This is the worst song ever!

Yes, you who wrote another song around Covid -19. No there is NOBODY who wants to hear your feelings around Covid -19, sorry. Writing in the intro text that the song is about that is just begging the intake on anything to just put it in the trashcan.

In the past days, I have already got fifteen of them. And most is a smelly cat* or smelly dog* crying how lonely they are. Yes, I know that you should be writing stuff about things that you really know. The problem here is that everybody has their own version on Covid -19. And they are so busy that they won't take in what you are singing about. In the truth, we really don't want to be reminded about it either. So my suggestion goes back and writes a happy tune seeing and meet people because that is what people are longing for. Another song that we should come together and break walls, stand up be courageous, been there done that.

If you are a small artist it is even worse because so many famous artists have got together and already done this. And to be honest the famous ones can't even make this a hit anyway. You need to be first. Like Bob Geldof when he did "Do they know it's Christmas" well after that many tried to do the same thing. Okay America with USA for Africa made it a good second, but who remembers the Swedish Hardrock initiative, or Band Aid II or all the others doing the same thing?

Too many are just dead fishes following the stream. If everybody is doing live streaming then they all jump on. Same with topics and release plans. The most amazing is that the artist that always claim to be one of a kind or special in one way are the ones taht are the hardest to convince that you need to get out of that box to be able to get something new. Like everything else, you need to create and be there from the beginning to be able to get something out of it.

So every new thing that comes around in sites, it's only, in the beginning, you have a chance to be there. Like Tik Tok if you think now it's new you are out of your mind. Now it's over, the artists on Tik Tok is already gone and done. We are chasing the next thing.

But the majority of the artists are in that way they are slow they are still on the playlist things on Spotify not realizing that Youtube just got Googel play into Youtube music and slowly like a giant prepare to crush the green bug. Will it happen? We have to wait and see. My guess though is that many "famous" artists disappear. Their fame is just a base on an algorithm on a certain platform.

To be famous in a real way, you have to break out of that box. Try things and fail and then learn from them. It takes time and you have to be doing it over and over. So forget that Covid 19 song and that you are gonna live stream it. That is almost half a year ago.

*Smelly cat or dog is an expression on our A&R teams for bad sing and songwriters, a cat is a sad girl on guitar and a dog is a sad guy on guitar. Hailing from the TV series "Friends" where Phoebe got a hit with the song smelly cat 

If you would like to have a chance to be successful you need this!

I sat in a meeting with quite many indie labels. It was a crash course on a new playlisting tool. Of course, some of the labels started to ask questions about how you pitched to playlists around the world. Because Sweden was not big enough. Also, they complained that it was very hard to get any results.

The labels that really did this, I actually usually get their press releases since I also work with media and radio. I can easily say that all of their press releases are not in the standard to be brought outside Sweden. They don't contain the right info or the right assets. Of course, they don't get any attention to sending a shitty press release around the world. It doesn't really make any sense. Reality struck my guess is that they don't have any success in Sweden but still blaming the Swedish press and radio for not cover their music and releases. Going abroad will not make it easier!

That is not what is actually failing. It's the number one fail that 99,9% of the artist do wrong. If you would like to have a chance to be successful you need this!

A good song!

Yup, here is the truth. 99,9% of the music that comes in is shit. No, it's not that I'm snobbish or anything like that. Things that I would call decent in my A&R job is at this level fantastic. These songs should never have been given out. Given out is, okay, never promoted more to say. When you promote a song you are up against the best of the best. Your song has to be as good as U2 songs. It has to be as hit worthy as Talyor Swift or Ed Sheeran. And your things are compared with both Beatles and Queen. 99,9% is not.

This is the bottom line, your song has to be good. Unfortunately, today's artists are testing music straight out. It's like the inventor of the bulletproof west just put it on themselves and tried the first test with bullets with themselves in the west. You see before the artists tested the songs first on the audience. They cut parts, checked how they reacted, and so on. That gave them the blueprint to go to the studio and record something that was already tested. Then they took that out and promoted it.

Today it seems you go out and party, come home write a song while drunk, record it while drunk, and then the week after giving it out on Spotify and then promote it.

If that was a terrible song it would be ok. A song has to be great or really bad. Everything that is just ok is the worst thing. It has not peace in this enormous brown wave of shit that is poured over us. The songs that come to my desk here is 95% just ok. You can listen to them but lose interest in 25 seconds. In today's attention world you need to be able to keep the audience for at least two minutes. And that is hard.

Problem is that the artist today have a hard time to take on criticism. When you do it live and they start to throw tomatoes you can just stand there calling for your mother to come and help you. Today's artists are mainly after that the intakes on radio and press just should answer that they love the song. They don't even understand that the worst we can say is that the song is ok.

