I got some mails asking for collaboration. The funny part it’s the rest of text is just about how we should work for free around the artist. We should give them a test period so they can test out our publishing. The only thing they are going in with is a promise if we work hard it all will be a success.
Yes our deals are a collaboration that has always been that way. So there is nothing new. And usually the deals is done in an collaborate way. What you usually you are offering is not really collaboration; it’s a bigger risk for our company.
Right now I usually tell artists that when they reach a certain point the companies comes with collaborations and offers. Before then it’s just a begging by the artists that the company’s should put in money and time in their project.
In collaboration both parties would win on it. In these cases it’s not. We should take the risk and just hope on the best. So keep it as it is, you want us to invest time and money in your project. It’s nothing wrong to write that. That is the things we do.
I saw this picture in a feed and posted it to my wall.
Then I talked to an older artist, “older” well they are over 30 actually not old but has memories from the old days when CD and Vinyl actually was the thing. I will call them older just to make it easy for me in this post. And even though the kids today has big dreams and don’t have the tools to achive them. The older dreams of nostalgica and old glory days in past.
I got in a conversation with an older artist. The goal was to get on a tour in Germany and play on small clubs and then grow bigger and to the end make a living out of it. That is just plain stupid. Germany is hardly an option any longer. They are so after on the digital market that we don’t even consider to send bands down there. We rather go for UK and USA. And the small clubs, well my friends in the bookings in Germany complains how hard d it has become and that the kids don’t go on live venues any longer. In fact it’s the same story we hear in Sweden and kids will be kids in all countries.
Then the old artist didn’t want to be on a major label. No a small indie label is much cooler. I wondered then how the acceleration to start living on the music would happen and what this small label would contribute with? The answer was of course not that of a small label, a midsize.
Same here in Sweden as in Germany, these midsize labels are no longer existing. New ones is arriving but they are still unheard of by the old artist, the ones the artist was counting as possibilities several was no longer in operation.
Then it came to PR. The old artist really wanted to get reviews. I asked where he read about reviews lately. And he mention the oldest newspaper in Sweden, which is only read by older people, there this artist is actually their younger audience. Then of course he wanted to be cool and added that some bloggers could write something.
Here again, the bloggers is also very out. Many of them have not even 10000 readers a month (just like my blog). So the efficiency is very limited. No words about Youtubers or podcasts that is the new thing with millions of subscribers. And it’s not that this person doesn’t know this. It’s that the thing he thinks is cool is in the past. It’s cool to be on a small tour in Germany, because that was the start of a something in the 90:s. And getting good reviews was the way to tell the audience to buy your CD.
So when I told some of the really good success story’s I had with my “young” bands lately you could just see that the artist didn’t care about those things. Sure they were good but it was not part of the dream that he had. Even though he knew the dreams where old it was still there.
With the young artist doesn’t know how to do it. They will do it. And that journey the will do I will have old artists ten years from now talking that they want to do. It’s the walk of life.
One thing that really makes me cringe is when artists do songs after awful events. There was a fire disaster in Gothenburg many years ago. It was a real tragic and many young people lost their lifes. And of course a couple of weeks later some artist released a song to get in money for the victims. I was part of the team doing the video, and I felt really bad for doing it. This artist was not that famous and I got the feeling that the artist got more exposure and PR by doing it. He took a chance to get something out of a disaster.
At the same time when Band Aid did “Do they know it’s Christmas” they got in a lot of money for starving people in Africa. The scene when Madonna took up the girl that was saved a couple of years was incredible.
Still it cringe me when people has to release a song around something to get PR. Half year ago it was a rock band from Sweden that did a video about a horrifying murder in Sweden. They had to take it off after massive protests from the public and the victim’s family.
I guess sometimes it’s really good the shine a light on a thing like Suzanne Vegas song “My name is Luka” or Soul Asylums “Runaway train”.
The whole thing is that you need to do it without the PR and you have to lose something on it. The other day my friend’s band went big that they would cancel their USA tour since Trump is an idiot. Here is the thing that they didn’t have a tour. They were about to seek out to go there. It was not like they sacrificed any money, tickets or sold out shows to make that statement. Then it just becomes cringe worthy.
