns ‘n’ Roses.

Monday again

 It’s Monday again. One of these Mondays where you planned to get things done but the phone kept your busy so now you have o do a couple of hours overtime or push things forward.  

So it’s no wonder why you use the holidays for doing extra things. Sending those emails that never was sent but you really wanted to send.  And we are close by to one of these breathing holes in my schedule. 

It could have been worse...

Yes I said that eurovision song contest in Sweden was like take a dump and then whipe your ass with the shit. Well I just realized that if Anna Book was in, it also ment to eat that shit afterwards. And if there was a song written by author that writes really bad crime fiction (hello Camilla Smäckberg) then you had to put that shit back in all your body openings. So yeah it could have been much worse.

My next wonder if the Swedish musicians union will go on strike on Eurovision like the threat to do on idol. I mean this is as bad killing dreams of young musicians as the idol. Or even worse in idol they get flogged afterwards. Here they get flogged before, during and after.

Well eurovision will run more seasons so I guess the union really don't dare to get into that conflict.

It’s like taken the shit you just shit and wipe you ass with it!

It's interesting with Eurovision song contest (don’t be sorry if you don't have that in your country, it's the worst kind of entertainment, imagine Idol but worse). It's almost the only window now a day for the major companies. And every year when you speak with the organizers they want to be cooler, have better artists and better songs and be up to date with the rest of the music industry.

And every year they fail miserably.

They seem to go full in to find this artist that a local opening of a shopping center never will use. Or dig up old Idol artists that are not good enough. It’s all the opposite against what they talk about the rest of the year.

Even the Swedish presenters are like the worst of the worst. They take old farts of artists that have been in the completion to present the new shit. It’s like taken the shit you just shit and wipe you ass with it. This is the artist that are worse the Michel Bublé and only comes out on Christmas because you need to be so shit wasted to even hear them sing.

 

They take in the big failures like The Foo Conspiracy. This is a Swedish boyband. Yes you have never heard of it if you are outside Sweden. To be honest I never heard a song from them. Still they had a lot of small girls following them a couple of years ago. And now they make a last attempt (with one member short) in Eurovision. Tragic!

They take out Charlotte Perelli, who won the whole shit a couple a years ago. Since she only has worked with opening shopping mall since then. I guess she needs to be in the limelight for a bit. Same with the dreadful artist Loreen that won with Euphoria couple years ago. She is barely opening up shopping malls today.

Where have they dug up Roger Pontare? This is as bad as putting out a new single with Vanilla Ice.

Then you have the artists that are on every year, Ace Wilder, Lisa Ajax, Mariette. Failed artists that now just have to do Eurovision. Now also joining the parade is Jasmine Kara who really is the most failed artist ever. Of course they also have taken in artists that people listens to but is ashamed to listen to like De vet du.

The of course the artist they take in just so they can say that they have diversity. The hardrock band Dissmissed. Every hard rock band that has been on is just not taken seriously. Maybe they can no play on Sweden Rock since it was bought by Live Nation and they will probably destroy the lineup with bands like The Poodles. Sabaton Open Air is heading the same way, so maybe they can play there as well in front of the taco tent.
In this section is Les Gordons that we publish some songs of. They are put there just to be fill out with their rock’n’roll. Unfortunally my guess is that they won’t go further in their group. I’m surprised if they go to the second chance. In reality there is no backup on them and they are more in as a reason to tell the people that yes we have all genres, not excluding anyone. But all press goes on all old Idols stars and other stuff they just drown in the 10 other artist that universal will put money on.

A jojking same who is from South America. Yes Eurovision is like a freak show. And to top that you get Owe Thörnqvist, now we have a frak show a big freak show!

Värsta skandalen är schlagerfinalen där menlösa får visas upp varje år......

Monday

It's a long Monday. I started 7:00 this morning and I have meetings booked until 23:00. It's a long day.

Make up your mind.

It’s really interesting to see people present themselves to me with their music and claiming that they are really dedicated to doing music and become a successful artist.

Then you open their homepage and just a section is about music. There is sections that they write books, do poetry some amateur theatre. Just that they have just a facebook page nothing more. I mean if you are dedicated you probably would have homepage, facebook, twitter, youtube channel, everything containing your music, if that was really your goal.

Most of these people are mainly looking for handle over all work on somebody else so they could fix a career for them. Well if it fails they have other people doing the same on the other stuff they are doing.

Also people that has quite many bands are the same. Make up your mind and don’t have them all on one page. If you have several bands, let them live in different spaces, not the same space. That also just becomes for that, no you are not dedicated. 

Just some update

The last of the demo pile for this year.  And I will have a race of listening in 3 hours straight tonight.

It was fun on the seminars yesterday where the confession was that actually no one knows how to do it right releasing music right now. Everybody has their own ways and it seems like most just do trail and error. And it doesn’t seems to work on two different releases, it can change a lot very fast.

The most stupid was that yet another time someone thinks that they can do A&R work with just figures. I guess I need to write a longer post about that next week.

What pisses me off.

What really pisses me off is people that is very meticulous with their own things, but don't give a shit about others.

Like an artist that work for copyright issues for the union but when he put out music he used pirated bar codes to save money. Yes you should pay for his music but the person that maintain the bar code system you can just fuck over.

Or when an artist gives out covers but don't care to get all the info around the writers or publishers and just write stuff that is very hard to track. But are very concern to get out that dollar that came in through Spotify and make a hell of a scene to get it.

They are just about me, myself and I in their brain. And they usually market themselves as fair.

