Better do things than make one thing perfect!

I get a lot of shit for moving forward with things. People want to wait for the perfect moment and perfect timing to get the most out of it. Sorry, there is not a such a moment. I have seen too many waits for that moment to never find it and lose the momentum.

Here is though a difference if you don't have all your things ready. That is is not what I'm talking about. If you don't have the song recorded don't go out and release it. No, what I'm talking about is when you wait to do gigs until the record is recorded since you are waiting for the recording to be done. Or taking new promo pictures since the clothes are not ready. If you can take two sets of picture move ahead. It's always better to do something than doing nothing and just wait.

If you are in a  position that the things you are working all stands still for different reasons, you just create a new project to make things go forward. Yes, you will get shit like me still you will get things done.

Write new stuff, all the time.

This maybe should not come as a surprise that you have to write new stuff all the time. But it seems like a surprise every time I take it up with artists. Most that work with things want to have the next single before they release the one you just did. In reality, you have to be around 3 to 4 singles ahead. When you come to the really big companies where it takes a longer time you have to be an album ahead.

Yes, I know that you want to get your latest masterpiece on your Facebook feed, but think they you have to be three steps ahead. So now when I hope you have some clam time during X-mas sit down and write a couple of tunes that you can present in January to get them out in April/May.

The excuses that I also hear is massive. we don't have time since we are updating the social media and taking new pictures and my grandma has her birthday and you have to open all your x-ms presents. There really are no excuses, that only show you are not focused enough. I guess the new business is not a place for drugs and rock'n'roll. The pressure is higher than ever so be prepared for the surprise to have new songs always and always write new stuff.

Happy X-mas

We are close to x-mas eve. This short notice is just to say Merry Christmas and during the holiday I hope to update with some longer episodes of the V-log and other stuff. We are also in full production of the yearly recap, this year will be over the top of everything.

Just because you can play a solo make you great!

There is a proverb saying "A man can say horse in nine languages but when he wants to ride he buys a cow". This I use very often in the music industry. You bump into too many people that think music is how fast or good you play an instrument. That is just a small part of the education of making a  successful living as a musician. More people listen actually on Crazy Frog then Steve Vai, and you know what, Crazy Frog is actually more music than Steve Vai.

I sometimes have meetings with many different genres when I'm working with political decisions inside the music industry (i'm on some advisory boards for different kind of government funding and stuff). What always annoys me is that some genres think they are better than others. Jazz is a good example (there are more to like classic, art music and a couple of others). They still think that it is a show seeing someone jamming off on some theme. And many times demands to special treated. To be honest, again, some of the worst shows in my life has been jazz shows. Music has to do with so much more than just a 30 minutes solo, like making a good song which seems very hard for the jazz people. Also doing a  show out of the stuff seems hard to them. No, it's not good seeing some old dude in a suite sprung out from Miami Vice jerking off a guitar. If you think that is a show you never have seen Rammstein.

When people then come into our office and we listen to a crappy song and they in a dream vision tells me that the bass solo is so great I just stop listening. It's like claiming that that raisin in a pile of poo is edible because the raisin actually tastes good. Even if you took the raisin out it will have poo stains on it and eating the whole pile just to get that raisin is even worse.

I just hate when people suggest that you should work with someone because they are good on the instrument. If they can't write a good song, there is no point. You can always learn to be better to play the instrument, but writing songs you need talent. So a talented songwriter can be good on an instrument, but a person good on the instrument is very unlikely to be skilled to train to write good songs.

I guess it's this that also makes these people thinking that they are better than the other since the can do the scale up and down. That is their only defense. I rather take The Ramones before Yngwie Malmsteen at any day.

Here is Rammstein from Madison Square Garden and yes I was the audience on this legendary show.

Puppies!

Today I was off work looking on some puppies after our office dog Tjabo.

Staaph you stupid idiots!

I got a CD in my snail mail. The first reaction was WTF a CD not seen that in a while! The second reaction, WHY?  Open the letter and got even more confused. For fuck sake why do such a lousy job! I hate to really hang out people, but in this case, I will do it. Mainly since I need to show it with pictures and then you can see who it is anyways. Also because this is so stupid that is to the line of funny. So here is what I got.

First, see that the CD is wrapped (in plastic).

So it's wrapped. As you can see there is no EAN code (barcode the thing you scan in shops). This is a classic rookie mistake. If you got the slightest chance to get into some real distribution network, not having a barcode/EAN is sure way that it will never happen.

Then we go to the letter. Right now I really don't know why I get this CD? It's in Swedish so I have to translate.

Gravejuice Entertainment Company is happy and proud to present Craterface new release, Hawaiian Hocus Pocus.

Very protective of their artistic freedom, their integrity, and extreme cheeking needs. Craterface delivers their own evolution of punk music. The result this time is fourteen hard evidence that punk is not dead or fossilized.

For more information about Craterface and Hawaiian Hocus Pocus contact: their email.

That is it. Then they have done like a classic sales note written Artist, Record number, Label and Barcode.

Yes, you read right. The rookies have a barcode. They have put it in the letter. Well, they have put it there in the graphic so small that you can't use it, and also in RGB color not monochrome. That is beyond rookie mistake.

So back to the letter. I wondered what they wanted. And after the letter, I really don't know. Doesn't say a what they want. Do they want me to sign it, distribute it, publishing it? Well, it's already printed which is not good then we can't get our logo on it. But is it released? It doesn't say any date? Well, let's check Spotify.

And in the bottom yes it's released 2017. The confusing part is that they already have new single out. But wait, if you go into the single that is released (and is not on the CD) you can easily see that is released by another company. My professional guess is that there are several bands in the world calling themselves Craterface. Which makes the whole thing Donald Trump stupid. The best part is that none of the bands has claimed the account. Also, one funny thing is that they all have 282 listeners a month and that NONE of the album songs is on the top 10 popular even though most of them have under 1000 listenings.

What is more amazing is that in the letter it clearly says that GEC is the label. Well on Spotify it says 746086 Records DK. A bit uncertain who really is the master owner.