To make it real you have to give something totally selflessly!
Someone was complaining that my English is not that good. Well to be honest my Swedish is not that good either. I don’t claim that I’m a good writer, I just write about my I experience. Still I get hundreds of people that read my posts and don’t seem to care that I’m not write like JK Rowling.
It was a bold move to change the blog from Swedish to English but now my audience is a third from other countries and that is amazing. I guess I took it out of my comfort zone and just went with it. And I try to be better and better to write in English it really helps me to write in another language.
This is exactly what you have to do to get somewhere whatever you do. Yes there will be people saying things about what you do. People that just not doing anything but complain. And the history is full of these people that “tastemakers” but really is just a small voice of nothing.
Someone told that The Beatles would never be anything because they were four and that was out. Someone said that Bono in U2 couldn’t sing. The whole Swedish press hated The Hives until they broke in USA and then they said that they had always loved The Hives. Justin Bieber is the worst artist, well he sells most. Nickelback sucks….you can just get going.
Whatever you do, don’t let you down, only you knows what your art will be about. Even if I tell you that you suck, I have been wrong so many times. I have been right also. Still if you take it further and develop you will get there. It’s not about being best it’s about endurance.
I just saw a radio promotor in LA put out the worst line everyday in his email inbox. So much of it is things that I have written here. I guess it’s all over the world. Some of the topics I just wrote in Swedish so I guess I can take them up again.
One was: This email comes in almost daily. Always annoy's me.
"I am looking to take my music to the next level". Where is that exactly?
Same with me, I just hate when artists use that line. We are ready to go to the next level. If I got a dollar for every time I hear that I would be rich.
No there is no “next level”. The level rises in the way you work. There are no magical shortcuts or magical formulas. It’s all about your work.
And don’t measure that in levels. I have had many bands telling me that they won’t take smaller gigs just because they are not on that level. The worst ones has told me that they don’t do showcases if they are not guaranteed as much people the draw in their hometown.
These are the ones that never make it. And the line “next level” is just making you look like a amateur. So what to say? I’m looking for opportunity’s is the more correct team. Or I want to get a bigger more experienced team. That is more professional.
I don’t get it sometimes that people are following rules so much. Even harder when it is artists that claims to not following rules and follow them more then fanatic IS member.
Just because you play hard rock you don’t need to dress like Lemmy. And if you play Sleeze, you don’t have to look like Mike Monroe. If you do, well you just a weak copy. Nothing around you, just the same old bullshit.
And this applies to many styles. If you play jazz you dress in fifties clothes and want a smoky room with a big microphone. If you play folk music you need to have a beard. And so on. You just limited yourself into something. You just do what you are told.
The funny part of this is that these are the ones that claim to different the most. And usually it’s just some stupid gimmick that actually would be the change. Sure I understand it has to do with indentity for the audience, still it’s much better to surprise. The worst though, is has no style like the damn shoe gazers.
Instead of working so hard to fit into the box. Develop a thing for yourself, be different. I don’t know how many times we see artist doing stupid stuff just to be part of “something”, like we have to give out a vinyl since we play indie pop. Or we need to play ion CBGB’s since we are a punk band (last week I had to tell a poor band that CBGB’s is now a cloth store).
Bands with masks is usually just a trick to hide that they really too old and ugly to shown (Hello Ghost). Or that you can send anyone out to paly while you are home with your family (Hello Teddybears). And you can change members without anyone notice (Hello Kiss).
My favorite example of development right now is The Magnettes. They are a punk band but don’t dress like that. Have more attitudes then an old punk band, I guess Henry Rollins would be afraid to be near them. At the same time they adopt new pop music into their punk and go their own way. And that makes them different but also the same. A part you recognize another part is new.
I meet an artist the other day that where upset that the press is giving the attention to an artist that has less number, less fans, less everything. I explained that this usually has to do with certain connections, friendships and other stuff. And the artist said, well that won’t happen to you? Do you ever feel frustrated?
