Takida to USA what a joke!

Sometimes I just wonder if the Swedish record labels or mangers are just completely stupid. Sending the Nickleback of Sweden to USA? The band TOTALLY failed to enter the German market and had to cancel half the tour.

Yes Takida sell much in Sweden but it’s one of these bands that are just not good enough to get out of this market. Same is it for Håkan Helstöld and KENT they were just not good enough. Some artist is made for one market and that market alone. The band hasn’t done a good song in 10 years.

 This will just be one of those horrible trying’s to enter a market. This band is too old too bad to make it. And that they got a Rockbjörn for best Hardrock was a quite big outcry from the establishment. Well I guess with Trump on the move maybe there is enough rednecks to listen to the shit.

The musicmarket is not a straight sale

When you are in your local grocery store it’s a straight purchase. You give them money and they give you the thing. Well what many have to learn that in the music it’s not always that simple. Music to an audience can be also given them an experience, a feeling, an expression. It can be so much more than just a transaction. Same when you do b2b in the music-industry. It’s almost never just a straight buy. It many parameter like what are you bringing to the table. Is it long turn and so on. Right now I have been meeting so many new people that goes straight for the sale. Then I have been in meetings with very experienced people and really felt the difference.

Don't hide your music

Many musicians hide their music. They think it’s better to be totally ready when the record label or the audience should hear it. It’s actually pretty wrong.

I don’t know how many times I have got totally produced records, sometimes even printed. Listen to them and yes it was good but needed some changes, since it’s already finished, let it be. Instead it becomes a no instead of ayes to put money and time on their career.

One time I had a band that did a really good EP. Everybody was cheering about it and was waiting for the album to come. The band then hide in a cottage in the woods for over six months and then came up to the office with and album. Well during these six months they had taken a totally new direction and the magic from the EP was totally gone. They just has heard a new American band and they had broken through during the six months they were hidden. The record was just a pale shadow of that American band.

Of course if we had been let in the process we had probably would give them advice. But I guess many musicians think they know their music best. The proof at so many cases is that they are probably the one who knows the least about their music. Rod Stewart thought “Do you think I’m sexy” was nothing for him. Boy George didn’t want to release “Do you really want to hurt me”.

Yes it’s attractive myth to just sit in a dark cellar and create a masterpiece. The share truth is that those masterpieces usually are a team working together.  And no they won’t take off the glory from you as a songwriter. They just want a better product to sell.

Contract whores!

I just hate when I talk to people that are still in the old record business. And climb on to the old standards like a child to their lollipop.

You can just hear it when they start to sell an act to you on how much progress they really had. I was talking to a manger that really are in the old world a couple days ago.

First mistake, they namedrop stuff that is not a namedrop.  Sounds like this:

You know the guitarist played in Lonely wolf before. And the drummer is from Nuclear boys. And the producer has produced Sator.

Just mention Sator (witch is the only of these bands that are semifamous) makes me go off. Sator is like the most useless band to namedrop ever!  So really it’s nothing to namedrop! Don’t namedrop something that is not a household name. And if it is a household name make sure it’s not a lousy one like Accept, Scorpions, Europe or Running Wild. Let it at least be Gun ‘n’ Roses, Motorhead or Kiss. Or don’t even mention it.

Then they do the second mistake. And usually a bigger mistake. They tell you how much the critics loves the band. Kerrang! said that the band is god’s gift to mankind.

Really! First is Karrang! still given out? In paperform? Second yes I just looked on the figures on Spotify the album doesn’t have over 1000 streams. So what the bloody hell does it matter that (if they did, it seems like I’s never on the bands homepages a copy of these reviews) if Kerrang! wrote that the audience doesn’t care what Kerrang! writes. Really no one. Actually the 13 year old neighbor’s kid has more views on his Youtube channel then Kerrang! has readers.

These two sales methods is in the past. Before when really you couldn’t read the figures, and the record labels manipulated them quite much. Today is just worthless. I can read a bands status on my phone in less than 10 seconds. You don’t need to boost if the figures is not there. Just tell me like it is. This is a new band that just released an album and we haven’t got it out to a bigger audience.