Well, let' go back to the letter again. So they are very protective about their artistry and integrity. Well, their band name doesn't seem so protected. Then the thing around their artistry. Produce the worst sales letter this side of 1998 is not punk. Then give it out on multinational platforms, not so punk. To do a CD is really not punk any longer that is what old people do. Okay, Vinyl is still somehow a bit punk, but a CD hell no especially not with a digital form to it. Punk's not dead It just deserves to die sang Dead Kennedys and with these pinheads that are just shitting on old fine punk traditions, Jello Biafra is totally right.

So let's check the quality of the CD.

Yes, it's burned, there are no markings. So they have spent a great bunch of money to print this Digifile and then burned the product itself. Then you turn around the CD.

Yes, they have written out the copyright act on it. Now you are really pissing on the punk scene you damn bozo. The punks where against all that shit ya know! :)

Okay, all these errors and I have not listened to the music yet. I could guess their thing was that someone would write about it? They managed to do that! I mean all publicity is good publicity. But no! People that say they are punk and think they belong to something that they don't know a shit about, should not be listened to.

The whole thing makes the characters in Dumb and Dumber to be Harvard top students. At least they gave me a nice topic to write about. I don't really know what they want. Still, I won't listen to it. Why you might ask? With all these mistakes on just this release, there is no way to work with it. It would be a minefield of issues.So say hello to the final destination.

 So a lesson learned, you are better off sending us a link and a message what you want us to do for you.

What record labels seeks nowadays.

We just open our demo submissions. Yes, we already got a lot of submissions. The interesting part is that there are more and more record labels that seek out our services. It is the opposite around.  Before it was the manager's job to seek out a record label that could provide for the PR and the development of the act. It was the A&R that had this on the desk to provide the movement of the artist, at least twenty years ago.

The industry has been pretty unclear the past ten years who is doing what in the new digital landscape. Also, it has been quite unclear what the tasks really is in the digital landscape. We have seen many companies jumping into different roles, publishers become distributors, record labels becomes publishers, booking agencies becomes 360 deals, managers become distributors.

What I see as the main thing right now is to have a person that takes the task forward. In many cases whatever the company is they just wait for someone else to bring in things that take the artist forward at the same time, they are trying to hold on to as many rights as possible. Of course, that is impossible since no one is working for free if you don't stand a chance to get your investment back then nothing will happen. No one will do nothing and all comes to a standstill.

It's rather unimportant who is doing the job as long as new opportunities come to the table in a steady stream. That is why a record deal or a publishing deal or even a booking deal is kind of nothing. In reality, it can just be a friend bringing in opportunities from a good network that could be the solution.

These people that I call the Doers are the most important people. And a person that works really good for one artist might suck helping another artist since the focus is in another direction. To become really successful you probably need three to four Doers that are working with 100% focus on your project. That is a tough task to get going I tell you that.

I guess the new Doer is artist development companies. And yes we are one of the first to call ourselves this. Just check in a couple of years and will have a lot of followers. The trick will be though if they can bring the stuff to the table.

Well if you want to work with Musichelp here is the link to send in stuff.
http://musichelp.se/send-music/

Time to fire people.

It happens from time to time in a career when you need to fire people. They have been good, or actually never been good, but it's not working out for the moment. It's part of the process.

It's a necessary evil to do it. Here I can see that you keep the bad parts too long. I will say that I do the same many times. Keep a thing that doesn't work just for sentimental reasons or the thing of being afraid to take the conflict.

I guess there is no easy way to do it. Still, it has to be done to get the project forward.

Now we are soon entering a new year and into the new year it will changes. And it's time to change the teams again.

Why not choose the best?

It's kind of obvious. If I buy a guitar I will not be a guitarist. I won't after seen some tutorial videos on youtube play like Steve Vai. Not even if I got Steve Vais guitar I will play like him.

Same with golf clubs. No, I won't beat Tiger Wood in a golf match just because I have his clubs and he will have my olf shit of clubs that stands in the garage. And no one would ever think this way. Except..

If someone is buying a system camera suddenly they are a photographer.

The artist spends hours to learn to play the guitar. Hours of writing the song and modify it to be perfect. Spends money to record it. When it comes to the picture on it they just seek some average joe with a system camera. When the picture is not that good, well then we do some artsy fartsy stuff in photoshop and we got a decent picture. Why is that? You would never just take an average person to play the guitar on the recording, would you?

Even worse, when they can't handle the colors and try to escape by doing the picture black and white, and now it soooooo good. No that is like taking the average guitar guy record the first solo that comes out of the guitar and hook on an echo on it and it's soooo good.

Since I been working in both field I really know the difference. With pictures, I really do know more than an average artist. When it comes to the end I'm the one who is gonna work with this picture in media and social media. A bad picture is as bad as a bad guitar solo.

A real photographer works with shadows and lights it has very little with the camera to do if they are good. In fact, the really good ones can use a cellphone and still makes it good. Same with a really good guitarist, it's not so much what guitar instead how you play it.

This is an error many do with their cover pictures and presspictures. And it shows. I know that it's more likely that you get results with a range of pictures that the journalist/blogger can choose from. Yes, you will get more space on the poster of the festival with good color pictures. No, it's not good that you can't see you face as you are too far away in the picture. It's really easy.

And last no you can't fix a song with some reverb, neither you can fix a bad photo in photoshop.

Vlog 13 of December

Vlog 13 of December, Peter talks about a new job, new releases with Adée, Northlight, The Magnettes, Elin K and two new projects are revealed.

Kry - Ett Ljus


And her you find the Youtube channel

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/peter.astedt

Twitter: @peterastedt

Instagram: @peterastedt

Musichelp
http://www.musichelp.se

Are you doing other peoples work?

In many cases, one thing is very good to know who is doing what not just collect titles of people. One of these people was brought up on a meeting I had with a record label this week. The label had been forced to work that usually a booking agency or a manager usually do. Kind of a lot of work was done outside the field of giving out music which was the record label responsibility. They mainly did it since no one else was doing it and it was the only way to get the artist forward.

Suddenly the artist came in with a manager that he had found at a show. This manager was not the best that this record label had in mind. Still sure then it's the manager who should do the things. So they start cutting off things that were the manager's job. Then the artist came around and started to complain that the record label wasn't doing the things they used to do. They explained that he needed to get that with his manager since that was now his job. The artist went back to the manager, and of course, the manager hadn't the experience to do the simple tasks that are demanded of him. In the end, the artist didn't get anything done from any of the parts.

