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