Then comes the killing line of the sales pictch: We just need a good recordlabel.

Here is also a kind of bad thing. I mean the bands has released things and yes when I look on their pages on Spotify I see the names of the labels. Yes if the label is run by some old dud with a hairline that are down in the neck and grow a ponytail and gives out records from a small village in Sweden. That just tells me that the band is just suckers for signing contacts, any contract would do. Can be even worse the dude with a long back hairline can have lederhosen and live in a small German village that I just want to punch you in the face. Really hard since you such a contract whore!

Why is these people still around. Yes I know they are still populate Midem. They have nothing to do in today’s music industry, really nothing. It’s like the band that signed with the guy who signed U2 as a manager, they still haven’t found what they are looking for.

All commercial is good commercial?

I usually say that to artists that I work with. But yesterday I actually found a way that was not that clever and maybe just pure stupid. A Swedish pretty unknown hardrock band called Truckfighters released a video that was a copy of the story of a very famous murder on a girl a year ago.

Of the reaction was that is totally crazy to do that. Even the parents to the girl and lawyers was disgusted. Then the band tried to tell that the story was not about her. Well they used her name in the video so that was not true. Then they tried to say that it was a protest against violence against women. Well there is ways to protest that better than just do a stupid video.

In the end the band has to crawl to the cross and say that they would give the revenues to the murded girl’s trust.

Okey they got commercial out of it. But it was pure negative. I guess many bookers is not that keen on having the band for a couple of years. The story just went to Sweden though and this band is more abroad so the damage is kind of local. I checked the gossip pages and it seems they didn’t care. Still I think this is probably one of the worst ways of trying to get publicity.

Här är svaret på Rockbjörnen

Det är många som frågade varför Takida fick årets metal hårdrock på Rockbjörnen.  Jag la ju ut innan dess att oftast vinner man genom en tjänst. Idag kom beviset varför Håkan Helstöld fick flera priser. Jomenvisst har inte Aftonbladet fått fina äran att förhandlyssna exklusivt på hans nya platta.
http://bloggar.aftonbladet.se/musikbloggen/2016/08/sa-later-hakan-hellstroms-nya-album/

Ja toppen av en dag fullt med möten med folk som är inkompetenta att jobba i musikbranschen.

Video logg over the week

Yes we try to do more video loggs now and we start to do one about this week. Hope we are able to do one every week in some way.

Old music sells out new music

Hypebot had an article that old music sells out new music. You can read the whole article here:

http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2016/08/old-music-is-outselling-new-music-for-the-first-time-ever.html

Now how to disect this kind of senastional media.

First they only measure the physical market. Not has Nielsen (who did the research) or Hypebot (who wrote about it) really not knowledge how the industry has changed. And especially how the consumer has changed. They just want to sell copies/views.

Of course on the old market, yes the people buying CD/Vinyl is people old enough to know what it is. I look on my nephew he is 12 years old. He would never buy a CD or Vinyl. He knows what it is, but it doesn’t attract his generation. Of course the generation it attracts well they won’t buy the new stuff since they don’t understand the new music. This is not something new. This happens in all generations.

There is through a point into this. Yes the new generation is more exposed to the old music. Go back to the same nephew. When he was 7 years old he came home to me wearing a KISS t-shirt and proclaimed he loved that band. So I guessed that his parents (read father) has put that on him. But that was not logical. His father was really into electronic music. It would have been much more likely that the kid would have had an Indochine t-shirt. No this came from something else. Yes he was exposed to it from people around him.

