Social media gives away your knowledge.

Since I hold a couple of gateways to different things, I get a lot of requests on social media. Most people are of course people I never have met in real life. There are fake accounts so the first thing you look after if the person is real. If we have common friends is a sign that the person is real, not just one common friend but a couple.

Now these common friends also give away a bit what level you are on in the industry. Almost like a fortune teller, I can read what you want and what will happen with your friend’s request. I have been playing with my staff here in the office to see if my theory is right and so far, I have been better than the fortune teller machine Zoltar in the movie “Big”.

One example is when an unknown artist is making a friend’s request. You can see that they are new to the industry, there are few friends and the ones they have is usual local heroes in the area they are from. I usually say yes, and my guess is that that in the first 48 hours I will get a message with a question that they can send a song for me to listen to.

The fun part is that since they are an artist I just go into their accounts and check out what they have so when the question comes, I have usually already seen and heard it. It only takes a couple of minutes. I like those in one way. The problem is usually that they demand a lot of feedback which I really don’t have time to answer on. Unfortunately, my work time is limited to helping you with your new song that is already released.

Then you have a certain area. You get friend’s requests from local industry professionals and you can easily see that all the friends are from an area or a specific country. These usually just say hello and hope that they will meet me on some convention later that are held in their area. The strange part is that they never offer their services or do an exchange thing?

Then you have the bragger. These are usually older people ask for friendship and immediately start boosting about names they have worked with. The main problem with these is that the names they are throwing around are generally not in the industry any longer, a lot of “has been”. The question comes down to that they seek a job or something that we can hire them for. The problem here is that the friend's list gives away that your “best before” date is long overdue and several of the same friends have done the exact same request.

Then you have the spies. The ones that just make a friend’s request. You can see that they hold quite many interesting contacts. These usually just never send you a message. Instead, they are in for keeping an eye on what you are launching and what you are telling. This is the reason why I stopped telling who I meet or when. The only time I do that is if something is already made a decision on and I want to brag.  During on showcase festival, we made the whole page crazy by taking pictures with big companies and posting them on social media and everybody though we did deal with them.

Another cringy one is the artist that runs around like a headless chicken befriending everyone and ask for favors. There you can see that they end up with a list of who is who along with the shady people in the industry. In those cases, I more or less just avoid them. In the end, they will never make it.

This is of course just for fun. The list, later on, can grow and can reveal when a person is getting to a place where they are an influencer in the industry. Still in many cases, if your friends are only bearded men that plays the flute, I know what level you are on. 

Yes, everything can be read in the numbers on the internet.  Still, we can’t seem to get an accurate top chart?

Can I borrow you network?

I'm going to this place, can you set up some meetings for me?

I get this from my own bands as well as professionals around me. It seems kind of easy to just share your network and help someone out, but it's not. I used to do that, and it is an idea of that yes you can work as a group sharing things.
The problem that arouses is that in many cases it's personal contacts. It's a personal relationship. In the bottom, you actually put your personal brand on the line by doing this. In some cases when I have done it the person screws up the relationship because they say the wrong things or ask for the wrong stuff in the meeting.

One example long ago was when I got a really big Japanese label to Sweden. They were in Stockholm and an artist had nagged me to meet them. I didn't have time to take that meeting so I let the artist go by themselves. Then after that meeting, the label was a bit weird to talk to. Of course, the artist had been totally crazy and just went into the meeting demanding tours and stuff in Japan thinking that everything was easy to demand. In the end, it took me two years to get the trust back from the Japanese company.

Sure you can get my network, but I rather do the introduction when you are around. that is my principle right now. Then, of course, the people I have a super connection too I can give you.

And the problem is that networks are personal. You can easy her stories how an artist gets signed to a label and a month later that person leaves the company and the artist is stuck in limbo since the contacts that should be used for that artist went the person that was leaving.

Then you have to give something back. I built up a network for the past twenty years and paid quite much to get into things to get this. Sure I want to help you out but it is a give and takes. So for an artist, it's harder, they usually don't have much to give. Sure we are in the same boat and try to push your music forward. It's better though if you go for your own network and we use both then you tapping into mine so we both have the same.

Another thing is also that music professionals talk differently when they speak to an artist. They don't want to be rude so they really just be positive to all that your a saying. When you are in other terms you get a whole other story from them.

This is also why artists can't really do showcases by themselves. First, they are too busy playing and do what they should do. On the other side, it's hard for them to pick up your contacts and also know how to work them.

I get the contacts are a tool, a tool that you don't borrow out just like that.

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