Even worse is the people that think that they have can have two doing the same tasks and thinks they would get 200%.  Like having two labels giving out different projects and try to grow with both.

many also get utterly disappointed when they change labels or management and get less service since the old part was covering up things.

In many cases people do more work then they should, you have to be sure what work you can replace or get more out of. So be aware to check what people do, don't just assume things are getting done.

A advice, don't let anyone tell you what to do.

No, it's not what you think, that I will give you the advice to go your own way. Artists that actually go their own way discarding the advice doesn't go that far.

This is about all the advice that people like me give you online. Most of them actually have an agenda and the advice might not fit what you are about to do how good they seem to be when you read them. Right now I have bumped into several artists that are information junkies. They read all they can come over to make everything right when they should release music or take the "next" step in their career. In the end, they mix a lot of the advices and it's like ending up mixing ice cream with ketchup. Both are good but not mixed together. Also, they are focusing on the small tweaks instead of the big elephant in the room.

Same with lawyers, they are there to give you advice. The problem that they seldom know what their advice could lead to. If you negotiate a contract it will be good for you but uninteresting for the counterpart. Many times this advice can destroy a career rather get it forward. In many situations this contract where a lawyer said this and that and I did what I felt for, I went the right way. Today I got a really big paycheck that many gave me advice not to. Still, I knew what I was doing and as long I didn't write off to many rights or any important rights it was a great deal. And the proof now four years later.

Take also the advice of people that are out there in the industry. I just heard one of the dumbest advice from a lawyer. The advice was built on old stuff that was in the industry years ago, for example, give out a CD and don't release it digitally until six months later. Of course, this lawyer is not out in the reality. He is still thinking that Midem is the meeting point for the industry. Just that says that he is not in the position to give any advice.

The worst advice usually comes from other artists. In these things, it's more like blind leading blind. In so many ways an artist career has been smashed into pieces for a bad advice from another musician. A career is never like another career but the mistakes are usually the same.

So who should I trust? You can't you should what feels right and collect people you like to work with you and go from there.

The 6 tip off how to make a release.

It's Friday so I thought I would give this kind of a tip-off how to release. This is actually things that are really basic but it seems like quite many don't know them.

I will take a real example that I have been following just because they seem to do all errors that you can do.

It started with that a friend of mine tipped the artist off to seek us out to release their new single. It's their first single, but they have been artists for awhile so they're not new to releasing music.

They send me the whole album, asking me what would be the single, even though themselves like a particular song the most. First of all, they just asked for distribution but they opened up with a question like I would be there record label. There is no chance I will sit down and listen to a whole album of an artist that just is on distribution. Sure if I have a deeper relationship with a record deal or a publishing deal I would, but not like that. Of course, this had to wait I can't just drop everything to listen to an unfinished album to pick a single.

Then came next mistake 48 hours later they sent a message asking if I had listened to the songs and maybe we could do a co-operation to release it. I didn't come around to answer that mail. And just the next day they send a third email talking about how they would master the song they thought would be the single. And it would a professional mastering, done abroad in a famous studio, their problem was that if they master this then their other single that was mastered in Sweden wouldn't be really the same and confuse people soundwise. For me, that is really a non-problem, that just made me think they were one of those technical people that can rant around how the recording was done.

Already here they had burned their bridges. I just saw that I would have my whole damn mail filled with questions  if I worked with these people. They took decisions even waiting for the answer to the question they sought out.

Then my friend called me and in the conversation, he asked if I had the chance to listen to them. I explained the situation and just to do my friend a favor I would drop all my stuff and just listen to them over the weekend. He promised me that they where nice people.

I took a look at the thing and saw direct that half the songs were in English half was Swedish. The funny part they were debating that the different masterings would confuse their audience. Well, this is REALLY confusing people. In reality, an English song has a totally different PR strategy than a song in Swedish. No mastering in the world can change that. Then I just listen to the whole album. To tell the truth after three songs I was so damn bored. Sure like my buddy told me they were really good playing their instruments and the singer had a really good voice. Their songwriting skills were like as bad as their where good playing. And for a company like mine, I rather had bad musicians writing good songs. Good musicians are kind of easy to get, good songwriters are the hard part.
I went through their social media while listening, which was really none even though this project has been going on for three years at least. Then I saw one of them just got a baby like two weeks before that. This really means that this project really doesn't have the time to get off. Just got the first child and do a pop career? That takes a really special person to put that off.

I wrote back a mail to them asking some other questions like what was their plans for this release? I got answers back a day later. These answers became the blog post "If you give me this, I will work with you". They wrote back that they wanted a release like three weeks later. No plans whatsoever of how to promote it. They thought that we as distributors or publishers could do the PR. Of course, they wanted to get out and play it's just that they had spent time in the studio to get a perfect recording. But no gigs was set.Then, in the end, they started to chatter again around the mastering if that would confuse the listeners if one was done in a pro studio and the other not.

I just got really tired. Nothing was really right. This was a hobby project trying to be proffessional. So I just told them I was not interested. I still get their facebook posts and since I have been scouting around it I follow them and just see mistake after mistake.

They wanted to release in September. One of the questions I had was why the hurry. Well, they needed to get out before the autumn because.... It was a thing in their head it was no particular reason. Now late December when the Xmas music has taken over and most press are in for nominations for the best songs of the year they released it. I guess it wasn't that important after all.

1. My first tip-off. even if you are delayed, to find a good time there is a good reason to delay the release little bit more. In this case, it's just weeks until next year and already have delayed it for a couple of months. No one is really waiting for you to release something new. Just release it in january.

I wrote in the top how there had been really no social media activity around the artist when they had spent a year in the studio. Why I remember them is because, my friend asked me to like their page. And I really not just take things off so I got their social media in my feed. This is also the reason why Facebooks likes is not countble as one person liking the band.
They went from no social media to nagging about their single release in the whole of November. On top of that they released three posts on the 4 the of November, two posts on 10 of November and so on. In week they released several posts on the smae days. Also, they sponsored a lot these posts.

2 Tip-off. You can't do that in social media. You have to post other stuff otherwise people like me get really tired of you single and won't listen to it. Also, what's the point of knowing that you release it if I can't listen to it so don't sponsor those posts? Use the sponsor posts when I can get in and listen and you can get money for it. Sure the superfans would like to know but they will get it with a normal post. And please don't just tell about the new single add some other stuff in your feed.

