Someone has to play it first...the podcasts

I got the Airwaves. The first smaller program will test shoot today. A program to discover new music with the catchy title "Someone has to play it first". A show where I play things I just heard or discovered. I will do this show monthly so it will be re-runs of it. Right now the two re-runs are

Wednesday 23 of October - 2 pm EDT (Toronto, NYC time), 20:00 Central European time.
Thursday 24 of October - 3 am EDT (Toronto, NYC time), 11:00 Central European time.

You hear it on Cashbox Radio
https://www.cashboxradio.ca/

Later on, we will have the premiers on Cashbox and then add the podcasts. This time we add the podcast directly. Here is the program as playlists on both Spotify and Youtube. So just click under here and you get the whole show.




In this episode, we actually also reveal the address to send songs it is discoversensationradio@gmail.com you need to listen to the show to also get the secret password to have a better chance to be on. Artists that I have at this time is

The Magnettes
Flux
Alona Alona
Capitano
We Bless This Mess
Eleonore Léone
Pompeya
Cheap Tobacco
Northlight
Namelle
Royal Prospect
The Callahan

If you write songs about the same theme over and over again. I just can’t stand it.

I was at a small concert today at a startup party. It was a young new artist playing. She played three songs with the same theme. Already half of the first song I was bored. Sure, it was an important subject but the feeling I got was more, deal with it it’s an industrial world problem.

I guess we will be bombarded with songs about the environment in the next years. Yes, a really important issue. So important that it should not be handled by the lonely guy with a guitar that seems to appear at every party. I just see how these guys to get more girls will sing slow ballads how the forest is dying. To be honest, instead of singing go out and do something about it.

Even love songs can be very frustrating. I really don’t care if you have been dumped by your boyfriend. The reason is that your last three songs were about three different guys that dumped you. The theme has been done to many times. You need to change theme.

Yes, I know that Talyor Swift wrote more than half of her songs around her dates going bad. Still, also the reason why her songs probably won’t be that classic. This is also why all rappers only do three albums, after that they run out of rhymes around guns and hoes.  The rapper that survives add themes.



If you have the same theme please also write it in a smart way. With that, you can get around it. Like Have you ever seen the rain? No, it’s not about the weather.


So, write songs with the same theme in a smart way. Even better attack the issue in another way or angel. Mainly because most songs are about love, victory, redemption. And yes, we can get another song like that, but you need to write it smart. Like 99% of the songs are not smart in that way.

I guess that is also the thing that gets a great lyricist from a bad one. Sure one-hit-wonder is okay, but surviving in the long run you need to be able to change the subject or the angle.

Another problem is also if you start mixing in things that are not timeless. All the kids today wonder why Offspring mentions Rikki Lake in Pretty Fly For a White Guy. Or why he bought Vanilla Ice? Don’t he like ice cream? To make it timeless it has to fit all time.


The best is also if it can be interpreted in different ways. Like what is Hotel California really about? A guy taking in on a motel? About a guy getting caught in drugs? Or what the writer said in an interview, about the music industry? The more dimensions you can get in probably the better the song will be.

And for f*ck sake don’t repeat too many times. No, it’s not fun to hear about diamonds.

Someone has to play it first

I got the Airwaves. The first smaller program will test shoot today. A program to discover new music with the catchy title "Someone has to play it first". A show where I play things I just heard or discovered. I will do this show monthly so it will be re-runs of it.

The premier is today 12:30 Toronto time. That is 18:30 Central European time (Stockholm).
You hear it on Cashbox Radio

Re run of the program will be

Monday 21 of October - 7am EDT (Toronto, NYC time), 13:00 Central European time (Stockholm).
Wednesday 23 of October - 2 pm EDT (Toronto, NYC time), 20:00 Central European time.
Thursday 24 of October - 3 am EDT (Toronto, NYC time), 11:00 Central European time.

https://www.cashboxradio.ca/

Yes, it will come out as a podcast. We will announce that asap.

In this episode, we actually also reveal the address to send songs it is discoversensationradio@gmail.com you need to listen to the show to also get the secret password to have a better chance to be on. Artists that I have at this time is

The Magnettes
Flux
Alona Alona
Capitano
We Bless This Mess
Eleonore Léone
Pompeya
Cheap Tobacco
Northlight
Namelle
Royal Prospect
The Callahan

In memory of Jay Frank.

Even if it was expected it came as a shock when it happens. Jay Frank's death was not that expected even though he had suffered badly for the last year of cancer. Or yes you sometimes know the outcome, we all going to die. Just this went very fast. And it always happens to the wrong people. It’s always the nice really friendly people that are going away.