In the 80:s and 90:s music disappeared. If you didn’t buy a certain album it was gone. I mean I hunted Misfits vinyl’s in the early 90:s. The band was not that popular in Sweden and had stopped to exist. To get this album you really had to dig down on record fairs. Today…well on click on Spotify / Youtube/ Itunes yes it’s really easy to find what I dug so hard to get. The chances then to be exposed to it is much higher and not so much work either. That is why my Nephew suddenly liked Kiss (he got over it)

Of course that will explain some of it. But the biggest explanation is the consumer’s pattern. Suddenly Nielsen doesn’t know how to measure things. Before it was easy, just look on the sale charts, look on the radio chart. How many units, how many spins. Today it can be oh so different.
Let’s go back to my nephew. Where does he find music? Not Spotify. Youtube is a big channel for him. Specially the program that does pranks and shows failures.  And there is music in the background. But I will say the biggest channel he got is …..games. He is a freak on videogames. He plays the games looks on e-sports and are exposed to that music. And if you took how much the music Hypebot talks about and make comparison how much that music is actually used (listen to) then it will be a kind of low fraction if you compare how many times the intro song of the latest Assasins Creed has been played. The problem here is that right now there is no good way to measure it. So the stupid conclusion from Nielsen and Hypebot is: OHHH we stopped listen to new music.

No we listen more than ever. It’s not just the measurement, it’s also the channels. When I was a kid (yes looong time ago) Sweden only had two TV channel. Yes only two. If a song was played on a popular TV program back then. Yes everyone knew it the next day. It was an instant hit. The mainstream market was hit as soon the song was played on that channel.

Today the channels are bigger. Pew Die Pie has more watchers each day than two channels had on a week. And Pew Die Pie has the world as a market. Those two channels just Sweden. So the people that looks on Pew Die Pie they discuss with each other online of what he did, done etc. But the mainstream audience will probably not even know his name.

And here it is. The viral today only takes it to a certain point. No to the masses like in the old days. At the same time it reach so much more people in ways that is much harder to control and give a value to.

Many idiots comes out and says that the music produced today is badly done etc. No that argument have you heard from every damn new generation. No it’s just consumed in a totally new way that is harder to measure.

So what I’m seeing right now is a change that will kill many of the old players. Yes record labels has already been through the crusher. My opinion is the next ones are the live industry. I have seen several programs that many live stages has disappeared over the years. And when I was on festivals this summer I was kind of amazed that most of the audience was in my age or older. There was not that many kids there. Where are they?

Well they consume music but not on rock bars or festivals. They consume things on Cosplay or DreamHack. This generation will not be cool to hang on a filthy rock bar drinking beer and see sleeze rock. That is over. But I guess if you took a symphony orchestra and a famous DJ and play music from games you will sell out an arena. Why? Because they recognize that music. They have their social attachment to music online. Not on the disco lite in the 80:s not in the barn dance like in the 50:s. The thing is that they will listen to music, just in another way.

So back to the article on Hypebot:
But how bright is the future of any industry that generates more revenue from old products instead of new ones?

It’s a shift in the movement right now. Yes we need to get money from these new ways. We already have some good tools, but they need to be better. We also have to change they we think about marketing and opportunities for artists. And also how an artist today should be developed. My artists nags on me to play on these rock bars and festivals. Even though we all know that there is no interesting people there. Actually no people at all. We have to find the new highways of people to expose our new music to.

We need to get rid of old farts like record labels and old working publishers. We need to get money to people that needs to try new ways to put in music where the listeners are. It will happen but it will be a try and error part for a couple of years.

Know your value

Yes you need to know your value. Here in Sweden there are several organistions that promotes that yes all musicans should be paid more and so on. Yes they should, but to be fair most of those who is not paid dosen't have the value.

If i go outside and just take a handfull of mud. It really dosen't have any value. It would if that mud is a part of a building in africa. Yes mud have can have a value. But here in my village the mud is everywhere so it dosen't have any value. So i have to get the mud to a place where it has value. Or make a pottery of it to make value.

Problem today is that many artists is trying to sell the mud as it is in my village. There is to many of the same artist and they haven't developed the mud to a pottery with PR.

And this makes it alla weird when you give a artist like that a chance. Suddenly they want the treatment like they are the upscale mud. They really don't know their value.

I have seen so many artist beeing fooled by these orgnisations telling them that yes they should demand certain things. When their value is not in the range of these demands. So why are these organisations doing this? Well mostly since it's their job. It's like lawyers. they always fins errors in contracts just to get paid some more houers. And to  the worst lawyers it's almost always time to sue someone, even if it's just hot coffe on Mc Donalds.

So how to go around it. Well know your value in diffrent situations.