Nagg, but only if you have something to nagg about.

I sometimes get from artists that we should call up the radio stations, or blogs, newspapers whatever. The thing is you only do that if you have something new. They all look and read on our first send outs on e-mail. I know that since every time I speak to them they can actually say things from the text. So no it’s not that they don’t get the message. More that the message is not interesting enough to react on.

So if I then call back a week later and ask the same question “did you like the song, will you add it?”. They just say, well have something happened with it somewhere else. If the answer then is no, well they it’s easy for them to say no.

The strategy is to have something new to get in. Like calling up, “ Hey did you see they new video”. Or “Hey we just reached 50 000 streams and got in on this cool playlist”, “Or the artist will play in your city next week”. Anything new, not just did you listen to the song again.

Mainly also this is the problem that you get from the artists. If it is an artist release themselves they only have new things for two weeks, the song and a video. When you work with professional record labels they usually have things for at least 6 weeks. They really good ones 10 weeks or more.

They actually create all the “new” stuff happenings beforehand. Then if something really happens they use that and push the other stuff in the future.

And yes most media wait out other media so it is some kind of chicken and egg debate about it. Still there is so much stuff that can be done if you just plan ahead.

How was the song written?

When I’m on conferences around the world this is the headline I really hate “How was the song written”. In these panels they pick out the songwriters of some famous song and ask them how they wrote the song.

The problem is that yes they wrote the damn song in the same way everybody else write songs. They sat down or send files to each other.  That’s it. Usually it’s not much of a story about it. Yes they are good on writing hooks in songs. But really can you discuss how you do that? No I guess not.

And every time you are on these panels it’s the same. They sit up there and actually have nothing to contribute. And then someone ask a question how did the song get big? And they don’t have a clue around that one. That is actually the interesting part. I mean all the people in the audience want to know how to get their song as big as they got theirs. Often in these situations though they don’t know.

Because they just sold the song to a label with an artist. And the success of this song is because the PR team around that artist was the ones who made it a hit. And that story they don’t have, if you lucky they might have some fragments around it.

The answer is that yes we have a good publishing team with good relations to labels with a lot of money to put on their artists. That is not so sexy answer, but hey it’s the truth. Well then all will ask how we get in touch with these good people? That question they don’t want to answer.  I mean they don’t want to be bumped off the golden goose by someone else.

The interesting part is that you should bring down the PR team around the song, but that never happens. I guess these are the people that are hard to find. They don’t stand with the names under the song, but in most cases they actually did more work than the writer and artists together. It’s rare through they are shown on panels. Then also they can be quite many in each team. 

Get out from the backstage area!

I was working with the Magnettes again ( a lot of them right now since they have been in Stockholm for a week ). They had a secret show on the chamber of commerce in Stockholm last night. And they are pro on the things they do.

First they do a great show. But afterwards they just go backstage, calm down for a few minutes. Then they go out and mingle with the audience. Especially in gig like this where it is many influential people gathering it’s so important. I watch them talking to people in over 30 minutes until the end to get connections and make people remember them.

I go so many examples where bands just go back stage after the show. Grab some of the beers that are there. Take in some friends and keep the party there. Sure you are tired after a show. But the work is going on, actually that is the most important part, it’s here you can get feedback and get fans into super fans.

And this is actually not new. I read about Metallica (who released a new album today)  that made that their strategy to hang in front of the stage after gigs talking to fans to get more info how the show was and what they can improve.

And yes this helps. I know so many bands I have seen and wanted some information but they went somewhere backstage and never came back. Even so stranger with bands doing that when they invited me to see the show and then just ended up partying with their friends backstage.

So did things helped for The Magnettes, yes they just got a cool thing going on with Vitamin Well that sprung out from being backstage talking to people. 

What happened to the EPK video?

When I was going through mails with ”demos”. I just found it strange that I almost never (actually I don’t I ever had one sent to me, but have done them for my bands) had a video sent to me about the band. That is the way to market any product, a commercial. And now with all the easy software and cheap cameras, it’s really easy to make a short fun video that presents the artist.

Yes in the old days a music video was a kind of commercial for the song. If you had a cool video people watched it and you got addicted to the song. And normal music videos are sent to me very often. But that is videos for the song, i'm talking a video about the artist.

No this is more like a video that tells about the artist what they have done, like a biography in pictures. This is done for companies all the time. Not so much broadcast but used on fairs and exhibitions.

As it is now, I read some biography when I listen to the song that is presented. But that can be done so much better. I’m surprised that this hasn’t become bigger? We had EPK for awhile, but it seems to be gone?

It’s like we still think sending in a demo is the shit. That was done in the 80:s but it was the most cost efficient. That is the reason.

Well I have done such as videos for a lot of my artists and it has been good. I do it for my company every year. It’s the recap videos for Musichelp.

Still this one are pretty long and more like a info movie. I guess the best one I ever got was Billion Dollar Babies who did a fantastic info video. It's short, contains everything you need to know about Billion Dollar Babies. And it shows exakt what they are all about. This is a perfect teaser.





We did a info about The Magnettes for internal use that Michael Kers created that I really like that one.




I guess that I will get alot of these videos now sent to me. But hey that is great.

You must be flexible.

I was in a meeting today with the Magnettes and we got a gig opportunity on the spot. A gig that happens on Thursday. Even the whole band is not in Stockholm for the moment, Tomas who does some of the tracks and percussion in in Luleå up north in Sweden and can’t really be down on Thursday.