Then the mistake comes that really only an amateur is doing. They release the song on a Saturday. The official release day is Friday worldwide. All reviews all the playlists and all media things are built around that you release on a Friday. Release on another day and not having a really good reason is wast of time. Not releasing on a Friday usually shows that there is no real PR behind it.

3. Tip-off. Release on a Friday.

The PR is also another story. This artist does the same mistakes as many artists do just depend on Facebook and sponsor some damn posts. Sorry but facebook don't really work that way and is not in a long way enough efficiant. I just check with our artist on googel what happend around the release and nothing really nothing is written or said around it. I guess the PR was just on Facebook.

But it could have been worse. It could have been that they released their video on the same day as the single release. Spread out your post so doing that is just waisting the video.

4 Tip-off, spread out the releases so you don't have to create more content than needed, and don't kill content with releasing on the same day.

Now they wait a week to release the video on next Friday.

5. So my next Tip-off, don't release a video on a Friday since that is the official day of releasing songs the video will drown since it's already released as a song.

Then they, of course, released their homepage the day before the release day. First thing when you release something. Have your shit together. Yes, you need to have press pictures ready (nope our artist doesn't have high res pictures on their new homepage). Have it also updated with a bio (our artist have written coming soon on the homepage during a release!). Also good if you did a funnel page to pick up traffic from Facebook if you keep paying for posts there.

6. Tip-off having your shit together. Yes, have press picture ready for any PR is done. Update your socials around a months before the release and use the different things a new content. have an updated bio. And try to have some live shows booked. The homepage and its content have been done before you have any PR done. and look so everything works no dead links.

Oh yes, the live shows. Here many bands just fuck up. They are to focus on the release and forget the most important to get out to the audience. And no not just a release gig in your local pub. I mean you spend money on the recording you should spend some time to at least have around three gig in the closest month after the gig.

This is just the damn basics. After this, it's a 100 more things you really have to get going. and if you can't fix this, well don't even think of releasing music. Then you can just release for fun like you do on Soundcloud it will be enough.

This really makes me cringe!

It's great that artist goes and do charity things and support a  good cause. What makes me cringe is when this good cause is more for the artist PR then it is for the cause.

Like when an artist wants to help refugees from Syria. Great do it! But when they seek out money to make a CD and promote so people get up their eyes around the problem and starts to give money to organizations that help refugees. I guess it would just be easier to give money directly to these organizations by telling people to do it, no take a detour sponsoring the album.

Yes, Band-Aid was a success. Still, they gave something, part of their celebrity and probably record for free, and yes they also gained PR from it and helped people understand. But if you did Band-Aid with a bunch of nobodies from a small town in Sweden that actually wants to get paid to do it I totally cringe at it.

And I see this quite often, a small artist thinking that they help but in reality just want a story and more or less shadow the cause because of their own cause.

One of my old artists made a post the other day, lashing out at Black Friday that people are spending the ridicolous amount of money on the thing they really don't need, and that is destroying the environment. At the same time, he gave out a vinyl of his latest record even though there is no tour and no stores taking it in, just for the cause that he wanted to have his music on vinyl.

I see a lot of the cringy things.

Vlog 6 of December, Jeevs gives information. Finnish americana and more.

Peter try to talk Finnish. Jeeves takes to information society to a new level. And when are you drinking? It's the Vlog again.

Jannes new song

And her you find the Youtube channel

It's like putting makeup on a pig!

I just saw a video from an artist that my friend is handling. It was an okay video or tell the whole truth, in reality, a very boring video. I know they spent a hell of a lot of money in this video. The problem is that the artist wants to be a lot of indie. They rent hell of a lot of equipment a good director and people around it. In reality, they could have done a good video with really great shots. The artist wanted a dark video like some Susann Osten vibe ( a famous Swedish director that really can't film, more like a 10-year-old with a video camera ).

It's more like the artist really don't want it to be good because if it is good someone could critic the video. Now the artist can face the critic with that that people don't understand the real message because it is artsy fartsy.

In reality, there really is no message. It's just lousy pictures done with a hell of a crew. In reality, it actually could have been shot with a cellphone. No blame on the director she tried but was forced to do this crappy shit because the artist wanted it.

I asked my friend why he let it go through? He wasn't satisfied either. He answered that it was like the artist was afraid of success and kept smashing good things to pieces. Same with songs the artist took the songs that the record label didn't vote for, and used the ones that no one really liked. And of course, the PR team hated the video still it has to be released since they spend so much money on it.

It is like putting makeup on a pig! was his word around how the PR team would try to get this to a decent audience.

I guess success can be scary.

I need the doer not the person looking for the doer.

If you meet different persons in the music industry most of them actually sell the service to find the person that will do the service. For example, most bands look for the manger that can fix most of their things. Most managers are mainly going to others to do the things. Yes, you can't do everything yourself so it is correct in a way.

But now I have found a lot of persons that actually just take money to find other persons. Like I can fix you a record deal! And then they find a record company charge for the find and then their job is done. The problem here is that these deals really don't work. They're a meant to fail.Both because the record label thinks this manger would do some job. The artist thinks the record label will fix everything, which they won't do.

Mainly because what the artists think they are paying for is the person that should fix everything, what they get is just a random company that says yes.

I also bump into many people that say that they can get stuff or do this, but as soon you start working with them you see fast that no they are talking to someone else that is actually operating the things you order.

I really want the doer. The person that gets things done and not push it away to another service. Those you should be careful and take care of. They are a very rare to find.

Doesn't matter with contacts if you don't have the story.

I just got one of these emails from different companies that distributes lists to various things like record labels, bloggers, radio stations and so on. The problem with these lists is that it's just a list. It's handy if you don't want to spend time going around on the internet to find the info there (yes all these lists contain is info that is online).

The reality is that you need the background information around an address to understand how you should approach them. Just take a list and send out a generic mail to everyone will not get you anywhere. I do that sometimes and the results are very slim.

I just help one of my bands secure a video premiere. Sure they have some highlights, but not that many they just started. But with my knowledge, I know that there is around 3 or 4 that actually would premiere the video. So I send in total 8 emails and used a submission service (yes I paid a small amount to get in front of the queue) and got 6 answers back a premier and a blog post for the cost of 6 dollars.

