Submitted by Peter Åstedt
I just got a request from a music company to find new artists for them to develop. This is a really good opportunity for an artist. The style was not a big issue, they want music that works in most places, so not too nice genres like extreme metal, underground hip hop, or experimental music.
Since they want to invest for an extended period of time, they see that the artist is not over twenty-five years old. Not a must, but I can understand their wishes here. In fact, today age doesn’t really matter in the music industry since you can break through in the strangest ways and age doesn’t matter in those cases. Here they want to work with the artist in a certain way and need time that an older artist really might have available.
They had a special request that the artist should be able to write good songs themselves. Of course, they could buy them from writing camps, but they felt that they want a uniqueness for the artists so they would love to have an artist that could write their own material. But not a total must.
They want some work ethics. The artist should be interested to be an artist, not an influencer or a TikTok star. They want the artist to be able to tour the world since they know that is where they would get their return of investment, In that case, they also had the spec that if they are a band, they should not be more than four people. If it is a solo artist they should be able to travel with three people in total. Most of this is because of the plan they have designed.
The work ethic should also be to update social media and do things for fans that are not reminded of the music company all the time. To take the fans on the journey of the artists and develop these skills.
Shouldn’t be that hard to find right?
At the meeting, I told them that is probably totally impossible to find. You can find people that are good at writing songs, the problem with them is that it’s easier to sell them and have a pretty comfortable life. Most of the younger artists are not even prepared to travel and work at the pace that you need to get things done. Mainly this problem is that most things are done before the computer and getting live gigs and out to gather your audience is not anyone sees as possible. The older artist also wants comfortable touring, here they think they are on a full-blown tour before they even have an audience.
Parts of what they asked for are very easy to find but you won’t find all of the parts in one band or artist which is very unusual. Most of the time you have to train the other parts and that will take too much time, and you will lose the momentum.
In the end, I agreed to be on the lookout. Right now, I am starting to go out in the world and look at new artists so there may be a chance. Still, I’m very skeptical to find an artist that fills the whole criteria, even if it’s simple the basic criteria.
Editor’s Note: Peter Åstedt has been working in the music industry for over 35 years. He has started record labels, distribution systems, and publishing companies. Peter also runs several major showcase festivals and is an advisor for INES and co-founder of MusicHelp/Discover Sensation. He has worked with the Top Ten most streamed songs and had music on both the Olympics and Super Bowl. Peter has currently taken up the seat of Station Manager of Cashbox Radio, working with MD, PD and station owner, Sandy Graham. In 2021, he worked as the European Consultant for Heal the Earth – An Earth Day Celebration. His latest venture is a new Showcase Festival in Sweden, Future Echoes futureechoes.se/ which is about to launch the newest edition in Canada in 2024, Future Echoes Toronto. Peter is a Managing Partner and Editor of the legendary Record World International and also sits on the Board of Directors for the Canadian-based charity, The Drive Foundation.