But here is the great by working with a professional group like The Magnettes. They handle that and will fix so they can do the show. It’s not optimal but they do it and the audience will have a blast.

In today’s music market this is a must. Your set up needs to be altered with. If you are six people in your band and there must be a certain equipment and certain light, floor space etc. Well you will miss out so much things that you will never really make it.

Just last week when I saw On-The-Go from Russia and they lost all their gear on the airplane. Well they just borrowed things and did a show (see it on yesterdays post I linked the video). Normally they are very electric with synthesizers. Here was a full acoustic gig. And this was in a showcase situation they have flew over five hours from Moscow to Tel Aviv to play this gig in front of several important buyers from the music industry. I was impressed that they just changed and you could hear how well the songs where in acoustic mode. So even it was not the right show, they convinced me by just not cancel it and not complaining about it.

You can’t expect to have perfect conditions every time when you are a smaller band. Well not even prefect when you have large tours. I got a story when Peter Tosh played for thousands of people in Italy and the power went out. He just took up a guitar and got the audience very silent and kept on playing. It’s a must to be able to do that.

This is the point also when many new artists fall off. I don’t know how many stupid reasons I have heard from bands not taking a gig. I guess the worst one was when the drummer had decided to make laundry with his girlfriend on a Saturday so the band couldn’t take the gig even it was a month notice. In a case like this if the band really want going on, get a substitute drummer. Yes if AC/DC can replace their singer several times you can get a substitute for someone.

Other stupid things has been: Are running a marathon! The place is too small! It’s not a cool venue! We are past playing small events like that! We have lost our electric adapter! The monitors was not loud enough!

Yes I have heard them all during the years. And the only thing that the artists got out of it was that you thought, well they will never make it. And you start to make interest in another artist to bring forward.

Back from Tune In Tel Aviv.

I had a great time on Tune in Tel Aviv. Really great festival and really great conferance. Very high level.

I saw so many cool band. I will put out some videos I always shoot to remeber an artist in my phone.

Nadav Dagon drummer/dj very amuzing and a new direction for DJ:s.


This was a really cool set with Noga Erez


Sivan Levy on the conferance ground.


Billy and The Firm, punk rock in a punk rock place.


I really liked Yuar. Also thanks for the translation later in the evening.


Feher did a great show on Kuli Alma


On-The-Go lost their instruments on the flights. So here is a really special acoustic show.


This was really a highlight during the festival. And here you also see Kosha "Pickles" Dillz on a rap.


Cherrie & Renno is so weird but good.


Direct from Live at Heart was The Vanjas from Sweden.


Garden City Movement. Was cool.


Ouzo Bazooka was the last band out. Well 70:s rock usually not my cup of tea.

Don't pay money for bad education.

It’s really scary when you see people paying a lot of money for education in the music industry and after a couple of year’s education don’t know the difference between a record label and a publisher. Neither see the difference between a master owner and publishing rights.

I bump into these people from time to time and I’m really bored to have to explain the most foundation there is in the music industry. Sure artist asking this question is totally fine. But a person that has spent over three years in education it’s really not acceptable.

The sad thing is that these people goes out to artists and actually claim that they have knowledge. Also they get artists really bad deals and really bad experience about the industry. They also make a fool about themselves, they usually fuck up things on the first try.

I say it again, if the education dosen't is part of the Universitys in Sweden and you have to pay for the education, you might don't get what you need (and as usual i'm not allowed to tell you wicth educations that really sucks, but send me a message and I will).

I wrote about this a year ago if you need advice to choose education. Unfortunally it is in Swedish.

http://ihuvudetpaenar.blogspot.se/2016/01/utbildningar.html

No vlog

Here is the explanation why it's slow this week.

Vad gör man inte för lite PR!

Mediahora sig är ett uttryck som många gånger nämns i branshen. Många gånger fattar inte publiken hur det går till och de flesta artister fattar det inte heller. PR maskineriet är ibland väldigt desperata och kan hitta på det mesta. Här är ett exempel från förra veckan där Anton Ewald släpper ny singel.

http://www.expressen.se/noje/anton-ewald-drabbad-av-akut-njurstensanfall/

Se hur det är utformat. Javisst han har fått ett njurstensanfall, det är inget trevligt, jag vet jag har själv haft det och det gör ont ( dock är det en barnlek i jämförelse med ett ordentligt giktanfall).
Fast det är mest en ursäkt för att PR staben ska skicka ut ett pressmeddelande ( nej journalister sitter inte och följer kändisars twitter uppdateringar, inte i Antons kaliber). Här kom säkerligen tipset från PR maskinen att kolla in Antons twitter.

Vad som troligtvis har hänt är att Antons nya singel inte har fått det mottagande som de velat och då drar de till med vad som helst. Jag kan glatt erkänna att jag skulle själv gjort likadant, så Antons PR team är på tårna. Vad som är intressant är hur publiken fortfarande duperas av sånt här.

Se på artikeln, Typ en rad och njurstenen, resten är om hans nya singel. Sen lägger man in att hans PR grejer i USA skulle ju kunna vara hotade. Jomen tjena! Anton (som han numera kallar sig) har inget i USA att göra. Knappast några större grejer som görs kring en sådan här idol/melodifestival pryl. Utan det här är Pr för att vi i Svedala ska tro att han är stor och kommer göra bra ifrån sig "over there".
Allt görs väldigt klart när man ser vart hans lyssnar är på Spotify, Stockholm, Göteborg, Malmö, Helsingborg, Kristianstad. Känns jäkligt USA det där.