The trick was that I knew what was interesting for these blogs. I have been on their site looking what it looks like and have checked out how they wanted material and what kind of links and info they needed. Did I need a list for that, not really! I know which ones that people count as good and have a reasonable amount of readers. But the big part was that I knew what was making them tick.

Even if you buy the list of 3000 bloggers you have to get through 3000 pages, and if you do that well then you can skip the list you will do the work anyway.

Most of the time also why these list doesn't work is mainly since the material you send in doesn't have a story. Of course, if you put in Imagine Dragons new single to 3000 blogs asking them to write, you will get a lot of answers. Mainly because Imagine Dragons have a great story and many of the readers want to read about new music from them. Still, if you had the premiere of Imagine Dragons you can contact much better sites to have a premiere with.

Most hope that their good music would fix the problem with the story. But it's not, there is too much good music out there so there will be that you look for the story first. So here comes the chicken and the egg. You need a story to get your music out, but you cant get the story since you don't have one and it's here you need to professionals, they have favors and trusts from the first ones to start building. That is hard for a new artist to replace.

In 99% is that your music sucks.

No, there is no one acting like a wall to reach A&R:s. In the 80:s yes, now no you can find them easily online. No, it's not really hard right now in the business. In the 90.s, there were multi-billion companies actually stopping you on a very low level, that is gone today.

Sure it's not easy to affect Spotify or Google. But they have services that actually let you speak to an audience.

So when artists, producers, songwriters complain how hard it is to get through its ridiculous. Sure it's hard it's always hard to get something out to an audience and that is with everything. Starting a new restaurant, yes it will be hard. Become a youtube star on a channel, yes it's hard. Making a movie is hard. If it was easy everyone would do it.

In reality, the key factor is that what you are making is crap. It doesn't make a difference if you manage to land it in the knee of an influential person. It's still just crap in that person's lap as in your lap.

It's not easy for the people that make great music either. But it usually finds it's way out. the Beatles got a no, Supertramp got a no and Madonna as well. And even without the people that actually took them out there, they would have found a way out. Because what they did was interesting and good, none of them had survived with crappy music.

So why is not the industry telling you when your music is crap? For many reasons, you might do crappy music right now but over the years get better and make excellent songs. So telling you to know that you suck can be contra productive. Also, we don't want to be assholes and tell people bad news.

Since I see all the things that we get presented with I can easily tell you that 99.99% is crap with undeveloped acts. The reason you don't get an answer from many of us or just a thank you for sending is that your music is not in the quality we search for. So instead of being offended, get back up there do new stuff and present it again until you have a product that actually works.

Vlog 29 of Nov, Roast Eurovison.

Peter talks about the new x-mas single by Sofia Vivere and the new video with Northlight. Then Peter goes apeflip bananas and roast all artists in Eurovision Sweden 2018. Saying more F-word then Eddie Murphy Raw.

See the Youtube channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYfz4UA4Y_AodN7pwhL2jXQ

Sofias X-mas song
https://open.spotify.com/album/1nWxi9ZjtOsyWmgu9emjRd

Northlight - Everlasting Sun
https://youtu.be/G0Ijs7feQ_o

Take the world by storm!

Take the world by storm...or not. Sometimes I just see the layers this industry is really in. I just listen to a speech that a friend is doing. He was talking about a pretty unknown hard rock band like they were going somewhere. In reality, they are heading nowhere so far. Still, in his eyes, they really are heading somewhere. They got a record deal they have a manager and in my friend's world that is something and a good way to go somewhere.

Then you have the world. I meet another band really going small steps and going into Europe. They were more unsure if everything would stick together. How long would it take until they become famous? And what is famous? Here I thought they were going somewhere. But they were not sure themselves. They have everything settled like record labels, publishers, bookers and a reputation.

I meet a label person on a big label in USA also. For him, none of these bands really existed. For him, Cigarettes after sex (Indie band) was on the rise. Actually, Skott was maybe on the rise but not enough. The steps I thought was ongoing was nothing here. The perspectives of what is going somewhere are really in the eye of the beholder.

But in certain genres, they are very low and other very high.

I need to get paid.

Yes, we all do need to get paid for our work. The problem is when you expect that payment or have to invest to get out something later.

If you open up a business you have to market it. So we go back to my restaurant that I always talk about that I should open if I wasn't in the music industry. Of course, no one will know my restaurant if just open it. I need to advertise. Part of that advertising is probably to invite some food critics to a free meal. Yes, i will lose on that. I won't get paid for these free meals. In the end, though I will faster get people who are paying to my restaurant through their reviews. So I have to take a choice here start making money direct and take a long time before I have a sufficient customer base to get the money out. Or a faster way to give something away for free to bring in the money. Both ways have their faults. Give away food and I might recoupe it, but aren't sure. The long way the fault it might take so much time that I never get any salary to it.

Of course, I can't run the restaurant by my self. I need waiting staff and chefs. Of course, I need to pay these. If I do it the long run I really can't bay the full. The shorter way I can ask them to stay to hang on to my idea to get better pay if the diners come.

Imagine then that I will have a chef that suddenly one day just go over to Mc Donalds and work there for a day flipping burgers, claiming yes I need the money. I don't think flipping burgers is fun, your restaurant is better but I need the money.

Do you really keep that chef? Okay, he contributes to your restaurant but is not willing to sacrifice something to get something bigger.

This dilemma I see a lot of solo artists going on showcases. Suddenly they have to pay for the musicians because they are professionals to pay a free gig at a showcase festival. Problem is usually that if they would do it for free they rather take a boring gig on a cover band just because it brings money to the table. At the same time doing one showcase festival won't work, you have to do several.

The main thing is that these artists actually never make it. They expect payment to early. Usually, they try to get paid gigs to meet up for the free festival. Problem is that most of the money still even with paid gigs go to the pros and they just go where the money is. And you can't get good paid gigs until you have a name that draws an audience. In the end, it's a losing game.

Yes, you have a  really good band. But they cost too much and that is stopping you to advertise your product. On the other hand you pay what you get. If you have pro people they can charge money for their work. With less good people your product might not shine that much.