Hur meningslös är inte Rockbjörnen.

Det finns en jävla uppsjö med olika musikpris. Vissa mer meningslösa än andra. Idag är det Rockbjörnen som jag tror är det mest meningslösa musikpris som någonsin getts ut.

Först ska väl sägas att kalla Aftonbladets journalister för musikjournalister är som att Michelinguide skulle sätta 3 stjärnor på Mc Donalds i Södertälje. Fast det är väl publiken som väljer?

Nja för några år sedan hade vi en artist som hade gjort stora saker med sitt album. Då ringde det från Aftonbladet och undrade om vi ville ha en Rockbjörn. Jag var lite frågande,ha en rockbjörn? Jo det skulle gå bra att vår artist vann men vi behövde flytta lite saker i släpp schemat så albumet kom innanför gränsen. Tyvärr ville vi inte göra det så det blev ingen Rockbjörn.
Så att publiken röstar...nja tro inte så mycket på det där.

Samma sak när NRJ hade ett pris i början av 2000-talet. Jag satt som redaktör på en publikation och de ringde in att Artist 1 hade vunnit. jag skulle just lägga ut det när de ringde och stoppade mig. Artist 1 kunde inte komma och nu var det Artist 2 som hade vunnit. Okey. Hann bara lägga på så kom det in att Artist 3 vann för att den kunde hämta upp priset. Så mycket om folkets röst.

Det går också lätt att se på de olika prisen hur de delas ut också och vilka bolag man smörjer, tex Grammis delar ut saker i de mest konstigaste kategorier (Sahara Hotnights på hårdrock, andra året på Pop) det för att blidka olika intressen. E-type sågade till och med sönder sin Grammis för att de delade ut mer på coolhetsfaktor än försäljning osv.

Dock är det klart bättre på Grammis än vad det är på Rockbjörnen. Rockbjörnen är verkligen det lägsta som går att få i musiksammanhang. Mer att du ska komma på Aftonbladets scen och spela för deras reklamjippo. Här artisterna kan man kalla något för sellout. Riktigt sellout.

Don't push it too far.

I just got a call from someone that pushed it too far. An artist that somehow got a hold of my phonenumber (that is not hard, still a email could have been better). The artist had some questions that i answerd just to be nice. Yes i helped so that the artist saved some money on not to do some mistakes that could have cost a lot.

Fine by that. But here several artists push it too far. Suddenly the day after i was in a important Skype meeting my phone starts ringning. Well you know when you are on Skype your call you are on gets disrupted. So what i did was just to hang up to get back to Skype. Then the caller calls again, i push them off. In total of 30 minutes call it happens five times. A bit embarrsing that gets disrupted from the conference like that.

So after i call up the number that was so frantically calling me. It was the artist that just had a question. And it happens to be almost the same question that I answerd the day before.

Right now the artist has called me three days out of five with questions, even on a Sunday. Yes its to push it to far.

Yes i know many in the buissness don't even answer on calls just because of the pushers. I don't wanna be like that. Unfortunly also they only take don't give. Okey this buissness is kind of narcisstic but you know where the limit is.

So i put her number down as a "don't answer" on my phone. Then the artist Call me again frantically like five times in an houer. Of course i don't answer. And to be honest i was busy with a legal paper that had to be finished so it didn't matter who called.

Then it comes up on our Facebook wall on the support on our distribution company that we should call the artist since we are so hard to reach. This is just rude. The artist is not even a customer in that company. The message could have been sent as a message. But no, put it on the wall so everybody ses it.

The support asked me what to do. I just told them to answer that the artist could send a mail with the "important" question.

Later i got a mail in my inbox from the artist saying:
Hello, i have a question can you call me on *the number i blocked in my phone*.

I wrote back:
I'm a bit busy now. Can you write the question here in the email.

The answer was:
Its much easier on the phone. Call me
As soon as possible.

Here you might think this must be a lose cannon. But to be honest its rather common. I get several cases like this a year. Well i called the artist after a couple of houers.

First the artist was a bit angry because i was hard to get a hold of and demanded to get a direct number to my personal phone (the truth is that was the number the artist got). I managed to get out the question that was so important.
It was the same question that i got on the first call.