Det här har vi sett så jäkla många gånger. Folk går ju på att Molly och Danny verkligen hade något på G i USA. Nej de sändes dit för att skriva svenska låtar (hur annars kom de hem och släppte ett album direkt på svenska tror ni?). USA var PR för Sverige än idag har ingen jäkel hört talas om dem i LA. I alla fall ingen med inflytande. Deras Spotify talar också sitt tydliga språk Molly Stockholm, Göteborg, Malmö, Oslo, Helsingborg...ja hon är ju lite av ett Norge skämt. Danny då, Stockholm, Göteborg, Malmö, Helsingborg, Uppsala.....

Samma med Agnes när skivbolaget hade glömt bort att hon existerade. Hon kuskade runt på lite shoppingmalls och sjöng till playback. För det kallade Expressen igår att hon hade en internationell karriär. Hur är det med Agnes stora lyssnare internationellt?  Stockholm, Göteborg, Malmö, London, Helsingborg. Kors i taket en stad utanför norden. Den ligger dock inte i USA.

 Tyvärr det här är PR när det inte finns så mycket att ta på. Något man ofta får förskräckta miner från artister när man berättar om hur det verkligen gick till. Så när Malin Collin tror att Tove Lo bestämmer själv vad hon gör, då blir det väldigt roligt.
http://www.expressen.se/noje/kronikorer/malin-collin/collin-vilken-moralpanik/
Tove Lo:s siffror är antagligen dåliga så de gör ett desperat försök att köra henne på Idol (vilket en artist i hennes kaliber inte brukar göra). De bestämmer sen att hon ska göra lite saker så det twittras om henne. Det här med att hon visar tuttarna verkade ju inte gå hem i USA ingen fattade varför. Just Tove Lo blev ju lägligt sjuk på den förra turnén då biljettförsäljningen sviktade rejält på slutet, I klartext hon får göra som hon vill så länge hon säljer. Hon kanske inte skulle ha haft stolpskottet Erik Hassle som förband.

Apropå Hassle, han bor ju i USA och spelar för fullt. Lite mer äkta USA satsning kanske. Fast vi kollar hans Spotify. Stockhol, Göteborg, Köpenham, Malmö, Lund.
Ja det är ingen som har hört om honom heller i de beslutande leden. Kanske han kan få ett njurstensanfall?

Varför är man med i Idol?

Just nu går Musikerförbundet ut med de dåliga villkor som Idol deltagarna har.
http://www.musikerforbundet.se/7-aktuellt/482-idoldeltagarnas-usla-villkor.html
Inget nytt under solen. Vad som skulle diskuteras är hur snabbt de faller i glömska och att Idol faktiskt är ett tv format inte så mycket med verkligheten att göra. Det är väl trots allt lätt att sparka på ett TV format som håller helt på att gå ur tiden (varför gör de en säsong av Idol för? vem tittar? Siffrorna talar sitt tydliga språk)

De som jobbar i de här formaten är faktiskt inte så mycket del av musikbranschen. Eller jo de är de men de tillhör en lägre serie. Lite som att jämföra allsvenskan med premier league. De som jobbar här åker som oftast på mediahora bussen (buss nummer 4 för er som inte bor i Stockholm) och har väldigt lite med musikbranschen att göra.

Samtidigt mina erfarenheter med musikerförbundet är att de oftast håller samma låga nivå som de som gör Idol.

För idols fördel, den reklamtid man åtnjuter kan man faktiskt få in pengar på. Kontrakten är inte så svåra att ta sig ur (jag har själv hjälpt folk ur dessa kontrakt). Att någon skulle få stanna de 10 år som optionerna gäller är väldigt osannolikt.
Trots allt i många av de här fallen så är nog Idol den ända vägen in i musikbranschen, ett försöka att ta en genväg.

Sen att de inte får välja bolag är också för och nackdel, mest nackdel men en del av spelet för att få tittarna att tro att det är på riktigt.

Den ultimata frågan är ju: om man har riktig talang och verkligen vill jobba i musikbranschen varför är du då med i Idol?

Här är lite mer Idol grejer
http://ihuvudetpaenar.blogspot.se/2015/12/idol.html
http://ihuvudetpaenar.blogspot.se/2016/01/idol-juryn.html

Don't fake your numbers

I'm going through demos for them moment. And I guess I will write a lot around mistakes during a presentation to professional people in the industry.

I got one here that started off pretty good, but she was telling how she had over 100 000 streams on her first self-released album. Okay the album is over 4 years old so 100 000 streams into 9 songs is actually not that of an eye catcher.

I went into her Spotify and checked it out. And it looked odd. Yes she had 9 songs with around 10000 streams each. But that was the problem. All songs had around 10000 to 13000 streams. If you look on a normal famous artist on Spotify for example Tegan and Sara. Their top five songs looks like

Closer 32 million
Where does the good go  14 million
100x  2,7 milion
boyfriend  5,1 million
Everyhting is AWESOME!!!! 11million

Yes these five are hits but they have different amount of streams. If you take a one hit wonder like Vanilla Ice it looks like.

Ice Ice Baby 44 million...and then it's Ice Ice Baby
in different versions (different ISRC kodes).

So other songs is
Play that funky music 460 000 streams
Baby Got Back 690 405 streams
You dropped a bomb on me 272 139 streams
Jump Around 282 638 streams

So not over a million on the rest of the songs for Vanilla Ice. And that is normal. Usually the singles has more streams then album tracks. So that this has almost exact on all songs just screams fake figures. So I went on to how many listeners the artist has. It was only 20 listeners and they were all from the same city.