The thing here is usually that the solo artist wants themselves to shine and hiring well-paid musicians is mainly to cover up for their own mistakes musically. so the question comes down to do you really have to have these good people or can you build something up with rehearsal more?

What are Musichelp looking for!

We open up for submissions again. Which is always fun. But instead of writing stuff on the homepage around everything, they asked me to go through it here on the blog since the info could be good for other purposes.

Many think it's just about a good song. Yes, you need a good song, it won't work with a bad song. The truth is that is very many good songs out there and then the story becomes the main focus.

We need a good song and a good story around the artist. What is a good story?

This is kind of tricky. No, it won't just be that this song is something that people feel passionate about. It usually circles around the artists themselves. Everybody has them you just have to present them in a good way. No, I don't care who is playing in the band. In the truth, we want to know the nearest future. Where are you heading is there any bigger stuff coming up. Here is a blog post about artist branding.

Then you say, is not that your job. No, we are looking for artists that are working hard. We are not a developing company that builds up One Direction, Spice Girls, Backstreetsteet Boys band. Still, it has to have some momentum to it. We don't expect that you have played the biggest arena but have done ten gigs is kind of a must. If you just are a studio artist that looks to get more numbers on Spotify, we are not that kind of company. We are the company that builds artist using several platforms, both live, recordings and placements.

Also, send songs that are unreleased. here is a kind of long blog post explaining why.

Think kind of like a job interview. Not for you (yes we get demos with full CV.s of the band's members, fun but not useful), for the band. Like what is your career highlights, what is your goals.Yes, this might be your future job. Our goal is to have a long working relationship with our artists so yes we test our artists as well. If you only see your music as a hobby, we are not the right company for you.

And never apologize or be to cooky. And in the end, yes we are a hit company so if your genre is very odd we probably are not right for it. Think what is played on commercial radio.

Here you go back to Musichelps submission page.

Equal with a agenda.

Yes, I would have been on a course on the get more women into the music industry. And I agree it's needed. But I also disagree with a lot what is going on and many of the people that act like saints in this matter is very often working on a hidden agenda.

A couple of years ago there was a very high police officer in Sweden that worked a lot to get women into the Swedish police force and getting it more equal. Because of that, he got the nickname "Captain Dress". A couple of years ago Captain Dress was arrested for buying prostitutes and underage girls and got fired and went to jail.

Okay, that is a really tough one but I see the same pattern right now in the music industry. Many of the men that go for equality actually are stopping women to get in on higher positions. Even worse I saw one guy who I know is a real creep going out with empty phrases about men should give spaces to women and so on. The funny part is that his office is just men, and we had trouble with him hitting on girls during a tour even though he is married.

Still, everybody thinks he is a good guy. And just a couple of days ago I said no to work with his organization and my friend who had suggested them to seek me out was very confused. The problem is that I really can't tell the whole story to my friend, I just have to say that I felt uneasy about that organization.

Well, there is more to this equalization that I'm starting to feel uneasy about. I get back on it soon.

Either you curate a festival or you follow!

A problem I see right now is the hype of a lot of things. Many festivals are mainly following different hypes of bands that will never last instead of presenting things that they would take a chance on but still be confident that their audience would like.

A very good example of this was NoNoNo. A totally overhyped band that a festival with no knowledge actually would book. The band broke through a campaign in just part of USA getting some radio airplay. That lead to a frenzy with the labels and bidding war. Then when the winning label saw what they had signed they immediately took off all spending on that band. So it was already from the start a hype thing.

The problem with the festivals is that they are not in this world. So they started to book this band. And to tell the truth the whole thing smelled bad, the live show sucked and they were famous for one song. I even warned some festivals to not take them in considering there was no backup moneywise. Several festivals went on the minefield that the band canceled gigs since they couldn't afford to get there. Second several festivals got the band but the audience lacked out and they were not happy with it.

Right now I usually check if the festival had NoNoNo on the bill. Then I know if they have a curated program or just follow the latest trend of crap bands that are presented by bigger labels.

Vlog 22 of November about Playlisting and distribution and what you really seek.

Vlog about being on playlists the number madness and why distributors won't help you get on there. What you as an artist really should seek out. Hint, where you upload your music, is not gonna help.

 You can also follow my Youtube Channel to just get the Vlogs.

Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYfz4UA4Y_AodN7pwhL2jXQ

I guess the swedish music wonder is over!

In Sweden, we always tell people that it's so good when we go abroad with artists that the audience abroad trusts that we come with good quality music. And it¨s true they do. Still, the past year's devaluation of the companies and the fire of very good people with knowledge starts to show in the international arena. Really the band's people are talking about its still The Knife, Jose Gonzales and Tallest man on earth. Not really any new artists. The artist we have produced right now like Zara Larsson , Avicii and Swedish House Mafia are mainly products of big companies abroad and the artist is more kettle then artists. And the lifespan of these artists is very limited, as you can see with Avicci and Swedish House Mafia.

I just went through around a hundred festivals in Europe and really, not many Swedish artists are one there. The past three years has been very empty. I guess there is no growth with new Swedish artists that are genuine and not relying on fake numbers on Spotify like Zara Larsson has done. The need for a real band with real music and a real show is needed to bring back the Swedish music wonder.

And also visionaries, the Swedish industry is lacking people that take risks. Instead, they sit in front of computers try to make a formula to get artists out without any risk. It won't happen and if we continue like this Sweden will be as fun as Latvia in music.

The rules of bad companies

I guess one of the things that you get a feeling for when you work in the business is witch companies that really are not genuine. I have seen many attempts to build lists of companies that are not really correct, but it's hard. Many of the companies are not doing anything illegal, they just have bad deals. Of course, the ones who work in the industry fast knows these companies, but they still have a fresh supply of artists getting into the problem al the time.

I just saw a person that claims that has very much knowledge of the industry making big headlines that she works with a company that is really famous for ripping artists off. Of course, this will make her own credibility shrink very much and it's not the first time she is doing it. The problem that people around her trust her judgment since she used to work high up to record labels years ago.

So the first rule. If peoples claim to fame is very old stuff, they are probably not that updated. In fact, they might be having less info or very bad info to give you.

The company she was bragging about is a record label that gets an artist to pay a lot of money to record in their studio. First, it's more money than a normal studio charge. Second, they take ownership of the recordings you pay for which is kind of morally wrong, not illegal.

