Smaller countries and major labels

[Jose Mrochek]

So what´s it like .. Sony Sweden ? or Univeral Italy ? artists we never hear about but are signed to major labels in small countries ? Sony and Warner Bolivia closed down a few years ago due to piracy.

Whats up with the majors in other smaller countries ? how are they doing as of talent.. etc.. Thanks!

[recky]

While I wouldn't exactly call Germany small, but apparently it is in record company terms, i.e. it's mainly viewed by them as a sales territory for their US (occasionally UK) talent. This stance is fully supported by German radio, including government-owned stations (of which there still are many), who play some 95% foreign music.

Each major label has a couple of token German bands, and at some point radio can no longer ignore them, so they will get some airplay, too.

There is a wealth of good music in Germany that no one ever hears about as it is completely ignored by the record companies despite the fact that there would most definitely be a market for it. Since major labels for some inexplicable reason tend only to cater for kids between 8 and 16, adults find very little they can like in the record stores.

Germany has a population of 86 million people, and a large percentage of this would buy original, homegrown, adult music if they could find it, or if they only knew about it. I know for a fact that a whole generation, i.e. those between 30 and 50 are craving good German music, but they're not getting it. So they turn their attention (and money) elsewhere.

The global major record companies are completely oblivious to this and are missing out on a multi-billion-Euro sales potential.

I'm pretty sure that things will be very similar in other "small" countries. Some countries are wiser than Germany and enforce an airplay quota on their own music, e.g. France. To a certain extent this forces major labels to release more local material. I wish we had this here....

Cheers,

Recky

[kats]

Same thing in Canada. There's a 35% quota for radio stations to play Canadian music. We also have entities like SOCAN etc that collect royalites from businesses that play music in their establishment - a typical restaurant will pay $500.00/year. The money goes to artist development etc.

There seems to be a push against it now in our country to scrap these quotas. I'm not sure how I feel about that. The thinking is that we are just carrying artists that are sub standard and that the cream will rise to the top regardless.

Personally I'm suspiscious. I don't see what Canadian artists have to lose and the public doesn't seem to know or even care about it. Which means to me that it's corporate interests that are applying the pressure. In my experience, their interests aren't for the good of the Canadian art community.

[max cooper]

Originally Posted by recky

While I wouldn't exactly call Germany small, but apparently it is in record company terms, i.e. it's mainly viewed by them as a sales territory for their US (occasionally UK) talent.

Unfortunately, it seems this is where many things are going.

Soon, all nations will have all the same stores and the same products. Blah.

[Marly88]

You calling that small? How about Holland then?

[Joram]

Holland:
* album chart top 10 (20 jan 2008):
1- Winehouse, 2- anouk (dutch - EMI, rec'd & prod'd by Glen Ballard in LA) 3- paul de leeuw (dutch - Universal) 4- nick&simon (dutch, indie) 5- alain clark (dutch, indie, w/ Steve Gadd on drums!) 6- trijntje oosterhuis (dutch - Blue note, 2nd Bacharach album, Mixed by Al Schmitt!) 7- radiohead 8- katie melua 9- andre hazes (dutch - EMI) 10- Alicia Keys.
Approx 25% of the rest of the list are dutch artists.

So we're doing not so bad here in Holland. Most interesting for you gearslutz are the Anouk and Trijntje Oosterhuis albums. They are both aware of the fact that there are no top-engineers (but me of course )and producers in their homeland. On the other hand: both artist won't do it bad in foreign charts.