So the conclusion is that it´s one person that streams the whole album over and over again (we can just guess who that might be?). Which is not illegal, but today when most things can be cross referenced it's just stupid. Also often i you have an album out the first songs has more streams then the last songs if nothing is promoted.

And to brag about your amount of streams in this way..well not that good.

Let's work togheter, and you do the job!

It feels sometimes like in high school when you did assignments with people. Some never did anything and you had to do all the work and they took all credit for it.

Over the years I have been better and better to just say no to these things. Right now I work with a couple of lovely teams around artists like Mother Mink, Royal Prospect, Like Swimming, The Magnettes and Adée that is working really hard and you become a good team member getting the feeling to get things done.

But outside this I get so many of these offers that we should join forces. But for now I really have stopped sharing my work and my contacts with people that doesn’t give something back.
I just saw one of these offers online that they wanted me to join. And I get the feeling of high school again. But I will say no this time.

It's a diffrence of score and a song.

Usually this is what people does this mistake. Since I got through many demos this week it is a normal thing to see. Most of the time when people talks about "this music is soooo suitable for a movie or a game" it usually kind of slow and contains a lot of strings or mood sounds.

But that is the score. This part is done by a person hired for the game or the movie to do. The Most famous score comes here

As you notice it's going up and down in tempo, build up and more. Usually that I because the music is written along the pictures.

But a song in a movie is a song that fits in. Can be a song to open up a show like this

Still the Friends theme is not that much used in the TV sere itself, which the Star Wars theme is in the Star Wars movies.

So I’m very suspicious when people write that their music is very good for movies or TV series. Specially dark ones. Then I usually get this



And this is one of the rare one that really works. Usually the song should set the tone for a scene. Not for the whole series. So music that is actually good for movie and TV series contains word that are good. Happiness, Money, Winner. Yes songs like We are the champions, Money Money Money with ABBA, stuff like that.




I guess most of the people that say they have songs that are syncable not thinks of ABBA. They thinks more of Twin Peaks but the truth is that ABBA is widely more synced then Twin Peaks.

Last day, demo day

Yes it's the last day until we sit down and take the decisions for the artists we going to work with 2017. Yes we already have begun getting through the many suggestions we got and yes we already has contacted some that we really like. Still there is plenty to go on to.

Usually also we get a lot of things sent in these last days. So it will be kind of long hours these next few days. I need to be done before I got to Tune In Tel Aviv.

I'm excited.

An here is the link to send demos until tomorrow morning.
http://musichelp.se/send-music/

And here is what we do around artists under a year.

Yes...I have the same conversations

Vlog 28 of October

Vlog with gossip around Like Swimming, The Magnettes, Anders Boson, Royal Prospect, Adée, Rookie and Tune in Tel Aviv.

It won't fall into your lap

I just spoke to a friend who is a musician. He was very excited since he applied for several jobs and it seems like several was interested to hire him. I asked if it was musician’s job. No it was normal jobs at the local grocery stores and stuff. He explained that it was so hard to get job as a musician. And everything costed so much. So I asked if him he was giving up living on the music and just has it as a hobby? No this was just temporary so he could get some income so he could keep up his musicianship.

The point here is that he has completed several musicians’ education where you get three years paid education to be able to build up a network so you can survive as a musician. Yes in Sweden there are schools like that. Yes I know that everybody that is a struggling musician in the rest of the world now would be like….WHAAAAT! I MOVE TO SWEDEN! So my friend went to that. But he wasted most of the time figuring out what kind of music he wanted to do. And he didn’t took the opportunity to build a network to get opportunities.

But he does quite good music. So good that he got a publishing deal. There he got the opportunity to write for commercials and trailer spots and other stuff that could give him money. I spoke to that publisher half a year ago and the publisher was complaining that my friend never submitted anything. The excuses was so many, short of time, not the right style, didn’t have inspiration, was focusing on his own project.

Yes my friend is lazy, no doubt about it. He thinks that the jobs will fall down on him since he went on these educations. And also that the education itself made him so good that he could survive just to release music for himself. Stupid idea but not that uncommon.

You have to work hard to get the jobs. And in this case he got opportunity’s he just didn’t take them. No it should be easier. And that is why he now has to take a job in the grocery store. He just got a kid (also a reason he needs money). In the end he will have a normal 9 to 5 job and well take down the guitar from time to time and wonder what it would be like to work with your passion.

I had burn so many bridges to carve out where I’m today. I make a living working with music (no I really never wanted to play music, but I love to working with music and all around it). But if I wanted to work with music and an instrument well I would have taken the same journey, the journey that says: take the opportunities. My journey is not done yet and I still everyday has to write 100 emails, do 3 skype calls and 2 normal phone calls just to keep my opportunity’s to land in front of me.

The worst thing is when people say: Oh you’re so lucky to get the chance to work with your hobbies.

No it’s no luck it’s damn hard work. Many times I had to say no to well paid jobs just to take a shit job to be able to get new opportunity’s that lead up to where I want to be.

Don't pay them scam companies

I just heard of a band stuck in a really bad situation. One of these companies that makes the whole music business looks like shit. So here is a rule. If a company wants you to pay for the PR. Don’t go with them. That is the most normal scam in the industry.

I’m not meaning hire a PR person doing PR. No this is if you have a record label telling you that yes you have to pay for the PR for your release. Usually this is studios that really don’t know a shit about anything and sponsor their “work” by doing bundles that you pay the studio and the PR to get it out.

