You've finished writing a new song, now what? Many people would love to perform it themselves, but if you don't have the artistry in you, what are the chances of getting others to do their version of it?
/ 30/06/2016 / codexWhere the market for your music is depends of course on the genre, which industry players can best work with the music, and not least which contacts you have and can acquire. For many, it is easy to dream of success in England, the USA, Japan or the whole world, but if you want to follow the money flow, the potentially most lucrative markets are even closer. Of the fees that TONO receives from abroad, almost 40 percent of them come from Sweden, Denmark and Finland. 20 percent of the remaining income comes from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Then follow England, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and the USA.
More music is consumed from Sweden, England and the USA than those countries consume Norwegian music, so there should be potential to take more of the domestic market. What are the chances today of getting songs placed or co-writing music with others for releases here at home?
One of Sony Music's A&R directors, Leif O. Ribe, says he estimates that only about 20% of their Norwegian artists would be receptive to 100% finished songs. He says:
– In Norway, there is probably a very strong tradition of performing artists also writing their own songs. I don't think you need to go any further than Sweden to see a different culture in this area, where my opinion is that songwriting as a profession is stronger independent of the performing artist. The estimate includes DJ/producer artists who are then primarily looking for toplines, so the market for fully written/produced songs is probably even narrower. However, it should be said that most of our other artists do a lot of co-writing, but I find that it comes naturally to most people to be actively involved in this process.
Universal Music's A&R director Bjørn Rogstad also sees that there is a greater culture of co-writes today:
– It's not as stuffy and low-key here in old Norway anymore when it comes to collaborating with others. Before, you weren't considered a "real artist" if you didn't write every single note and every single word yourself. Ideally, you should also produce and play all the instruments yourself. Then you were a real artist. Now producers collaborate with other producers, songwriters with other songwriters and artists. In a cross-section. What matters is how good the result is, not how the result was created. Fortunately.
Jørn Dalchow at daWorks collaborates with several foreign publishers and songwriters for co-writes, as well as with record labels and artist management. Every year he organizes Song Farm, focusing on Nordic songwriters.
– There is a great window now for Norwegian music to be released, so you are getting more attention. The market is driven by newly written music, preferably tailored to the individual artist and project. Artists also want to participate more in co-writes, and thus they gain greater ownership of the songs, both financially and emotionally, he says.
He adds that a challenge to further growth for publishing jobs is a lack of risk capital.
– The Norwegian publishing industry is still severely underfunded because there are few Norwegian-based partners for Norwegian publishers who can help provide financial backing for agreements with songwriters who want to focus more on international ventures. The most common model is co-publishing agreements between indie publishers and major publishers. The latter have their Scandinavian head offices in Stockholm. Through such agreements, these can help finance the ventures, but then 50% of the publishing fees also disappear from Norway. If all the money remained in Norway, we would be able to more easily build up and professionalize the publishing business here at home.
– Would you give any special advice to songwriters who are just starting out now, about how they should go about spreading their music?
– The best thing is to find a publisher that sees potential in you, that you have good chemistry with, and that can be a partner to help you move forward. There is still a general lack of knowledge among Norwegian authors about what publishers do, and that they can actually make a big difference for both established and new talents. It would be smart to thoroughly understand what they can do for you and do research before contacting potential partners.
What are the chances of collaborating with songwriters and artists in our neighboring countries? Quite good, we believe Christian Møller, A&R manager at Universal Music Denmark.
– It would be nice to collaborate with more songwriters from Norway, he says. – Denmark is hopelessly behind Sweden and Norway, and we definitely have a lot to learn.
Pelle Lidell, who was A&R manager at Universal Music Publishing Europe and works extensively with the production collective Dsign, believes that there is a lot of untapped potential in Norwegian songwriting. He meets many promising songwriters from here, but believes that Swedes are a bit more aggressive, hungry for exports and better at networking directly with foreign players.
– I don't think that Norwegian songwriters are in any way inferior to Swedish ones. We've just had a longer tradition of it than in Norway and there's still a credibility monster hanging over Norwegian music. Not everything can be Portishead, he says. At the same time, he recommends developing yourself in the domestic market first.
– The US is actually pretty unsexy these days. All the Facebook songwriters who have moved to Los Angeles are never going to be successful. I've never seen a nobody move to LA and make it. You have to have local success first.
He adds that everything still relies on something that is not rocket science:
– You have to have a fantastic song and a production that sounds great. Demos today sound almost like mastered recordings. Songwriters today should also be a fantastic producer. The competition has become much tougher compared to 10 years ago. The ones who survive are the ones who put in the time to study songwriting, production and the markets around the world. There is a difference between making music for England, the USA, Germany, Japan, Australia, Korea, and soon China.