Ohh YEEES. I don’t know how many times I get frustrated with this. I just saw a seminar about just my expertise in Sweden. In fact the speakers are people relying on my services. Do you think I’m even invited? Not even invited to attend!
One of the companies they have invited doesn’t even have a homepage. Several of them has never done anything relevant on this field. The other one is my prime example of the worst failure in this field. I use them as the worst scenaro in my lectures.
Do I get frustrated, yes! Does it bother me, well yes! But it won’t go to my head. I know this has to do with friendship.
The irony is that the same day I speak on a much larger conference about this topic abroad. And I’m the main speaker. Still I get frustrated since they didn’t ask me. And I know even if I get a huge success they will ask me.
So knowing that, I just keep doing my thing and try not to be bothered, I will be bothered, but I don’t really care.
Yesterday was just one of those days. We got The Magnettes on a new TV show on national television, oh no pardon me, two different TV shows. We got booking for a new tour in USA. Got proposal from a totally new territory. We added on 3 new PR teams.
These are they days I’m really glad working with all these great artists and their art that brings so many people together. Fantastic.
I just saw some stupid online competition that you could get on a stage on a bigger festicval in UK. They also promised that “Also guarantee that ALL the artists who perform have the opportunity to play in front of industry professionals, providing them with great exposure and a platform to be noticed”.
All you had to do is the register and get as many as possible to vote for you on their homepage.
*Sigh*
The one with the biggest fanbase will win this. But if you already have that kind of fanbase you really don’t need to be exposed to the industry professionals. Most of them will do a far worse job that you already has done. The one that needs these industry people is the smaller ones, tat are good, but they don’t stand a chance.
Of course they might cheat and just let someone that they like musically win. Then it’s cheating, so there is no point then to get on with this.
It’s like a catch 22, if you already have the audience you don’t need this opportunity. If you need it well then you don’t have that massive audience to vote for you. The winner of course is the festival that gets your fans data.
Most of things like this when it’s you have to chase your fans like this sucks. Most for the fans, what is the point for them to get you a vote and lose their data? Every time I have seen it the band that wins these competitions really sucks. I don’t know where they get their audience but usually it’s some strange country where they music is not that good from the beginning. Witch ends up that the industry people just stands in front of the stage don’t know a shit what to do. The figures are really good but the music sucks. And of course this end up in the blog entry I did a time ago
Usually also the artists that are good are already picked up long before they reach these numbers. The ones still having the numbers and an urge to be in front of professionals usually has some really big error somewhere.
So the artist will harass their audience, the festival get a crappy band, the industry will waste time. Good work. and don't forget that you can pay people to vote for you.
Well start by not doing it like a drive by shooting. I just
hate when people befriend me on Linked In (or facebook) and two days later send
a stupid message that I should listen to their songs. Before I actually didn’t
accept anyone on Linked In that I didn’t know who it was. Then (probably me
pressing a button), the whole system starting to add people off some list I
guess Facebook and after that I accept people even if we just meet in
cyberspace. Of course if it is a totally fake id then I just get rid of them.
This can be really contra productive for you. I use my
Linked In to see what is happening with people I work with. I don’t like to
listen to music while I’m in there since it’s mainly when I research people that
I should contact for some reason. Listen to strange demos is really not my
mood.
And here is your problem. Since I’m not in the mood, well I
will listen to your music with more critical ears than ever. Or even worse I
will just put it in the background while I work with the more important stuff.
I also hate when artist claimed to get top the office just
to play their new song. You should sit there and after 10 seconds your mind is
wondering off thinking of that e-mail you really need to send or the dinner you
need to buy before you go home. I can easy say that I never signed anything by
anyone sending in this way.
Then on Musichelp we actually have links to send songs. I
know that not all people have that. Still I’m pretty sure that most people don’t
like the method of befriend people just to put a commercial up in their face.
It’s like finding a link of a really great article and all you find is a damn
commercial.