I meet Jay by accident, like so many of my people in my network. I was on CMJ invited by Robert Singerman, another friendly and awesome guy. I had You Say France & I Whistle there playing live. I was in a real networking mode and took as many meetings as possible. And in the last hour before I should go to the gig place and just help the band. I took the decision to also visit the exhibition in the basement.

Down there were some regular tech companies. The usual startups that you never know if they even will survive the next week. But there were also Aileen Crowley. She had a new company called Digsin (short for Digital Single). Their business model was to give away mp3:s for free like a subscription model. The exchange was to build a fanbase with all these people that signed up. It was kind of a crazy idea. I’m a fan of crazy ideas and it resonates a string inside me that this was beyond the normal company. I invited them to go to the show just to see the band and see if we could do something together

That show was really a disaster. Still, it’s one of the most important shows ever for me. It was only visited by six, seven people. All these people became important to me later. And one was Jay Frank the owner of Digsin. I didn’t know since he wasn’t introduced down in the basement. But I was smart enough to say hello to all the people that came and got his card. And even though the show was crap Jay saw the potential and we had conversations about how to work with Digsin.

It’s not very common that I find people with the same nerdiness around the music industry. No, we are not interested in music in that way musicians are interested in what plugin or amp you use. No, we are interested in the powers behind the scenes and the marketing. Suddenly I had found a person that was on the same wavelength as me.

I could talk for hours with Jay around how the industry was changing. Exchanging information and visons. And I started working with Digsin. They signed both Like Swimming and The Magnettes. It gave me really rare opportunities on tour with Jay talking. Also getting close. We have invaded Jay and Lindas house forcing them to have a Halloween party to have the band playing. We crashed at Jay:s parents house on one tour, even, went on Zombie gigs outside NYC.

One really memorable night was out in Barcelona. The band was tired and went to bed around midnight. Jay and I keep ongoing. Seven in the morning waking the band up in our apartment. Jay and I got in singing in full volume “Heeeey Macarena” after spending the whole night in a 90:s music club dancing. Actually, the photo of The Magnettes first single was taking at the same time in that apartment.

I can just ramble on with different strange and cool memories that I have shared with Jay. Or how many people that I have met through him that has meant all for my career. And we are many that have a lot to thank Jay Frank for a lot. You just can see how the internet just filled up with people owning their careers and good memories with Jay when the news of his death came out. He was one of kind and I’m so blessed that I have met him and had a chance to spend so much time around with him.

The photo is when Jay manages to get to The Magnettes show in London this spring. The last time I meet Jay in person. And in Jay fashion, we got to a restaurant eating and discussion until they throw us out, this photo is just after that.

Thank you, Jay, for all, you went away far too early. I will miss you so much. And yes, I will do the thing we talked the last time on the phone this summer. I’m sorry that I can’t take you on the journey I know you would have liked it. Still, thank you for the advice to just do it. I just took the one important step yesterday with that in mind.

"I know this is not goodbye"

Don’t expect people to like your music.

I got one of those emails when the artist wishes that I should give feedback on their songs. I’m a bit reluctant to do that. You can see in the new situations with bloggers and magazines they have almost all of them take a step to just write about things that excite them. Bad reviews don’t really exist any longer. Instead, it’s like a silent agreement that if you don’t hear back after you got the thank you for sending in the files, if I’m interested, I will get back to you.

But all artist wants that feedback, why I don’t understand, but I’m getting to that. The feedback has become an industry at different sites. When you pay for it, they actually give you some feedback. The problem with this I that it’s just bloggers that in many cases just your average joe sitting and give feedback. Much of the feedback is also nonsense. Here is some feedback from bloggers that passed on The Magnettes track “Shakes (Falling in Love).  See the video here:

1.  I love the beautiful composition of the song. It lacks good vocal energy though.

2. The video looks great! I just wasn't as into the vocals throughout this one. Thanks for sending it our way, though!

3. The track is not bad but I don't feel it was 100% a fit for us.

4. Some really great stuff, loved the aesthetic. Vocals were on point. Unfortunately it felt like it was missing the electronic dance music element to fit with our curation. Appreciate you sending over though!

5. I like the vocal and melody So much energy inside that, your music has a bit of classical mix with modern music.

6. The track sounds catchy, but it was too bright, epic and expansive for us.

7. Thank you for thinking of us! Unfortunately, we weren't as drawn in by the production.

8. Great visuals. Song is pleasant but not something i'm finding v fresh in terms of prod / sounds.

9. Music video looks awesome - wasn't that crazy about the verse though.

Half of them love the vocals, the other half hate the vocals, Half hate the production other half loved the production. The track actually got really good exposure though over 30 bloggers shared it and reviewed it (of course when they do a review, they just write positive). Also, the track had radio rotation all over Europe.

