If you had an opportunity to sit down with an industry executive what is the one question you would ask?

 This week has been so much stupidity that I think I just want to shoot myself. But you must think on the bright side. Use it in your blog and explain the stupidity. So yes, I got a lot of new stories to write.

We start with a Facebook friend of mine asked this question: Artists, if you had an opportunity to sit down with an industry executive what is the one question you would ask?

Kind of interesting what the artist would answer. Of course, this was not a stupid question the stupidity in my life will come later in other chapters. My guess was of course they will be aggressive and start accusing this person because they haven’t succeeded yet. Like that would be this person’s fault? Okey in the old industry there was gatekeepers. That is long gone, everything is really open. The fact is that nowadays it’s not hard to sit down and discuss with even the biggest industry executive.

I stole some of the questions here and try to give my answer on them. I guess you can say I’m one of those industry executives, of course not the biggest one. The biggest one is only hired to build up the company. Most of the time these people are heads over just a company that doesn’t really matter what it is. They recruited from any type of business since it’s all the same, their job is for the company to make more money. Of course, the artist they work for matters, that is like a product that is important for a company. Nowadays though few of them are in the process of choosing the product when they take it it’s already popular. Let’s go back to the questions.

-          I would ask him/her how do they plan on competing and staying relevant in the age of streaming services becoming the modern era record labels.

Good question. The major record labels are NOT developing artists, some smaller do, the big ones are mainly taking on artists that are flashing through social media channels or apps like TikTok. Their job is to develop that artist with a fanbase to get more revenue and of course they take a percentage out of that revenue. The problem the majors have is that these careers and platforms change so rapidly that the careers is only available for around a year. Another problem is that the money is not that big and a lot of cheating so most artist on the platforms is not signing up with the label since they can’t afford to share that percentage. This is though much safer to earn some money on an artist for a year then develop an artist for five years and then might get slightly higher revenue. For the companies, this is a safer way to go.

That they are relevant, that can be discussed? But yes they still give sweet deals to a big artist like Talyor Swift, so they won’t disappear in that kind of sense. The streaming services are not acting like record labels, they tried early in their things but realized that they can’t predict anything anyway and all their attempts fail. A reason modern attempt was trying to break Ava Max through Spotify, she has the numbers, but not the fans.

-         -  I would ask, why don't they give back to up and coming artist, who is extremely talented, but don't have a way, or the knowledge to capitalize on their gift.

I guess we already took this one. It’s too much of a risk!

-          - What are you guys actually looking for right now?

I guess I got that one there as well, an artist that already has a fanbase they can capitalize on.

-          - How do I get paid if I am not in charge of Production or Producing my own Material.

Then you are a boyband that is hired as an actor is hired in a movie. You get a salary. If you do your own material, you own it you can then license parts of it to get a better reach. The days when companies invested in recordings and stuff is way over.

-          Get you a lawyer that knows something about the music industry let him ask a question.

That is really the wrong thing. I have met many lawyers that have no clue how the new music business works. Better to let them see the papers when you have them on the table. They are usually good to intemperate the law. Most of them are really lousy to be updated or even have the knowledge inside the industry.

There were more good questions but I will stop there and might come back to them another day.

There were more good questions but I will stop there and might come back to them another day.

Technology the new A&R?

A couple a years ago I saw this quite often, tomorrow's music industry using technology. Still, some people that are not that involved in the future of the music industry still think that AI and technology will rule what you are listening on. Sorry, we still haven't got a decent algorithm that can predict what I like, just guessing on what I have played.

And right now we can really see how the industry is taking a big leap from the tech side. Suddenly Spotify playlists are insecure. You can't get anything good out of the data. And what we see is a bunch of computer nerd sweating since their business angels are hunting them and they can't seel their companies like they used to do.

No, the computer geeks will end up on the waste bin like the supervisor did when the industry changes once more. Suddenly things outside the digital world become very important. Live entertainment, the experience is the new lead word and that is where the industry is heading.

So I'm a bit jaded walking around on Midem with very tired publishers and record labels that really isn't up to date. In fact, they are as hot as Mc Hammers pants.

The future is already here but it's decided on a totally different playfield. And a bunch of few people is invited. The computer geeks are not.

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It’s never perfect, so don’t say no.

It’s when an artist says no to opportunities you start to wonder as an A&R. I just spoke to my friend who books a showcase festival in the UK. He had a band that he wanted to give more gigs during the festival but said they didn’t want to perform more than one time a night. After that, he tried to give that empty premium slot to another band but they didn't want to get to the festival one day earlier to take the extra show.

When you see that as an A&R you know this band will not go anywhere. You never know who would be on that show they just said no to. It could be an investor, a festival booker, a super fan or some completely another offering.

When you start to say no just because of comfort, in reality, says no to an audience. And in the end, you will say no to so much audience that it will be no audience left for you.

One of the worst shows I ever had was with You Say France & I Whistle in NYC. It was an extra show in an evening in a kind of unknown place, not really in the center of the festival either. Later the same evening we had a rooftop gig with one of our sponsors. A really cool gig with a lot of good people. The group HAIM was actually opening up for You Say France & I Whistle, still they were unknown back then, actually their first NYC gig.

