Good morning from the airport Dusseldorf.
I'm on my way to the music & media congress in Tampere, Finland.
This will be the first time for me being there. You heard about it that it is spectacular.
Finland is about the size of Germany, but has only 5.5 million inhabitants. And it consists of about 90 percent forest area.
Supposedly there live the people with the highest coffee consumption.
I just landed in Helsinki and wait here in a small Finnish café, where strange food and drinks are served.
But I'm open for everything and look forward to the shuttle bus that will take me straight to Tampere.
It's about two hours to drive. From the plane I saw a lot of conifers and I think this conifer overkill will go on then.
I have finally reached the small beautiful cabin in the woods and now I have about 2 minutes to fresh up.
That's not exaggerated, it's actually the truth.
Then the entire delegation meets at the check-in and we'll get programs, festival ribbons and so on. Looks like tonight also 5 bands are playing.
And after this, it looks like tonight also 5 bands are playing.
That was a wonderful first evening. I saw great bands in a small club called Olympia, which is within walking distance of the hotel.
Evening concerts are now held daily in some clubs here.
In the hotel there'll be the panels, discussions, workshops, etc.
I will now go to a discussion titled "Why is indie better?". Sounds kind of good.
Furthermore I learned that the liquor Salmiakki comes from Finland and has a certain cult status here.
It is relatively expensive here, 5 € for a shot.
I got into the situation that I stand a round, paid with a bigger bank note and then waited in vain for change.
But so what.
I have the discussion "Why is indie better" behind me.
It was pretty good, several Indie label representatives from whole Europe participated.
Maybe it had been interesting if one representative from Universal or Sony had joint as well, to break the feel-good atmosphere a little bit.
I mean… if you like it or not: they are part of the business.
It's interesting how indie music developed.
In the Scandinavian countries, subsidies have been playing for a longer time.
In other countries it also happens more and more, also in Germany.
I would like to remember to the the origins of the term „indie".
I do not want to say, that this would still be possible,
but actually I think that there been a time when indie and underground worked synonymously. Indie should actually be between state culture and mainstream,
a position where it is completely independent.
If tax money is included, it is also kind of state culture.
But the market is changing radically. There is also money for the so-called high culture.
The thing is quite right to support the music culture, but at the same time it has a queasy connotation.
I've just been to the quite anecdotal panel of music supervisors,
people who are licensing music for movie productions and so on.
There were people from all over the world. I thought it was pretty cool get an insight
what budgets are possible.
The difference between the US, where it is not uncommon that you have the same budget for a film production of $ 100 million
once again for promotion,
in contrast to German productions, where the promotion often is done by the same production company with somehow small funds is really strong.
When you're working for someone like Paramount, the names are all important.
Then it must be Metallica alone because of their big name, but it often fails because of the money.
There was an interesting working example from Korea, where a song was supposed to be taken by Amy Winehouse.
But in the end they decided on a Miss Lee song that came relatively close to the desired song by Amy Winehouse.
There is often a stratification: trying to hire a well known artist, but at the same time get the licenses of indie artists
that cost only a fraction compared to a mainstream artists.
And if plan A does not work, they use plan B, C or D.
So it's always downhill. In the end, you still try to guarantee a song aesthetic wich is kind of close to your original wish.
I just saw the stage interview with Simon Raymonde,
who founded Bella Union Records in 1997. There are bands like "Exposions in the Sky"
or "Midlake" – which I like a lot – or "Beach House".
It was a nice roundabout to the topic "How do I lead an indie label and what all happens during doing it it".
What I heard more than once here is that a real friendship between artists and those who exploit their music is hardly possible.
This is simply a mined terrain.
He had some interesting anecdotes from the '80s, when he was still active as a musician.
Even in the alternative sector record sales of 100 thousand a week were still possible then.
In 2008, they released the first "Fleet Foxes" record, which was damn well received.
He said back then they had sales of 1 million in Europe
and he suspected if you had released the same record today, you could sell maybe 20 thousand physical recordings of it.
I can't imagine that, it seems to me a bit too negatively thinking.
But anyway, he is the expert.
The third discussion I visited had the modest title "How to build an international career"
and the majors where now represented as well, for example Warner Records.
The room was bursting at the seams, there were a lot of artists on site who bought a ticket to the congress to possibly make contact with the right people.
And that's nice and good, if you were so committed to your cause. On the other hand, it also seems a bit touching,
because the difficult situation becomes so obvious. One hundred people want something from one special person.
However, new discoveries have not been gained from this discussion.
Rather indestructible truths were preached.
"Stay authentic", "Do not pay too much attention to what others say about your art", "Do not just hang around with people who have a monetary interest in your person" …
Yes, this is all right.
Maybe in this discussion the indie people where missing. But so far everything is pretty segregated here:
Indie and major separated.
