RIP Hultsfredfestivalen
The Hultsfred Festival has been cancelled due to poor ticket sales.
Tag: Industry
Sofia Talvik, Mange Schmidt: the new face of Moderaterna
Moderaterna, Sweden's (dreaded) right-wing conservative party, has enlisted the artists Wille Crafoord, Mange Schmidt and Sofia Talvik as the "new" face of the party and the three have created a new party anthem together. Read more: http://www.moderat.se/web/Om_det_funkar_lat_det_funka.aspx (in Swedish)
Music Export Norway celebrates 10 years, unveil new site
Music Export Norway celebrated their 10th birthday by unveiling a new website, now completely in English: http://www.musicexportnorway.no/
Presenting Lovly.no
Lovly.no, the Norwegian music industry's new web initiative, is now online. What they say:
This is a music scouting service created by all music organizations in Norway to promote Norwegian music and show that there is a lot of good services where the public can listen to and buy music. And we're doing that through helping the public discover new Norwegian talent, not with a whip and a pointing finger...
The service is crawling blogs, twitter. last.fm etc to create top 10 lists showing the artists with most online buzz. The public can read tweets and the latest headlines from blogs about their favourite artists, listen to free 30 sec samples or click on listen/buy buttons that will launch icons for a lot of services available in Norway or share their favourites on Facebook and Twitter.
The goal is to promote Norwegian artists, ease discovery of new music, increase traffic to music blogs, showcase all the good services and get more bloggers to write about new Norwegian music.
Seems weird to me that they're not running the site in English to attract an international audience, but it does appear that they're doing a decent job of assimilating a lot of data from around the web.
The Knife makes big donation to Feministiskt Initiativ
Gaffa reports that The Knife has donated 50,000 SEK to Swedish political organization Feministiskt Initiativ: http://gaffa.se/nyhet/40066 (in Swedish)
Always good to see artists put their money where there mouth is.
Robyn - Dancing on my own (video)
This is retarded: has blocked international viewers from watching Robyn's new video on YouTube, but luckily it's also available on Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/11925060
Why do major labels shoot themselves in the foot like that? Makes no sense.
Service to publish a book
is branching out from the record business and will be publishing a book: http://srvc.se/service/fula-edith-en-dag-blev-vi-stora
More here: http://fulaedith.blogspot.com/
Världens smartaste man
I'd post a link to Kristian Anttila's new video for "Världens snuskigaste man", but those geniuses decided to impose copyright blocking based on location, so fuck 'em.
Strange Ears closing statement
As mentioned here, Danish label/booking agency is shutting down and now it's official. Read the official statement from bossman Steffen Rasmussen: http://bitterculture.blogspot.com/2010/05/tankerne-bag.html (in Danish)
Ja Ja Ja showcase at The Great Escape, more
Ja Ja Ja will be throwing a special Nordic showcase on May 14 for the occasion of London's Great Escape Festival featuring Susanne Sundfør, Jaakko & Jay and For a Minor Reflection. More details: http://www.jajajamusic.com/news.php?id=33
Other Scandinavian acts performing at this year's festival include Choir Of Young Believers, Erik Hassle, Simon Says No!, Ingrid Olava, Joensuu 1685, Megaphonic Thrift, Seabear, Vuk and possibly others, but I can't tell because their website is a piece of shit.
What is MIC Norway?
In case you've ever wondered what exactly MIC Norway is and does, they've just posted an article that spells it all out in a very clear and concise manner: http://www.listento.no/mic.nsf/doc/art2010050414171536379949
Scandipop interviews Gravonitas
Scandipop interviews Alexander Bard of BWO and Andreas Öhrn about their new project Gravitonas and also, perhaps more importantly, about the way they are promoting themselves with a simultaneous international release: http://www.scandipop.co.uk/?p=2452
I'm sure that other international fans of Scandinavian music like myself will appreciate this, even if they aren't necessarily into mainstream pop like Gravitonas.
Mad for It no more
Swedish label (Square, Hammarin & Robin, Parker Lewis) has called it quits: http://www.kimj.se/?p=71
New album from Emily and The Orgasm Addicts?
Danish act Emily and The Orgasm Addicts report that they have recorded a new album and are currently shopping around for a label to release it as their current home, , is apparently shutting down.
Next Ja Ja Ja confirmed
Ja Ja Ja has announced their next showcase which is set for May 20, curated by Stuart Clarke of Music Week, and will feature the artists Snorri Helgason, No and the Maybes and Mariam "Manna" Jäntti. More info: http://www.jajajamusic.com/events.php?id=16