This is also kind of usual. They don't like the answer so they try to ask the question again in another angel to get the answer they want. It should fit their expectaition not be the right answer.

I really don't care who played the kazoo

You know when you go home for a holiday with your family. Yes you will have that relative that nags all the time about things that really doesn’t matter. On top of that they mention people that you don’t know or even care about.

-          Yes then Carl-Otto went to the bank to take out his money. Yada yada yada….

In the end it is no point to the story and waste of time.

Exactly the way feel about some people that gives out music that no one would like to hear, but insists to have every damn people to be show up on Spotify. No Spotify doesn’t show who played the Kazoo. There is no field for that. And to be really honest NOBODY CARES! Except for you as an artist.

Same when the band has hired a famous musician and try all ways to get that into the credit list. Same here nobody gives a shit if you had Rolf Hammarlund on drums. The majority of people don’t even know who he is, neither do I. Sure if you had Gene Simmons on base, cool many more people know him, and still we won’t listen to your damn song.

Those people that claims to want to know these things are the same people that collects vinyl’s and are introvert and lonely, and here is an article about them http://www.factmag.com/2016/08/10/vinyl-buyers-lonely-introverts/

If you just stop doing that shit and took some time to do some PR you actually might get some listeners.

Todays artist Indigo Girls

Everyday I try to introduce a new artist (or old). I get so much good music in my system and I can't react on all. Still it is nice to share music so other also can find it out.

Yes Indigo Gils in not unknown in USA. But here in Sweden they are totally unknown. Still this is one of my favourite songs. The line " she says you know me and Jesus we're of the same heart
The only thing that keeps us distant is that I keep fuckin up"
or

"There'll be blue lights flashin down the long dirt road when they ask me to step out
They say we be looking for illegal immigrants can we check your car
I say you know it's funny I think we were on the same boat back in 1694 I said oo la la shame on you"

Todays artists Danzig

Everyday I try to introduce a new artist (or old). I get so much good music in my system and I can't react on all. Still it is nice to share music so other also can find it out.

Todays artist is Danzig,...also one of my childhood heros.

Todays artist Toad The Wet Sprocket

Everyday I try to introduce a new artist (or old). I get so much good music in my system and I can't react on all. Still it is nice to share music so other also can find it out.

Okey Toad The Weyt Sprocket is not unknown in USA. Still in europe they are. I listened much to this in late 1990:s

Red Bull Sound Select to Sweden

"New platform will get Swedish artists to break internationally", says Red Bull in a new press coverage in Sweden today. 

Well how many artists will be fooled this time? The platform has been around for many years and is brainchild that Red Bull wanted free music for their competitions and events and not pay royalty. Still they have evolved a bit and do some good stuff, but mainly is crap. I will go through the press coverage and explain you why.

Of course they tell you that they were part of acts like Flume, Grimes and Nicki Minaj (for the last one you just stop drinking Red Bull). Well all of these is products from record labels that works with Red Bull. But Red Bull wants to break artists and they tell you that they were part of Chance the rapper and Gallant. Well part of Chance broke on a mixtape that was discovered by Forbes and Childish Gambino. Still everyone appears on several sites, I mean I guess Reverb Nation could say they were part of quite many artists. The fact is that they all create accounts there. Is just that they will not break from that.

So what is the problem? Well they advertise it like they want to break free from the record labels empire. The problem is that they have created the same empire and using the same methods. They hire headliners and the new artist is warming up for them. Which is good for the headliner, for the smaller artist, well if that is good can be debated.

The other one is the platform, yes you have to get into redbullsoundselect.com to be seen. And I’m guessing that that platform don't have the same amount of audience as Spotify. To be honest it was not even on the top ten list of platforms and audience. 

What do you get? Well if you are chosen you get to perform on several stages that Red Bull is fixing. I was on one of these shows in Los Angeles two years ago. 30 days of music. Since the festival is 30 days it's really just like another show, just promoted by Red Bull. It was not that special. And remember these acts are handpicked so even if you’re chosen in Sweden you might not get to L.A.