So when do I listen to songs? I like to stay focused and
really be in mood to hear new stuff. Of course when my artist that I have
signed send something I’m eager to hear it. But in this case I know they are doing
music that I like and really want to hear it. Still if I’m in a job mode it
actually can take a couple of days before I can relax and really listen
carefully on their new music.
Send music to Musichelps links, or my e-mail if you have it.
The roles become clearer right now. Most artists look for a record label or a management. Instead they should look for an artist development company. What do you say, do these exist? Yes they do, especially if you are in Sweden.
The record labels are good when you have gotten a way down the road. Still the gap between a ready artist and the record label is much bigger now.
Before this gap was not that big. And the adult educational association (studieförbund) has not had the time of the knowledge to educate the band like they did in the 80:s and 90:s. So now the gap is too big to bridge for an artist alone.
And also many prey on young artist and take them way before they are ready to make a professional lifestyle out of their music. And in most of these cases they are just in for the money not so much to develop the artist.
So witch are these develop companies, well in Sweden we have state ones like Talentcoach and BD-pop. Then on the private side you have Musichelp. More is on their way. And I guess it’s here it starts don’t try to make a shortcut you won’t last in the long run.
The funny part is that most artists are really not taking action and get to these new companies just because they don’t have a track record yet. Or goes by a manager that don’t has a clue and just follow the same path that they have always gone.
Sometimes I bump into artists that put up imaginary walls in certain ways. Usually they put in some barrier because of something. For example if they play folk music they just aim for small labels (and I mean super small), small venues and has no plan what so ever on the big things. I just say: Mumford and Sons, if they can do it why can’t you?
No there is not a difference in styles. The only thing that difference is that certain styles is hi-jacked by people that don’t see the difference between crap and art.
The rules are the same even if you play jazz, chewing gum pop, punk or even art music. Its back to that you have to create something that people wants to listen to, instead of thinking that you create something special that no one understands.
Yes you can spread Jazz in social media and yes you can get fans there. There nothing that says that jazz needs to be given out on vinyl and their listeners demand vinyl so the government has to support their art. That is just bullshit.
This is the rules for everyone, even the people that start business.
1. You have to create something that is demand for, and in the beginning there might be no demand, but can be created.
2. You have to be where people are. Marketing is a must, it never happens magically.
If you play music that can’t be promoted, well that is a very good sign it’s crap, change your music.
Most of the time it’s promotable and not crap is just that the artist choose that way. Don’t stop yourself just because your idol sets for small audience.
Usually when I go to meetings where the more odd styles gather what strikes me is that they are so unprofessional, and that is usually the error, not the music. When you talk to people that play folk music they all want to go to Folk Alliance (big fair in USA for folk music). Sure why not, still the people that are on Folk alliance is very limited. None of the bigger players is there. Even if you just started you make a wall and put Folk Alliance as the top. You should go for the mainstream ones like Canadian music week, SXSW, Musexpo, Live at Heart. Yes t will be harder competition but that is need for you to get out in the big market. If you set your top to the guy that has his record label under his bed, or the girl that has some strange festival for 150 bearded fruitarians you limit yourself. Sure you should take these as well but still adopt to get a bigger audience.
Why can’t a folk band be in Eurovison song contest, yes they can! Yes of course they will get shit form all the other crap musicians in that genre that tells you that you are a sell out or something. Do you know what, most of these people choose this style since they are afraid of success or actually not talent enough to make it! Still if you did it you will be different and very celebrated to have done it.
I hear it all the time from artists; we are ready for the next step. Then I usually ask them what that is? Usually the answer is that they would get a label, and then when they get the label they fix a booking agency and suddenly they will get that summer festival tour that they are aiming for.
I guess that road has never existed so it’s like a step into nowhere. It’s never anyone who answers that they should start to gather an audience so more people would hear their music.
No that would be magically fixed by the label by radio (and you know what I say about radio today, it’s so dead). Instead of see the label as an extra engine, that is the engine.
Here lies the thing about it. You have to do things that no one has done before. There is no straight way. And this applies to any business or startup there is. You just try and fail and then find something that works.