One thing I found particularly interesting:
The representation of Universal Germany has commented that in recent years so many small urban labels have sprung up from the ground
which have produced hits like "Trettmann" did for example ("Grauer Beton"), which went straight to the charts
Everything in a DIY attitude.
I was surprised that he praised the whole thing and told to do it exactly like this.
His reasoning was, even if it's big, you can still jump on the project as a major and make it even bigger.
That surprised me, because I thought the new developments were a counter-trend that annoyed the majors.
But that's also what the majors are all about. Similar to Grunge,
where the whole genre has turned against the music industry.
The majors then found ways to use, to absorb this criticism and earn money with it.
Looks like that's what makes the majors, that they profit in the end from every situation.
Today is the third day of Music & Media and the whole thing is already pretty much in the bones of the people you realize - in mine too.
The panels this morning were much less busy than yesterday.
A lot of people were celebrating yesterday. Here are some clubs that are located directly at the hotels, maybe 2 minutes away by foot –
till now I discovered 4 of them.
The Lost in Music Festival is running here at the same time – it is kind of a cooperation with the congress.
There are mainly Finnish bands playing there.
Many were very good, one of them I liked most: the band .... I wanted to say "Mudhoney" ... No ... They are called "Mafia Honey".
And besides, I found "Ghost World" outstanding. Here is really good music possible.
As for the panels today, I was in an interview with Michel Lambert who founded Pias.
It was in first case about from the time when the physical market was still big, till streaming, the problems of piracy and so on.
It was more like a little portrait of him.
There was also a strange panel dedicated to innovation, which was not uninteresting. It was about:
"What can one offer, so that the music market is artificially ventilated for a while longer?" At least that's how the question came to me.
I was a bit ashamed of the German contributions.
Instead of being a real part of a discussion the German speak contributions been more used to presented rather concrete dubious examples of innovations.
Like they established that KISS now play a show of 30 minutes for just 100 VIP guests before their actual concert,
who pay an incredible amount of money for it and sell it as a great fan experience ...
The last panel I visited today has completely dealt with the Japanese music market.
There was someone from "Ward Records", not to be confused with "Warp Records". "Ward Records" takes care of the Japanese music market,
signs national acts and licenses all the world famous metal bands.
This works very well, the metal market is absolutely stable in Japan, the fans support their bands directly with the purchase of CDs and records.
That's the way it is all over the world. Metal is just safe and loyal.
Otherwise, I did not know that the streaming market was launched so late in Japan.
In 2015, it started with Apple Music, which still has the largest market share, followed by the launch of Spotify in the next year.
For the national acts, it's still not a big deal.
Although the situation in Japan fell over and the physical music sales account is only 20%,
but the Japanese labels keep their artists back.
The same records are still released in different variants and that works till today somehow.
But it's a rather antiquated concept that is still stuck there.
The development is definitely going on a bit differently, you can be curious what else will happen there.
The casting phenomenon AKB48 was also subject of the panel, one or the other will know it.
You would have to google it, it's too time-consuming to explain that for now and I think it's also a little too stupid.
But anyway. I think if you look at it, you'll see what kind of pop concepts work well in Japan that would not stand a chance here.
I have just arrived in Helsinki where I will spend a three days vacationing,
looking at the city and hoping that I can relax a bit.
Of course that's not so easy after such a sensational event. There was an impressive amount going on in Tampere:
the "Lost in Music" festival, all these panels, conferences and workshops at the Music & Media event,
and last night that award gala (Industry Awards).
It was really courteaus that I was invited just like the people from the music business.
I sat with at a table, also with a few other people from Germany.
I think it's really funny when people come on stage, say something and and you even clap along of course, even though you did not understand a word.
However, I do not think that an artist has indicated that Finland should invest in more nuclear reactors - what they actually do!
I think this is less beautiful.
Quite unlike, for example, the Swedes who decided in the 2000s to get out of nuclear energy at all.
But that is now also on ice again.
Anyway. What I also learned is that the Scandinavian countries should not be shaved over a comb, there are bigger differences than I thought.
But the way music is promoted seems to have parallels.
However, all in all, it is interesting how the Scandinavian countries are focusing their attention on exports,
what makes a completely different culture happen.
Positively I can report that you are always addressed directly in Finnish language, what I like.
Because the feeling that you get conveyed when you get directly communicated with a first contact with another person,
that you are a stranger, is not necessarily a nice one.
It's friendly to be addressed in Finnish first, and usually the conversation continues
in English, and at a pretty good level. You could be really jealous of this competence.
It is well known that English plays a big role here on television. Films are in English
and broadcasters like FOX are broadcasting their normal program and only sending Finnish commercials.
I walk thoughtfully along the coast of Helsinki,
I have fond memories of my time in Tampere, at the same time I am puzzling over the German contributions to this very international event.