Paying a studio for recording that good. But letting that studio give it out or won the master in some way, no.

I really want to tell the names of these scam companies. But like I wrote before I’m usually not allowed to so they can keep going doing their fraud.

First rehersal!

I found this amusing post on Facebook from a friend that has a new band.

First rehearsal done with complete dynamite line up. Can just say it rocked. Now planning for record release, video shoot, and promo pictures photography. Stay tuned!

This is just so what artists thinks in most cases. The fun things is in priority. And they is easy listed up there. Also these moments you get tons of updates in social media about, look we are in the studio, look this is the backstage on the photoshoot, look this is the studio last week etc.

In this case what should be priority would be start doing songs. Well maybe they create songs. Maybe they have that but since it was a first rehearsal I doubt it. And even if they have ten songs. They need at least twenty. I guess you need the songs for a record release.

Record release? Today you put them online. Not really that sexy any longer with release party with free booze. More push off a button on the computer and then maybe a gig where you invite your friends.

Picture and video well those are useful. Problem here is you need plenty of them and I mean plenty. So you don’t plan them you just do them.

Still in part of this they should actually think of so much other stuff to plan. Get your web-addresses, hang on to your social media names. Since it was the first rehearsal I doubt they have a name. Just there.

In the end it actually should have said. First rehearsal, no planning how we should reach an audience.

Special att göra en Halloween Pumpa

Sweden special. Att göra en Halloween Pumpa.

Maybe time to tell the truth?

I don't know. In so many cases I have to restrain myself not speaking up against so many wrong things in the business. It’s like people wants the answers but don’t want to hear the truth.

If you ask me if I like a song, it’s more or less expected that I should say it’s good. And if not that I should give some good advice how to make it better.

Well if it just sucks, I really can’t explain how to polish a turd. It’s really hard. And yes if the music sucks well then all the other stuff is has no meaning.

Same around people. So I’m not allowed to tell people that this person sucks, or that company sucks. This climate we have in the business in Sweden we just create an army of people thinking that they actually know something but in reality just is worthless piece of shit for the artist (which they usually finds out, way too late).

During my time pressing CD:s (yes we had a company doing that). We had a company doing so bad CD:s that we couldn’t use them in our physical distribution. The CD:s where usually malfunction and they didn’t check the graphics or that all codes was there. So of course I told people on a meeting with all record labels that our distribution system didn’t take CD:s made from this manufacture.

All hell broke loose. Yes everybody knew what I said was true. All the professional people knew this and never used them. All the small ones that was new in the business thought them where ok since they were cheaper. But they never figured out why they got no on all the distribution companies.
I thought that was a good thing to say to the new ones as a favor. But no. We could not say things like this in the room. No afterwards when we had the coffee break then it was ok to talk person to person and use that as gossip. That didn’t help all the people that got screwed.

It went so far that we were not allowed to have that as info on our homepage. Instead we had to inform people when they had done a really bad run with the manufacturer that we couldn’t take in their CD:s. Of course they went mad that we didn’t inform around that before. So it was like shooting the messenger all the time.

Right now it feels like it’s like that again. You are not allowed to tell witch companies distribution system sucks (several of the major ones is really bad). Not witch sites are going down.

You can’t tell people: No you’re not a record label if you give out your own music through Tunecore. And no you’re not suitable to give advice how to give out music since you signed off all your publishing rights to CDbaby.

I’m thinking of just tell them….it’s rather time now.

Sometimes you just follow along!

It’s like putting makeup on a pig. You working with a project and the artist is just so into details that it doesn’t matter. I had once an artists that sat three days deciding what color it should be on the font. The problem was that the font in the beginning was so hard to read that you couldn’t see what it said. So the color was really no big difference.

I got emails and messages during these days with different angels to the problem. Don’t get me wrong I already from the beginning said that the font was totally wrong. But no the artist liked that font, end of conversation. At the same time during the digital age everything is written out so the font on the picture is not really a big deal, in those cases you just follow along. So whatever message that came in I was more like. Yes it’s ok. I didn’t put in any effort. Since the whole thing was kind of pointless.

And still the war in the artist brain kept ongoing. Should it be pink or blue? On the third day the artist went for pink. And until this day I had no what so ever effect or point. It didn’t get the song to be played more. It didn’t effect really anything accept a loss of three days of work on nothing. In these cases it’s better to just follow along and focus on something else.

Who is doing what?

I talked to an artist the other day that had helped a band in his hometown. Now when he wanted some help with his project they just closed the door. He got the feeling that they just took over his contacts and then left.

This is the reason why record labels have kind of strict contracts. I have been in that situation also, but with bands. A couple of years ago we got contacted from a management that has band but couldn’t get them nowhere. We wanted to help out so we made an agreement that yes we would try in our network and if something happened we could be part of it.

The thing was that this management bragged about how good contacts they had with the big labels. The strange part was that they seemed not to get any response for this band.

We put it out, secured them a opening slot for a band on European tour. We got them a big placement in a commercial that really brook them really big in the Nordic countries. Suddenly when we wanted some money from the commercial that we placed, did all the legal papers of and used our network really hard to secure, it was a big no. The work we had done was worth nothing.

Suddenly since they were hot some bigger labels had gone by and asked about the band. So behind our back they had sold the band and of course the placement we did they wanted all the money since they didn't get any upfront money. We should just be lucky to have worked with the band in there eyes.