So second rule. If you pay stuff to the record label that they are benefitting from, well there you have an error. For example, you pay for the recording is kind of usual, but not in their studio on their premises. Also paying for their PR work and stuff is also a way to rip bands off.

Of course, if you hire someone to make services for you that is okay. The things are if they keep the rights for the recording and so on. In a service, you still keep the rights.

The third rule is who owns what. In most of the cases, they put in codes that belong to them and bring in money from different sources that artist usually doesn't have an idea of existing.

So rule three, use your own codes if it works.

In my case I will just get rid of the person in my network, it's obvious that she is not well connected in the business any longer.

Maybe your are not the right person.

I worked with a band couple of years ago. The band was on it's way up, things were going well. In this case, the guitarist thought himself to be the person that created the sound of the band. He had kind of a big ego so many times the band had to change things because the guitarist thought this and that about really everything from the look on the cover to the sound to the places they should play on, he had an opinion about everything. The opinion usually leaned on the indie side. It was a lot talk about sellout and corporate gigs and stuff.

After a while, we got good feedback from a record label and they signed with that label. Just shortly after the label had been on several shows and talked to the band I had a meeting with them as the publisher.

They were asking questions who wrote the songs. I always got them from the band with an equal split so I told them I would investigate it. And when I was doing so I found out that the bass player wrote the most of the critical stuff but the guitarist took credit for most of the work. On top of that was also that the bass player felt overrun by the guitarist all the time with the cool ideas he had himself.

Of course, the guitarist claimed that the bass player ideas were just rough things and his polish to them was the thing that made them shine.

I went back to the label and described the situation. The label said direct, we thought it was in that way. They had got a hold of a demo done just by the bass player before the guitarist had a chance to get to it, and they thought it was brilliant. They realized that the potential for the band was much higher if they sacked the guitarist.

Now you have a real trouble. The guitarist who thinks he is everything should be replaced. In the end, he was fired but with a lot of struggle. Also since the label knew the capacity of the band they didn't do so much as long as he was there. Not until it was solved they showed their true capacity and got the band to a quite good reach in the world.

I had a meeting with the A&R on the label last week. He is now working on another label but he brought it up during our meeting. He said that they had seen that all the bad decisions came from the guitarist but couldn't bring that up with the band. And then when the demo came in it was so obvious that they had to react. The sad part was that it took time to get rid of the crap stuff that it slowed their career for at least two years.

I find this quite often in bands. It's not the industry that holds them back it's someone holding them back within making decisions that they really don't understand and have a thought that they are the greatest thing ever happening to this project. And history is full of stories about a change of people that made the difference. It's not always the people around it can be at the core of the things as well.

If you push a release, and why.

The world does not circle around you as an artist. This scenario we got quite often, once a month at least. And it's the reason why we tell certain stuff when you ask.

You want to release a single a certain date, let's say 25 of October. This conversation is held 20 of September. And we say okay to that date even though it is a bit of short time to do all the PR. The song is not ready but will be recorded the same week.So you guarantee that it should be ready by the end of the week on Friday.

For a while there I actually said to artists that I wouldn't set a date before we hade the master and cover in our hands. But that made them go crazy around that they didn't have a date. So we left that idea.

So on Friday, the artist called us up. Well, the mixer guy got the stomach flu and they need other things to put on. We will just say okay, what can we do. Another week goes by. The things that are added went ok. But now the mastering engineer can't do it until next week. It goes on like this in all cases. Suddenly it just one and a half from the release date.

Suddenly a stressed out artist calls up and promise that you will get the front cover during the day. Your reply is though.
- No worries, the release is in a couple of weeks.

- What, says the artist. We have booked a release gig on this day.

- Just treat it as a normal gig. You don't have gigs just to release a song would be kind of few gigs then.

- But I told the fans on our socials.

- Well tell them to wait some weeks.

The reality is that since all these people fucked up, we can't just drop everything we had planned to fill in. In some cases, we have been forced to do that and the result was not good. Then the artist comes in later and claimes that the pr wasn't any good etc and really don't understand that it's because the artist from the beginning didn't kept the deadlines. That is the reason why if you get a week late, yes your release date is pushed a week.

Vlog 15 Nov, Jeeves returns and I go to party's.

The life in the music industry. Jeeves comes back again with ice cream. I go to the publisher's music awards and on a music party and a home party. Build a studio in the living room. And remember it ain't over until the fat lady sings.
#Jeeves #DIY  #Awards

X-mas music comes in September.

Every year the same thing. Around the last weeks of November, you get stressed out people trying to release Christmas music. You know what the deadline for radio was two weeks ago. Another thing the deadline for Spotify was last week. So you are already too late to get the music out if you release it the last weeks of November, more look to do it last week of October.Take the song you where doing and just release it next year in time.

Also, have in mind that only every ten years a Christmas song is really added on as a classic Christmas song that plays every year. The odds that your x-mas song will do something is very slim. So coming up with a good song in November and record it to give out to Christmas is really not a good idea.

They screw you in the drivethru!

I'm pretty fascinated by the artist that seeks a contract and then when they get the contract on the table takes ages to answer on it. It's like the hunt is just to get the paper, then sign it and get on to a good co-operation seems it's not in the plan at all.

In reality, the contract is just a thing that regulates the co-operation but it has become some kind of mythical.

And most of the time they are looking for things that can screw the artist over. You know what!  Where the music industry really butt-fucks artist is on the online services where you really don't read the contract and just upload the music. You feel some kind of security just because you can always take down your music from the platform. As we all know if you upload photos on Facebook or Instagram they actually have the rights to use the pictures in other things. They also have the rights to sell stuff around your person, information. Right now many companies are using this and some other good schemes to lure money off artists. The contracts that come on paper is usually kind of fair since they are made to be right, it's the other ones you should be afraid of.

The Music publishers party!

Yes today is the Swedish publisher's big party and it starts 12:00. And I'm excited. This is the best party in the Swedish music industry. So I was thinking to update this a bit later both with a Vlog and pictures. So come back during the weekend.

It's like a rocket, how high will you fly?

I many times compare an artist career with a rocket. You start off and this rocket will take you as high you get, and it's straight up. It's never a long ride.