So when you say that you should take that next step. Well look for something that no one has done before in the PR department and gather people to listen to your songs.
No you wouldn’t put a songwriter to build a professional road bridge (a bridge in a song is another story) because they don’t have the education to do it. To put it around you don’t put an engineer to write professional songs.
It seems like people just don’t take it seriously. These songwriters have taken years and years of training. Also many of them have gone on a 2 to 3 year education on schools like Musikmakarna. And in most cases they would never try to apply for a job on a construction firm to be an engineer without skills.
But here I get hell of a lot of people (engineers also)thinking that shuffle around a song is an easy task. Actually there are a lot of things that has to be thought through. So when I get songs from untrained people they usually already from the beginning contains structural errors. And usually they are not that updated on the styles (read they send me Eurodisco from 97).
The climate today is so hard. It’s not like when Max Martin started, back then there was just take whatever you had. Today you are against very skilled and updated songwriters that really work hard to get into the market. So for me I feel I just got a staff that knows what they are talking about and deliver in high speed what I need.
So if you feel that you have what it takes, quit your day job, get to school and then start to send to our teams. This is a highly skilled profession.
You really don’t talk about this even though everybody knows it. I was visiting a record label talking about some new projects and we came into a mutual friend who just signed a band. It’s a good band, been around for three years and has played on smaller stages (demo stages) on bigger festivals. A good choice for our friend.
-The band was here before signing with ***our friend*** the record label boss told me.
-So why didn’t you sign them? You liked the music?
-Well they have no value so far. Their numbers are low and for a label like mine we need to make money direct so we are not developing any new acts, it takes too much time, cost too much money so we almost stop doing that.
This is the part the band wouldn’t understand, they have no value yet. Also this mechanism that always comes to a band when they work themselves to get a value. They work, and they work and they work and suddenly all the labels that before didn’t even respond to their mails, get very interested.
I have been in these situations a couple of times. Often getting frantic phone calls from the bands don’t know what to do. Who should I chose, I don’t want to lose things and the money we built up. In several cases it usually ends up that they take the most famous brand. Get signed and nothing really happens. Usually the value was too low, but a bubble had been built up around them. A lot like a stock market crash.
Then you have the bands that only go against labels just to get the contract. And the value is zero. Of course after a while they get a contract, but since the value is zero, they just sign the paper. You can easy read this on this post.
How do you know your value? You don’t and it goes up and down all the time. But don’t think you have to high of value in the beginning. And don’t overprice yourself when you rise. Think of that if you can draw five people to gig, you value is not that high. Can you draw 500 people yes you have a value. The value is set by the audience, and guessed by the label.
I see to many artists do the mistake to start in the wrong end. People that want to have the same page on Spotify as Madonna even though they haven’t reach over 1000 streams. They are trying to get the good stuff before they have done their homework. But since they don’t get the good stuff they skip the homework and just come around complaining.
No you can’t get any good statistic if you just have 50 followers and 2000 streams on Spotify. There is no point of even go after this statistics. It doesn’t contain any valuable information. If you gonna have that, start to get a fanbase and you don’t need the statistic to start to get a fanbase. The first part of the fan base will be kind of weird. The statistics later can tell you what are inside that number, but to get there you need to have at least 100 000 streams, but better with a million.
No you don’t need the most perfect video or photo in the beginning. It’s better to have something then nothing in these cases. Artists that get fucked up on these small things they will NEVER MAKE IT.
So be true to yourself and start in the right end of the problem. You have to get yur hands dirty and do the long haul to get things done. Only then can you get out the benefits of that work.
And don’t do the first mistake in the book, start looking for someone that can do that dirty work for you.
Right now when I write this it’s Saturday night, correct it’s on hour into Sunday morning. I worked on Saturday from 9:00 until 18:00 then I watched Eurovision with some friends (witch technically is part job for me). Then back and have now worked four hours more.