But what is striking even though they are saying no to the track they are still just positive like comment number five. And I feel many times that the artist is just after the kick that people should say how good they are. Just like your closest friends or your mom. Why would you want that feedback where everything is good. Or just random feedback like these ones above here.

When people then seek out my point, I really don’t know what they are after. Just the random hit things that I should like your music, or can I really tell you that your latest song is really shit? I still don’t know I don't hear back from these ones I just told I didn’t like their latest song. On the other hand, the woman in the grocery store didn’t like it when I called her kid ugly either, but that kid was damn ugly.

Please get the gatekeepers back!

No there is no human right to give out music! Even though many crappy musicians seem to think that. I just had a nutcase that really made me think the forbidden words “it was better before”.

This particular idiot wants to change Spotify link system, so it fits his different releases with different names. No, the world won’t adapt to your stupid artist's uncertainty. We have been back and forward with his name change for three months and have changed in at least six different versions. For what? Nothing really. It’s just that he doesn’t understand how to separate things from his account through Spotify artists. Will it change his career? Not really his eight listeners probably will not see any difference.

The gatekeepers were the people that we're keeping these loose cannons of the map. Right now, we have a missive brown wave of shit music that has no existence justification at all. Yes, there are so many musicians that claimed that the gatekeepers were the reason that their great music never reaches an audience. Know what, without gatekeepers, your music still didn’t reach an audience. So now they claim that if they don’t get success is because they don’t get into Spotify’s playlist.

It’s because they really do bad music. In pure English “they suck”. And we would need a tool to sort these worthless people out, so the professionals don’t have to waste so much time with their nonsense.

There is nothing wrong about doing music on a hobby level. The problem is when a hobby person starts to think that they would get the same benefits as a professional hard-working musician get. No, you won’t get the same status, money or att3ention since you are not working as hard as the people that get this kind of treatment.

Is this a problem, really? Not to compare with the environmental problem we have. In the small scale of the music industry, it starts to be a problem. It’s getting harder and harder to be exposed to new good music. Either you get exposure to the massive brown wave or you had back to old stars that you feel is safe. And in this new world, all music is presented.

I hear more and more normal listeners, not the once that are super interested in music. No, the average joe that complains that it’s so hard to find new good music. Even in the younger ages.

The live industry seems to be the new gatekeeper. They can’t fill their venues with the brown wave shit like the digital outlet can. Here you need to curate your entertainment and get the audience to trust your choices.

If the digital outlet would ever become a gatekeeper again. They need a system like if you don’t get over 10 000 streams the first month, they just take the song off the internet in total. Impossible I know, but still, I can dream about it.

The world of empty streams sounds metallic!

Just saw a friend posted about a local band being signed to a bigger festival organizer. Never heard about the band before so I was a bit curious. I had heard about their former band though. It was one of the metal bands that was doing things very fast and very costly until they crashed after a couple of years.

So, they reformed and changed name. Also, that kind of a stupid mistake but usually the aftermath of an emotional poor decision.

Anyway, I saw that they were picked up by the only metal label left in Sweden. Usually, people brag around that but this label even though they are owned by a major is counted as a small shit label with no power whatsoever. And since I haven’t heard a shit around the project, I was a bit puzzled. Why brag and share this shit? As usual, I just went into Spotify and checked the numbers.

Pretty good numbers, to good numbers to be unknown like that. Most songs were between 500 000 to 300 000 each. But they only had 10 000 monthly listeners. Also, they only had 5000 followers. Something strange here.

So, as it is right now you just check the next outlet. YouTube, I mean here is where all the kids are and where most of the development of labels are done for the moment.  And here we go not a video over 25 000 streams. Most just with a just over 100 streams.

Back to Spotify and you can see how they are playlisted by this small company on totally useless metal playlists to get numbers. Empty streams that have no real value. I would love to know who the stupid festival organizer is that took on the band. They are in for a nasty surprise when then band maybe only draw like 20 people for the festival.

Yes, the industry in the lower regions is still pumped by these fake numbers. The bigger section is sobering up. I’m surprised that bigger people are still falling for these pumped-up fake numbers.

What the big players are talking about is how many real fans you can draw live. The digital numbers are totally irrelevant in the industry that is now developing. We are talking real fans and how they can react on stuff. The funny part is that the digital side is totally lost on this. The programmers and other digital gurus that think that we still going to use computers to find the next band is damn too high still. We are going back from digital to the real world and experience to save the music industry. And we are leaving the world of empty bot streams behind in the graveyard of myspace numbers.

I’m also not surprised that it’s a metal band we are talking about. The biggest metal/hard rock magazine in Sweden jus closed. And in this genre, they started late do migrate to the new world and were laughing that they were rising in the sales charts. They were not rising it was the charts that fell and adopted to their low level.