Since I have been working over 25 year in the business I know this kind of things. We wanted to help out but we also had a fast plan B. So we just had to start to shut things down. Go around to all our clients and tell them the story. What they didn’t know was that we also had a deal with a huge brand with over 1 million dollar that was ongoing. We just shut that down. Yes the band lost 1 million dollar, which they until today knows nothing about.

Still some of our work was still in progress. This we couldn’t stop so for the band it looked like after we left they still got these cool things coming at least a year after. This is how you work, it is things going on that is in the pipeline. That is why you have sunset clause in contracts.

The funny part was when I was on a lecture and a kid in the audience was friends with them. And they had told him that nothing really happened with that placement. That the placement was done from the band. And the tour was done by them and all the other things was a result of their hard work. It was interesting to hear that since the kid didn’t know what role I played in the story.

After a year they machinery stopped. They was stuck in this major publishing and major record company. What the label wanted was that things that we had created should still happened to the band. Of course they wanted the band to create these opportunity’s. The problem was that all was done by us. So the band couldn’t create anything, neither could the managment. Also they had got many people dislike them since they knew the story after all the industry is not that big.

The companies quickly grew tired of them since nothing was happening. All the numbers was around the song that was on the placement. Fast they were back on the square where they started. In one way they didn’t knew who was doing all these things.

I genuine believe that all what they said to the kid was what they actually believed. That these things happened just because they write good songs and them spread naturally. Also the management was crooked. They tried to take over contacts and keept the band in the dark. But luckily we actually protected the best contacts from them. They got some smaller ones, but those quickly knew something was wrong and left them.

This is not that unusual, I see it all the time. Especially when you place things and a lot of money comes around. Suddenly many things that this can easy be repeated and cut us out and keep more money to themselves. It’s just how the business is. But yes those that act that way usually never get a second chance. Your job is to look into who is doing what? And if someone is doing things right try to award that person.

What I’m really looking for?

I know exactly what I’m looking for. I want to work with an artist that is as passionate about music and getting their work out as me.

What I’m not looking for is artist that always says that they would like to have a career but always put it as second priority.

Yes I work almost 8 hours a day (often much more) around our artist’s music. And that is everyday even a Sunday, Christmas Eve or any other day. And I expect the artist to do the same. If they are 4 people in the band and they put up just 2 hours a day to keep up my tempo I would be happy.

As it looks in many cases it me working 8 hours a day the band 2 hours a week, and that is on Wednesday when they rehearsal.

I also want artist that wants to try new things. Not the same bullshit like we should have an interview in Pitchfork. Well if you did things so people recognize you Pitchfork will come. But no do something that no one else has done that is no go. Especially not the things where it’s boring things like seeking up people online to get them to listen to your music. No they rather do a video shoot for weeks and then edit it for months, and put it out for no audience in the end since they didn’t do the ground things by seeking people up.

The most I want is the artist that actually go and do that boring gig instead of that fun party that your friend is holding the same weekend.  Or doing that shoot to record a song for a commercial instead of going home to watch Games of Thrones.

This is the hard part. There is millions of people that are writing good songs out there. But Out of a million it’s only ten that actually go for it to get listener to it.

I actually would be fine with a mediocre songwriter as long they actually did the other passionate stuff around marketing.

Are you doing PR for your ego or to get results?

That question should be used. I see it quite often that the artists mainly want that Pr for his/her ego not to get more sales/streams. If you ask the artists if it is for sales or ego they will promptly answer that it is for sales. Then you just ask take the money and use it on Googel ads and Facebooks ads or similar. Then it comes, no I want to be in the papers.

Like there is a point to be in the press? I mean I can’t remember when I last time bought a physical newspaper. No what they are after is to get a reviews, like there is that many reviews any longer except for small German fanzines. Or even better a personal interview, where they journalist ask these questions you dreamt of answering since you started with music.

Guess what, this question is never coming. If there is questions and a interview it will be strange questions about what kind of jam you like or the weirdest restaurant you been to. They won’t ask about your inspiration or what kind of gear you play on.

Actually to get best results is to use the online ads and great keywords. Really that is most cost effective. Not so sexy I know, but if you are in for the sales that is the best.

But the ego is what talking so I still see all these artists buying PR services that really don’t get you anywhere. Send outs to countless blogs, newspapers. That even if they respond on it, you won’t really get any sales out of it.

Yes this is how you did it in the past. They sucked already back then, but that was the only way.
I spoke to a good friend who works on an ad agency. He said the same, even with the big companies they go for ego. They had developed new tools where you can pinpoint the target group. Get most out of each penny spend. Still the buyers wanted a totally useless ad in the big newspaper costing a fortune. Why, well it’s the ego. You can tell your friends, look on this full page in the morning paper. Okay for the same amount of money you can reach the right target group for a whole year and getting more sales. But ego is hard to talk sense to.

Video logg

The Vlog holds things about Videos of The Magnettes, Mother Mink and State of grace. Also new intreviews with Adée and Royal Prospects. And secrets and invetations.

If your social media looks like shit.

I had a great lunch with a woman in one of the world’s most successful PR firms. We were discussing how PR is done in the new digital world. How people think that they will get everything just to hire a PR firm. She stopped her meal and looked on me and said.

-   Well you can’t get Pitchfork to write about you, if your social media looks like shit. Doesn’t matter how good song you have, or cool story. The social media shines through. Most of the times this is the part that the artists or mangers don’t understand.