Yes this has to be done. Right now is the time where we book the last festivals and we go through our networks to see what everyone is doing over the year. Still it’s always this way. Something need to be fixed and the weekends is a good time when I’m not disturbed by all phonecalls, skype or meetings.
Don’t get me wrong. I love this and I decide to put the time into it. Still I know how much time that is needed. Usually is the management part that eats time. A huge variable of things and if there is no fires to put out you can always create fires to put out. It never stops.
And we run just two and half bands on the management side. One band is never touring so that makes things easier.
When I read about mangers that have kids, time to go on holidays and in some cases also have a normal day job on the side, I just wonder if they really can be a manager? In several of the cases they have up to six bands and they live in the sticks!
Usually you see them come along do their thing in a year or two and then disappear. What I’m more concerned about is the bands. If they work harder than the manger then it’s fine. They will survive when the manger goes down. Many artists get a bad taste from these mangers.
I guess they don’t see the new management role that is merging through. It’s harder than ever. It’s not like the old days where your job is a find a label and then relax sit back and let the money roll in.
The worst is when they actually hire another manger to do the manger role to find someone that should do things. Usually I tell people it around 50 real mangers in the business in Sweden. But many more call themselves it.
Unfortunately it’s hard to make a difference between all these managers. But yes if they not working full time I would be skeptical. Kids sure if they really have an really understanding partner. Also do they invest of going places to broaden their network? Not just the free ones. The bigger ones get also invited to the bigger events. Are they in a bigger city a couple of time in a week if they live in the sticks? Questions like this should be asked by the artist.
I’m really tired of the service companies that treat the artists like cattle. It’s so many of them, like Sonicbids, Band Camp, Reverb nation etc. They might offer a small thing for you as an artist. Usually that you can get something if you pay a small fee. In reality these companies only survive that they have millions of artist that they really not give a damn about.
You can recognize this by that they always can promise you everything as long as you have the fan base to bring in. If you had the fan base, well then you really don’t need their services. A good reason why they almost never have any active bigger artists that is active on their sites.
I have never seen any of these companies actually can get you a bigger fan base. They can provide everything else like companies that can sponsor you if you have the fan base or other services as long as you can control the people.
I guess the golden age is over for them now. Still there is too many of them out there.
The future is not going in these companies; instead have small team that actually cares about you.
I just been in a couple of meetings with several bigger firms around the world and the tags are on the wall. No no no, Spotify as a company is not dead, well it can be with the new deals but that is not what I will talk about here. It's dead as the way of discover music and get spread to other platforms.
What is going on is that the frontrunners in the industry see that the figures are nothing you can count on. Sure, nice figures give money to the team. Still it doesn’t tell anything about the popularity or how people find the music or want to consume it. And too many are relaying on the figures.
Yes even if you have millions of streams doesn’t mean that your brand is worth something. For example Chainsmokers is one of the most streamed artists on Spotify. Over 2 billlion streams. When they played in Stockholm a couple of months ago. They played in a place that has a capacity of 1000 people. If AC/DC came to Stockholm they play on an arena that takes 50 000 in two days in a row. And they are not even on Spotify. Sure in the end Chainsmokers will get there, but it will take them, years, if ever. And that they invest so much more in other fields. I wouldn’t switch the money for the merchandise on one evening with AC/DC then the entire stream from Chainsmokers.
Since Spotify has taken control of most of the playlists. And it has become really hard to pitch to those lists. More and more are counting Spotify as an outlet, not a place where you discover an artist. The people that comes in there knows what they are looking for. When this happen you start to place your advertising on other places. It a bit like the old situation with the record stores. You put the marketing outside the store. Sure you printed some posters and had some instore gigs, for Spotify you picth to the official channels just to get recognizition. Still that was small part of the marketing. The most was toursupport, ad:s radio plugging. Things to get people to go to the store and ask for your album. Trust that the people in the store would try to sell the album to people unfamiliar with the artist was nothing you trusted. Even worse that people would hear the music in the speakers in the store and then decide to buy that album. Same here, you just can’t trust Spotify to do the job it has to come from outside.