Still, they were professional and did this first gig. They had a TV team following them doing a program about their experience in NYC. We had some discussion to just say no to it and just bring the team to the rooftop party which will be so much cooler. Still, you take your chances.

The gig was the worst. The sound at that place sucked bad time, and the sound engineer was not the best and over feeding the sound. The guitarist broke a string, and worst it was only six people showing up. Not that good to be filmed. But the band did the show.

Then they did the rooftop and it was marvelous. The TV team got their picture there.

In the end though. The rooftop actually never gave anything more. Sure it was a great gig. The people that were there were already fans of the band, that gig didn’t make it any more than we already got.
The disaster gig then? Well, all these six people were very important and gave back very much. If we have canceled that gig almost 50% of our chances that was brought to us would have been wiped out.

That is that you know if you start to say no to things because of your comfort or disbelief or not perfect then you know that artist will never make it. And yes we actually test that with new bands that we sign. And yes it happens that they fail and get kicked since we know they will not make it.

Never apologize

Yes, we are in the demo week on the blog. Taking out issues that we see from the demos we got in. Since I had several friends over drinking beer listening on demos I also got the most comments on what they thought failed in the presentation or music.

You just look strange when someone is writing: This is not our best song we have better ones.
Why the hell don’t you send the better ones? I guess the answer would be that they are not recorded Fun fact is that all artist whenever you talk to then yesterday’s song they wrote was the best one in the world and the song you are promoting that was written six months ago is really not that good any longer, even though it was the best song in the world back then.

Back to the point, never apologize for what you send in or the presentation. In most cases, we overlook that if you don’t point it out, but when you point at it with your whole hand we lose interest in the whole thing.

At the same time when we are talking about apologizing. The other way around is not good either. We got this message in one of the demos around the artist:

All about me we can take in an interview, I believe in my music and it speaks for itself.

That was all that was written. That just gets you to off on the artist.
Don’t apologize and don’t be too cocky and don’t send it in if you are not satisfied with the work.

Who did you played with?

Yes we are in the demo week in the blog. Taking out issues that we see from the demos we got in. Since I had several friends over drinking beer listening on demos I also got the most comments on what they thought failed in the presentation or music.

This you get a lot, bands they artist has played with. This is kind irrelevant information. I mean The Magnettes played on Summerfest, but I want write about all the other bands that played on the festival. Like The Magnettes shared stage with Bob Dylan, The Chainsmokers and Wille Nelson. Sure they played there too but have no effect. Even that Red Hot Chili Peppers came down and saw them would make it to the bio. It’s good for social media but not in the bio.
Here is The Magnettes hanging out with Chad from Red Hot Chili Peppers and David from Summerfest

It’s even worse when the band start to point out bands that you really don’t know who it is. Yes most of you would know Red Hot Chili Peppers and Bob Dylan. These are household names. But even if you think that this band from your hometown is kind of big it’s not big enough. Even the artist that came number five in idol is not good enough or if they have been in eurovison. So only household names.

This also counts for if you were back singer to bigger artists or hired musician for a bigger artist. This won’t affect your career or make you a better musician. Rather that you look upon it that maybe this is your normal occupation and your own career comes in second place. This counts also saying taht you have been study on some musical school, it's good but not any good info for us.

The only time it’s relevant is if you are supporting big name on a big tour. That can be a good thing. Still watch out for it since that would direct lead the A&R:s looking on your Facebook and Instagram band check your numbers. Sayings like: Well they support Iron Maiden on this tour and only have 5000 followers’ ion Facebook that is not that good.

Let the past be the past and tell us what you are planning to do, that is much more interesting.

Don’t send released tracks.

Yes we are in the demo week in the blog. Taking out issues that we see from the demos we got in. Since I had several friends over drinking beer listening on demos I also got the most comments on what they thought failed in the presentation or music.

This was the thing that really got a lot of the A&R: s angry. Out of 50 demos actually 49 of them sent released tracks. Only one had a hidden track.

A released track is a released track; we really can’t work with it. Of course it’s not the end of the world if the track is released, but many possibilities’ has just gone out the window. We got four letters where they planned to release the track two weeks later. Of course we read this one month lat4er and we could go out and see where their track has gone. Usually nowhere!

So what is the hurry? This mistake is just pissing on your own music and don’t let it get a chance. Even with you releasing the music it takes much longer than two weeks to do marketing and other stuff. All this si that you want to get your latest stuff out to your buddy’s, we know. Still you can do it in so many cooler ways then post the shit straight up on Spotify.

One of the A&R:s played me a unreleased song of a kind of famous artist that would be released in November.  Of course it was more fun hearing it now then him sending me a link with the track on release in November. I felt special to hear the song before everybody else. And this is what you should do with your friends as well. Let them hear the new song on a secret link on soundcloud, I actually think that is more effective then be able to say the song is on Spotify. No one really care about that one.

So what happened to the release tracks? Soon the A&R: s heard the name of the band they went straight to Spotify and checked the numbers. I know it’s stupid to do that but that is what they do. And they direct discovered that nothing really had passed 10 000 streams. Witch meant that no one had put any marketing behind it, so why should they put marketing behind it.

Yes by sending a unreleased track they don’t know they outcome. Then they have a bigger chance to say yes, now we got a bigger chance to say no. So always send tracks that are unreleased, never release a track before six month has passed.