Probably it is normal that you look first at such an event in the strange, what's up with your own compatriots.
Germany is not necessarily known for having a flourishing internationalised film and music industry.
In other countries it looks very different.
It was interesting to see, right away, how people from all over the world are sitting together, each guiding the destinies of their domestic industries.
There were highly interesting experiences that were reported.
From the US for example, how certain Netflix broadcasts managed to attract very special artists,
o license certain tracks, which strategies to work on, how to place commissions, how to handle the budget,
how to create freedoms as well as complete failures ...
There were contributions from Korea about the special advertising industry - all at a very high level.
And when it's right back to such rhetorical strong statements they play a really badly resolved trailer
"Oh Boy" the movie is awesome, but the trailer is a disaster ...
And then it says that the trailer was created as a side project by the production company for which no one got paid …
And that actually no one was really paid for the movie …
I don't know for why it is necessary to try to get some compession.
Then the others say „We did not know that it is so hard for you in Germany".
There are also public broadcasters and film foundations involved in such a project, even if it was low budget. But it was concealed.
The big trick of the person in this example was that they wanted to use music by Django. Reinhard, but already in the beginning they recordnized that this is gonna be a suicide mission.
That's why they asked some students from the University of Arts in Berlin if they just wanted to reenact a few things from Reinhardt.
They did it, everybody liked it a lot, they played at the film premiers, did a lot of party and been very happy with the situation.
Of course that sounds like a certain class of project week and it looks like they have a complete different standing in Germany.
I don't know why they are working with this corny sentimentality like "We are so poor".
Of course, that's not how it can go on.
As you can see I got the chance to experience a really authentic Finnish weather. With low-hanging dark clouds and downpours. This trip offers everything about Finland experiences you can only dream of.
In retrospect, I remember in particular the sentence of an American booking agent, who said "Don't be a jerk. Don't work with jerks.".
This sentence contains a lot of truth. I think almost everyone has ever met a very capable artist and thought „Wow! How is possibly that your career has not really started yet, like others who are not nearly as talented as you are?".
It's just that there are other abilities than the creative ones that are missing, which means many paths are blocked. Presumably it is also a problem that many artists think that the eccentric and the airs are part of it, because that's just how pop works.
There are so many characters who have a certain reputation. If you look more closely at Kurt Cobain or Falco or Elvis, you quickly realize that these were people who were still very sociable and cooperative in the beginning and who got changed during their careers by the music business.
But it is also problematic when managers sell themselves as tamers or as psychologists who can work their way into the souls of the artists, which is usually no more than silly coquetry.
But challenging are also artists who have a submissive attitude. The whole casting business has certainly helped this development going on. These shows suggest that there are these influential people and you have to show them how confident you are.
And then the young talents create a simulated self-confidence, which is harmful. In order to get into conversation with influential people, it is probably the last thing that works to say, "Just look how great I am, I'm now directly pitching my project on the spot".
And the poor important person is currently sitting at the breakfast table and has very different worries. In my experience, self-irony and small talk skills are much more important to get into conversation.
At some point then comes the point at which one is asked „So, you are a musician?". Everything is probably everywhere in first case about sympathies.
Little promising is this compulsive, moaning "I'm trying everything, please give me a chance". This is bitter and certainly the wrong way.
I'm on the train to Helsinki airport, on my way back to Germany.
I just had lunch with a couple of people from Music Finland and a company working with them and I've been trying to figure out how this celebration called Music & Media actually gets funded.
It's way too complicated to break that down to a few sentences. There are funds from Tampere, from Finland, from the EU, many private companies are there as well, ticket sales and so on.
I had the feeling that they are very happy when everyone comes out at zero in the end.
But I have to say, it did not seem like that at all. Everything was very elegant, hospitable and generous.
You do not have the feeling that the Finns are treating their music industry the way like it happens with the mother at "Psycho".
Everything is very much alive and you do not have the feeling that the common frustration is at least not recognizable on the surface.
At any rate, there is no public moaning as it happens elsewhere.
I think it's an interesting time for TV (streaming services) and all that. Licensing is a big market.
But the business of producing new music and selling records has fallen a little bit out of time.
In the 2010s the streaming services became big and legal, and it's exciting to think about what kind of situation we'll have in 10 years.
Will there be any alternative to the current concert and record business.
These pseudo innovations, there was again such a German contribution, that they allow to see some bands soundchecks for cash.
Or that one establishes the fifth stage of a VIP ticket, which gives you the possibility to get whatever directly delivered to your chair ...
That's all rubbish.
I think there were always idiots in the music industry and there were always idiots who accept this tomfoolery.
As far as real innovations are concerned, aside from lover projects such as new cassette labels, one can be very excited.
I think that's something the whole world is asking: How will it go on?
Whether streaming alone will ever really make money. One does not know…
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