Since Spotify are getting more paid users, banners and commercials is not that interesting to do since they goes against the ones with free accounts. Hand on the heart are you really clicking on these banners that mainly are commercials for another of Spotifys playlists? Our statistics shows that it won't do anything.
A friend of my worked with an artist just out of Facebooks ads. When they reached 20 million streams, Spotify called them and told them if they paid 5000 dollar they could add 80 million more streams by put the track on their playlists. My friend politely told them to fuck off.
Why? Easy with the Facebooks ads he could control his target group. Also track them and see how they react on different campaigns. Spotify was just an outlet that paid back the things he invested. So he just intensify his campaign on Facebook and reached 100 million streams two months later, faster than Spotify promised and he keept the data.
And it’s written all over the place. The youtube phenomenon “Det vet du” with 132 000 followers on Youtube and around 3 millions streams of their videos. Couldn’t get to the finale in the Swedish Eurovison. Was taken off by artist that has around 1000 followers. These followers are just in the outlet. They got most streams on Spotify of all the songs. Still didn’t make it. What people put in the outlet doesn’t really leave the outlet if it is a social media tool. Yes if you can control the data in the tool you can use that inside the tool, but outside it become much harder.
Vigiland is another example. Swedish dj duo that has over 500 million streams and was Universals big target (seems to drop them now). I saw them on the smallest stage on a festival, and it was not good and many people didn’t care. Even though they just got over 100 million streams back then. They were nominated with “Pong dance” to the Swedish Grammy award. The thing here is this prize is a thing you can vote on the site (the peoples prize). With 80 000 followers on Spotify it should be easy to get this prize. They were outvoted by far, by a kid that only has 30 000 followers and only claim to fame is that he won the Swedish Eurovision last year. And if we take off the winning song from Eurovision barely has 7 million streams.
Many in the industry will do the mistake turning down The Beatles because four people with guitars and long hair was nothing that are going to make it big. Spotify will have a problem that it will be other sources that will break the artist on their systems. With that the industry will take back control to market to promote shit as usual. But more the industry will be able to lead their followers to the outlet that suite them best. I guess here is where the battle for Spotify will be, we might choose to lead our listeners to Youtube, Deezer or Apple or some other outlet Facebook maybe.
Right now my motto will be to leave people behind that just look on the streams on Spotify. They are not in the game any longer. You have to see the whole picture. The streams can just go up tomorrow if you do the right thing somewhere else. If you don’t control that other place, then you are not in the game.
I get more and more that the artist doesn’t really hang on to the new roles that the music industry has. They act like a publisher is the record label and the manger as a publisher and the publisher as distributor. And in a way I get it, we are changing roles like a girl changing clothes like Kate Perry sang.
So what is happening? Well totally forget that the major record label is the goal. Even the major are changing in many ways. What it’s all about the team. Not about the music. The stronger team in several fields will things happens. And it will take time. A weak team and a fast exposure (look Eurovision song contest) will not take you anywhere.
So here are the old components.
The Manager discovered the act. Then got money from a publisher to record a demo. Then sold the artist with the demo to a record label, took % of the upfront and disappeared. Then the record label either got the artist big or just flopped. If it became big a booking agency come along.
Today The Manger is like the engine to keep more players running smoothly and have a huge network and keep the momentum going. Publisher is more about to find the right songwriters then money for studio, and also be able to secure placements. The record label is more how much PR the can provide, the recording is a cheap thing now. More the work is to make sure that the PR firms of the publisher and the record label works together. Then you have new players like social media strategy. But like the old days the booking comes last.
Also now company’s pops up that just develop artist. They go under different names like A&R Company, Music Company and sometimes hide behind a Publisher or a Record Label. Musichelp is like this we are hard to place since the new terms of company’s has not been totally clear.
Different positions of the artist our role change. We are the engine to build a career.
People think that working in the music industry is somehow so different then working in a normal office. Guess what, it’s not. So you just have to think like it is in a normal work situation.