And she would know. She has written several successful books about the topic. And when I look to myself it’s the same. A friend of mine signed an unknown band a couple a weeks ago. And what did I do. I didn’t listen to the music (mainly since my friend only work with bands in a special genre). No I went to their social media and looked on their figures and what they looked like. I guess several of us do the same.

And here is how I looked on it:

I went to their Facebook. Okey the band has the most awful logo there is. Has nothing to do with the name. Their head banner is a shoot clearly not done by a professional photographer. They surrounding is in a rehearsal room and they are standing there with their normal clothes. I guess the picture is taken just as a thing during a rehearsal. But it’s not good for representation for your Facebook.The funny part is some post down in the FB feed you find a post that they had taken professional photos with a photographer a month earlier. So why don't use that? The updates on the page was kind of slow, they updated around once a week witch is really to slow for a facebookpage.

The problem was the posts also. All was about them rehearsing or recording. The things you really DON’T CARE about. Most it was “we are rehearsing the new cool song that comes next month. In the end of the timeline that song they talked about was pushed. Ok I looked how long the page been up they had been around four years. During these years they got up to 900 likes. Well the number is not that shows everything. You can have 200 000 likes but if no one interacts with your posts it’s no point. Rather have 100 followers and 1000 interaction to your posts. So I looked on the interaction, and here it showed a lot. Every post had around 4 likes. So that means the 900 fans doesn’t care about them.

Since it was so much just in the rehearsal room I thought about gigs. One was posted on Facebook but I wanted all gigs so I went to their homepage. The homepage was good made. But the gig past revealed a lot about the band. This year they only had done one show, last year just two shows. Not so active band. In total of these 4 years they had done eight shows.

So I went to their Spotify, okay it’s not part of the normal social media. But in this world it counts. They only had 41 listeners. 42 followers so their account was not secured. All songs under 1000 listening’s. But they had released 3 singles, 1 ep and 1 album. In comparison, they have released more songs they had gigs.

The Twittter was more active. They got over 2000 followers. Still they followed 2300 people. So a good rating they had done over 1400 tweets and was pretty active. But the same problem. Around 1 like on each tweet. But they tweeted every day. Still all tweets was about rehersing again.

Instagram, okay figure wise. Still it was less than a picture a week. The picture got good likes even though they were really boring just old live pictures and photos of recordings and sleeves for new songs.

Youtube well 9 videos, two official ones, 8 with songs and just pictures from the album. And one when recording (stop we don’t want to see you in the studio no more).

Youtube is usually the weakest channel for artists. It’s a pity since it’s the biggest search engine in the world.

So this is how I looked on their social media. And yes totally that Pitchfork would jump this even if it was a good song. Most of the time people think that it doesn’t matter what everything else looks like. But it tells a story. Here is that this band has been hiding the last years in the studio. Really doesn’t have and audience and well not so good of getting their pages to look good. But worst the pages was not social. It was about them in a studio. Nothing about the band what they like, eat, doing as a hobby, whatever would have been fine. Luckily my friend who took them is rather good on this so I think he will fix the problems.

Putting up goals, put the right ones.

Yes it has really been clear the past weeks to put down the goals on a paper (a computer document is more right). It's more to have something to measure against. We put up these goals every five years.

This round has been clearer than ever, and more detailed than ever. Much thanks to an EU project that we are a part of that really has gone in to the core of the business.

I have over the years tried to implement this on our artists and artists in general. The problem has usually not been as clear as they are right now. When you ask an artist to make a plan they go after the wrong goals. And many times I have let them do it since we didn't see what was really important in the new industry. Most plans I see contains things like:
1. In one year we have a signed record deal.
2. We have given out an album
3. We tour Europe to support the album.
4. We play midsized festivals.
5. We do a showcase in USA.

Okay goals. But it all miss the important thing, audience. And center of all it all comes down to get a record deal. If that doesn't happen? Well then it will be no album, no album no European tour. And goodbye to the midsized festivals since they need an album release.

The reality is usually that they are not ready for a deal. Maybe the songs is not there. Actually even with a deal you need a constant flow of songs. So one goal should be how many songs that should be written over the year.

And an album release might not secure the festivals or European tour. That has to do with bodies that the music can draw to a place. One goal should be to set limits of fans on their social media.
Showcase in USA, also here is many factors that breaks in. Most of all why do that? Is there a interest from there. Is it get a better network? It might be the best of the suggestions in the plan but can also be the worst.

What I see is often that the artist looks in the plan that someone else should do the work. Their work is mainly to find that person, then their work is over and the magic happens.

Right now more than ever you can do plans with goals with simple tools just relaying on getting the people that likes your art.

Sign a deal or a paper?

One of my friends band just got signed. I was reading the comments on Facebook. The comments where all like they achieved the highest goal, like the Nirvana of music industry. Okay these comments are made of friends and family. But some was from older people in the industry. People still believes that just you sign that paper you will have a great career.

At the same time I have had several meetings with other players that you need today. Many of them agrees the record labels are more a distraction and a break in the career in many cases. Don't get me wrong there is great record labels out there. But it's not the majority of them, rather if you get lucky and everything locks up with several other things they work out. In many cases they are just a sign on a paper.

 This myth is so hard to break. As hard as the myth that you get fat by eating fat food. No there is no total truth of the fat food same as the record label myth. Signing a deal dosen't really mean anything.

A Swedish journalist just quoted "you need a team, just that team doesn't need to work on a record label."

 So I hope it goes well with my friends signing. That this is the right team. Someone wrote in the comments "You really deserve this after working so hard". I rather hope for that they deserve a career after working hard. Not that they worked hard to sign a paper.