So to have a chance to be successful you need a good song. Yes, you need to rewrite, you need to write with others, and in some cases, you might not bee good enough, then you buy the songs from the people that are experts on songwriting. Trying to break with a crappy song has never worked, will not work either.

And don't go to the people I mentioned, in the beginning, the reason why these small labels are giving out such crappy stuff is that they usually are failed artists and can't really see a good song if it painted itself purple and jumped on their desk screaming "a good song is here". They still think they are misunderstood. In reality, they really don't have the ear to get a good song. That you need training for. So don't go to your closest friends and mom and dad to ask if the song is good. Go to someone you suspect would hate your music. That day that person likes the song you have it.

Think of what song to play!

I'm gonna play my latest single. Yes, you have heard it so many Times during showcase festivals. Not the best choice in The showcase situation.

Why? Kind of easy. It's not all singles that actually works. Usually, if an artist release 10 singles just two get a good receiving. If it is a new single you are still testing it against the market. And during a showcase festival, your set time is limited. Not a place to test things go on safe cards.

Choose something that you really sure works. If you had a smaller hit with three singles ago choose that one to play on the showcase. Another reason is also the recognition factor. The new single is new, much more likely that the industry people you want to reach has listened on the songs that are most popular since these are mainly suggested on the sites. And its easier to pick up something if you have heard it before.

Yes, I know that all artists think that their latest song is the best since sliced bread. Still, the statistics are against that it is. So be on the safe side if you need to choose a song.

The gut feeling is not always right!

Yes, you should trust your gut feeling. But there are cases where you get fooled about it since it's not the first feeling. A gut feeling is usually that comes direct, nothing that builds up.

When it comes to singles and how good a song is are usllay gut feeling. Still, many artists work so much with the song that they build up a gut feeling around the song since they have heard it so many times it's so familiar.

In the movie industry, it's called "kill your darlings". The expressions come after the director has worked with a scene for a long time and really fallen in love with the scene. Then the producers and the test audience comes in and really don't see a point to have the scene in the movie.

Suddenly the director comes up with excuses to keep these scenes just because it's their darling scene. And many of the arguments when you do a movie is just around that you have to kill your darlings.

The directors gut feeling is to keep the scene since they have an attachment to the scene, still, the gut feeling of many others is that it should not be there.

This happens a lot in the music industry but in the lower fields, people tend to just let it go by. If the artist is pushy they get their thoughts through. In the end, though the team is not that excited to work with a song that everybody thinks is ok, not perfect. And when you get your feedback in and all the bloggers tend to say the same thing, yes it's ok but nothing special you just lose interest in the project.

So how to get all excited about a song? One trick is to present several songs and let the team choose. At the same time be prepared to "kill your darlings" also be prepared to get a no, on each song and start over again.

The ugly truth is that with today's system you actually compete with the biggest artist in the world on the same space.

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You release your songs to early.

https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2018/10/03/steven-van-zandt-streaming-disaster/

In an interesting interview with Steve Van Zandt. Much right as well one of the big issues with streaming and that you can release something almost instantly is that most of the releases are not finished. They are on the stadium of the demo, not in the quality of recording more about the development of the song.

In the Beatles era, they had the chance to test songs on audience live over and over. After that producers and record label people also said their stuff, then they recorded. Right now many use the release as a testing ground where they almost never go back and finish the product.

I see what Steve sees that we are heading back to the live stage. A ground where you can see directly in the eyes of the audience what is going on. My guess is that we soon will have more bootleg live recordings that will be classical in the future.

It is a new world we are adapting to.

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Don't overdo the favour

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You just hate them. The artists that really don't fit in your event and are nagging to get in there. Then you get an open spot and just for sake of it, you let that artist through. Suddenly they start demanding things that no other artists get like free booze and their own dressing room and of course special backline.

Suddenly they are demanding to get all the dates times and stages even though the main act hasn't got it yet. in the end, they are more demanding than your headliners.

It's funny they should get that they just got the spot on pure luck and friendship. Now they are getting that friendship really a lot of tension. Later you get all these asking favors next time on other things but you really don't take them again.

Try not to be such a diva if someone gives you an opportunity. You can be the diva when you get famous.

PERSONAL:

I'm on a University today to listen to songs. It will be fun, most of the time they usually take out other musicians to do this kind of things. In reality, you should take people like me that should actually do the pr for the song. I mean you wont get the guy that put together you iPhone to market that damn thing. No you present the product to the PR team. And over the years most musicians I have had judging things are totally wrong. They like the Iphiobne geek that are excited of a special function that the majority doesn't give a shit about. The best ones to pick out songs in my teams over the year was a guy working in a car factory. He listened to songs in his headåphones every day. He could hear when a song was a hit. Truly a mastermind on that in the end.

This is when musicians try to explain why they have done a bad song that I should market.