Yes you all had that collogue that don’t do a shit. Or you remember them from the group assignment in school. You worked hard and they followed along, and called you up the evening before asking if you had down everything. If you are the boss you kick these people. But if you are just staff you avoid them and you definitely don’t give them any favors.
In the music industry these are the bands that you sign and they just sit in the sofa. You really don’t hear from them until they want to complain. They just want everything served. That big festival, well you can just book that for them, main stage please and double paid. That you are a record label not a booking agency doesn’t get into their heads.
Then you have the newcomer. Well this person is nice but not that smart. You all remember Bubble from AbFab.
These are the bands that don’t read about the industry so they really don’t know the difference between a publisher and booking agency. They are Bubble.
Then you have the credit taker. Yes we all know that person. Whatever you do this person will take credit for it. I had one of these last week, suddenly they had fixed a thing themselves suddenly the hundred things we fixed was worth nothing.
They annoying customer. Yes we all know this one. Some stupid fool that doesn’t understand that you can’t return a milk going sour four weeks later. These in the music industry office are demo bands sending in stupid demos. Check this post out http://ihuvudetpaenar.blogspot.se/2017/02/dont-promise-to-much.html
The of course you have the diva. No further explanation needs. The thing here though from a normal office, the percentage of divas is much much higher.
Important customer. Yes the one all people are licking their ass and talk shit behind their back. Of course they also think they are important, but you just wait to stab tem in the back as soon you don’t need them Here they are more called Major Labels.
You also have the nerd. And the nerd is always the A&R or the computer geek. Or both. Yes these people actually like talking Starwars with each other. Usually goes well with the keyboard player that usually are the nerds in the band.
So if you think like the label as a normal office, well you will be fine. These people are humans as well.
I’m kind of amused that artist almost never wants to pay for education. Well certain education is fine like guitar lessons. And those that have gone a bit they actually pay for singing lessons.
But pay for how to boost you social media, that they almost never pay for. Okay this is in Sweden I know this is much better in other markets. When I introduced some free lessons in marketing and social media skills my artists never read them or wanted to engage in them.
Here it’s almost like the people in the industry should know all these magical tricks. At the same time these tricks are usually depending on that someone has done some really good ground work. A ground work like collecting a newsletter email list, getting real likes on Facebook. Or even so simple things like to have something to write about on social media. And this work can almost only be done by the artist in the beginning. As we see right now even president Trump still Tweets himself to the medias amusement and his co-workers fear.
I mean her if Trump was an artist you just hire a staff to do his tweets. At the same time for a while we did that with artists and that became too robotic. Now we have pushed this back to the artist to get the personal touch around it.
I guess to pay for some books and lessons in this would be the first priority for artists. It’s the most frequent asked topic on panels that they want us to create on Live at Heart. But usually they become too hard for them since they don’t know the basics or have done the basics.
I don’t really don’t have a answer why it is this way. It’s just that I have noticed and find strange.
I just read an interview with some bosses of the big labels and two from the smaller labels. And it’s so easy to see who can actually do something and understand the market by just these answers.
The question was about the future. How will it look in the music industry in the future? The major labels are talking that they are now just going over to be music companies. A transition Musichelp started 15 years ago, and feel kind of old. The smaller ones talked about how the streaming was effecting and how they would work with that and the fears of it (mainly the fear is that music is not the type of culture that is influence the youth, today they have more sources that takes more time so we are more and more relying on only hit songs, an interesting fact but I won’t go into it here).
Also both the smaller ones talked about how they did the transition to from record labels to music companies a couple of years ago and now transition again. Yes we were early and they came around five years ago. Still the majors are totally after and doing it now.
The majors also talked about old systems where they hoped to find artists by numbers. And talked about systems they had built that mainly just put the artist to be bunch of cattle. Nothing really could be affected by the artist. They only way up was to sell more. You really are an ant in an anthill.
The worst part was that the majors called this artist services. Also a term we used in the 2000. Today we are developing against artist development. Yes we are looking on the artists as units not as a herd.
You can so easy tell what to choose out of this. Still artists seem to think they a familiar name are attractive? Well only the dead fishes follow along the stream.