Then what the odds to be chosen. The press coverage told us that 200 000 artists are in the program. Witch slims things quite much. It's like being signed to a record label. They also has 100 other artists and when you are new signed not much attention will be held on you. And if it is a major they might world vide has 10 000 artists. So you need someone to guide you to be able to do the process inside Red Bull or a record label. 

Who will guide you? Here in Sweden it will be the industry veterans Babak Azarmi and Johanna Beckman. Who? Says all my international readers. We in Sweden might recognize their name. Well at least I do. But to be honest that is just because I have seen their shitty jobs before.

I have seen artists they have worked with on international showcase stages and one thing is in common. Someone did a really bad job and don't have the international connections needed to do it right. Silvana Imam on SXSW is a legendary example how you not should introduce and artist to a market or the international world. And really none of their artists has any international career to talk about. So have these people to lead your way in this platform where you also need outside things. I'm not betting on that horse.

Yes I’m mean. Actually I think though both of them has done a MUCH greater job then the Swedish record labels that is way more in disaster. Still they are not any heavy weightier in the international field. 

So when Red Bull says they want to be a new thing for artists. Is just the same old bullshit that the record labels presents, just with another brand.

Todays artist Jeremiah

Everyday I try to introduce a new artist (or old). I get so much good music in my system and I can't react on all. Still it is nice to share music so other also can find it out.

Today is Jeremiah. Yes it's one my own bands. Still they deserve to have a bigger audience.

You got what you pay for

I’m really fascinated by people that spends so much time and effort to write songs. Then put so much effort and time to record it to in the end just waste the whole thing for a couple of dollars?

To be honest the whole thing is that you could probably spend less time record, less time writing songs and put that time on PR and actually get out more of it. Still people do the opposite. I just saw one of these. To save a couple of bucks they just took whatever was important for them so they choose Spotify, Deezer, Google and Itunes. Should be enough?

Not really they miss all money from Youtube, also money from RDio, Pandora and many more. Just to save around 20 bucks. It’s like renting a stage full equipped with lights musicians. But take off the cost for electricity and posters. It would be a show but few will turn up and the potential is wasted.

Also in this case they tried to get more money out of the release by not having it online, just as a CD and now they release the album in the middle of the summer on just a few sites?

Is just a shame that they do things like this. I know I will bump into them later and they will complain that well music doesn’t pay off and all this effort they put into this music. The thing is just that they saved a couple of bucks on the wrong spot. Like so many other artist/labels do.

Todays Artist The Misfits

Everyday I try to introduce a new artist (or old). I get so much good music in my system and I can't react on all. Still it is nice to share music so other also can find it out.

Todyas artist is not so unknown The Misfits. This is the band that brought me into the music industry.

Back in the office

Well yes i'm back after a shorter vacation ( well vaction, I answerd the phone a bit less then usual). We are heading in a fast thing against Live at Herat with is my strating point for my intrenational work. It will be intresting things that is going on here.

No more mr nice guy.

Well I been thinking of it for a while now. I help quite many people in the music industry in Sweden with contacts and network. But every time I would get something back they just forget I’m there. Really sick tired of it. So when I get back in the office tomorrow we are start to change it all. No more favors, we will just work for our artists.

I have started to do this over the summer. When showcases called out and asked for Swedish band. I just took my own band. And if they asked about others I just told them to skip them. No send outs about the festivals, nothing. And I will stop doing jobs also for people that just want things out of our network and then just forget us. Let’s play hardball Sweden. 

What the fuck booking agencys.

I just saw a email from a booking company (big one) that actually has acts (that really no one has heard of) that dont have more then 30 minutes to show. So the showcase has to be shorter then 30 minutes. For fuck sake what is this.

Yes i have been wondering what the booking agencys actually achive these days. The word seems to be NOTHING. The bands i have myself on booking agencys im really consider to withdrawn. Today (at least in sweden)  these companies is totally useless, all of them. They would probably fuck up to book a simple thing like U2.

Its no wonder that kids today seeks music outside the live venues. The traditionell live scene is really dying.

Well artists you really dont need a booking agency.