Compare it be in Eurovison song contest. You are a unknown artist. This show can take your rocket to explode in a great stars with colors and a band like it did for ABBA. Or it can it can go just a small way and then the light goes off.

This also goes along with all careers. When they rocket starts you just hang on to it and goes along with the opportunity it gives to climb higher and higher. Soon as you stop or starts to say no to things then the rocket stops and starts and there is where your career will end. The likeness that it later will go higher is very unlike, yes it happens but that is so rare you can never calculate on it.

I'm listen too t.A.T.u right now. I pretty telling example, they got a rocket shot with "All the things she said". A couple of years ago I got a suggestion to work with one of the girls solo careers, of course we said no the rocket took them up but they followed with it down.

So when an artist that is not a superstar saying that it will take time off it's certain that this is the peak in the career. Most of the time this happens is when the career goes outside their own comfort zone like going abroad, an suddenly have to do some of the things once more and have a bad confidence. Many have stopped right there.

I guess the right way many times is to break abroad and bring it back home, seems like a easier way.

So hang on to the rocket and just ride it.

Vlog 8 Nov about traveling, secrets and Jeeves.

New url, Jeeves takes me out on shopping. A backstage visit on Shockholm, and our new pumpkin showoff.
#Traveling #Jeeves #DIY #Pumpkin

I want it all!

Yes today video really says it all about the topic. Freddy Mercury really know what he is writing about in this song. Literally saying all the stuff that and artist wants.

The problem you can't have it all, and specially not now. The career is never straight forward and your choices will almost never be right. The thing in the businesses is to survive all the struggles that are coming against you in a smooth way.

No you won't get the perfect lightning or the perfect sound on your first show on the local pub. The question is can you make the most over the situation to overcome it. Is your show so good that the audience really don't care if the sound is a bit dull

The thing is that you can stand up for the things you have released years in ago without being embarrassed, and no you always will be embarrassed by your old shit the solution is not to lock everything in a cupboard.

Yes you will do a shitty deal. Still it might the way forward. You have to ride it out and know what you are looking for.

In most cases it's about saying yes and try stuff and minimize damage along of the way. Thinking that you will have a perfect smooth ride is just the  most stupid things you can ever do.

 

Don't ask for direction to a supermarket in a supermarket

One of the more annoying things you can do is ask for help to find people doing the same thing as the person you ask.

I mean would you go into a chocolate store asking for direction to another chocolate store with the question "do you know where you can buy chocolate?", or even worse if the clerk know someone who is better? I guess if you are crazy or don't know better. Still most people would go out start their smartphone and google chocolate store.

I'm amazed that it seems not to work here. If you turn a artist down on sent in demo or in conversation. The answer back is quite often "do you know someone else that can help us?" I just turned down probably for a reason and now I should help you like a manager to find a new one to test your shit on.

The problem becomes that I wouldn't want to send good contacts something I don't take in myself. In certain cases, like you come with great country music and I can't do anything with it and my best friend has a great country label, sure i would recommend that. Sending crappy pop music to other pop labels, nah that can get me in a bad position.

Second the no is probably not that it was not fitting, the product lacked something and that almost 99.9% of the others would say no to as well. So i would not do you a favor by sending you along.

The worst ones is mangers that ask for favors that really they should do. I got the other day a question from a manager if I could do him a favor and send over my list of media people, and if  I had a good list of labels that would be appreciated as well since we didn't take in his project.

The worst ones is when they come to our PR department and want us to do PR for something and we don't have time or really don't want to work with it and say no and the question back becomes "What should I do now, you have to fix something for me". Like it is my problem that you where turned down so I should find someone with lower standards to get your work, just because you pay down't mean you can get the services all time.

Don't plan to much!

Right now I get bombarded with people that want meetings to plan stuff. One of the big jokes we do between record labels is the urge to plan all things. Sure, don't get me wrong, you need plan stuff but I just wonder how many meetings I'm mainly sitting there and plan stuff that is out of our control.

One band, I remember in particular was masterminds on that. They always wanted meetings to plan the future. The first one was okay we made up some lose strategies. Yes lose everything in this business is changing very fast so whatever you plan around a release usually change pretty fast since it goes in different plans you couldn't expect. On the second meeting a week after really not much had happened, they still were in recording mode. On the meeting a two weeks after it was still there, same things just that the recording was done. After a while, I realize all these meetings was merely just to keep the dreams alive. They wanted to paint up the picture of what was coming with this single they were recording, and it was in the best way of meetings with the record label, manager or publisher. The meetings really didn't lead anywhere or any good decisions were made.

In the end, I just got tired of just wasting my an hour of my time so I started to create stuff to make things happen. Then it all came to a halt. Suddenly there were things to do not just talk. Then it became an issue. Things need to be done that was not fun, the fun was talking about it.

Then you have the meetings where people want to have meetings just to ask you what is going on. These are the meetings that we usually joke about. Mainly it's when the artist has released something and comes in the meeting thinking that we should focus more on radio for example. The thing is that of course we already sent to radio and no they were not that interested. That we would focus on it won't help a shit all the people that need to know already know. What happens is that you then throw into the artist what are your planning, what gigs or things are you ongoing so we can update the radio with that information? In 95% of the cases, they don't have anything. What happens then is that the artist thinks we don't do our jobs but in reality, we mainly see them as idiots complaining not understanding what is expected. The case is that the artist or their representatives think that they know what job we are doing and have easy solutions to really complex problems. These meetings are really pointless.

The meetings are really when something is happening. The artist get booked to a big festival and PR is needed to update the media, that calls for a meeting. Or the artist has sent new songs and pictures and want our opinion, that could be a good meeting and we can update how we should proceed.

You have to do it several times.

Don't go for the myth or believe that one time is enough. It's not enough to play on one showcase festival. It's not enough to just visit another country once. You have to do it over and over again.

Same with meeting people. You have to meet them several times before you do business with them.

It's not enough with one release it has to be several.

You always has to prepare to do things several times. Do it over again, and reinvest in different projects. So when you start have a budget that actually supports to do it several times. Do it once and you can probably skip doing it.

Vlog about tip-off how to release music in the correct way.

Why not rush releases. Tip-off how to release music in the correct way. How to get people NOT listen to a song. How much time is needed for a release?
#Tokyo #Release #DIY