[INT.] When songwriting camp Aarhus Calling visited SPOT+ Friday afternoon, it was an excellent opportunity for music industry professionals and enthusiasts to pick the brain of some of the biggest producer names from Denmark and abroad. The panel consisted of Che Pope, Grammy award winning producer and A&R in Kanye West’s label G.O.O.D Music, Danish super-producer Cutfather and his team, Medina-producers Pitchshifters, and Scandinavian industry heavyweights Robin Jenssen and Pelle Lidell. Here are a few select quotes from this excellent seminar.
Pitchshifters on producing songs
Why have one kick drum, when you can have five. More is more. That’s always been our motto.
Che Pope on Streaming services
It’s a content game – he who has content is King. And I hope it doesn’t end up like one of those things, where, If you want Madonna, you gotta go with this service, and if you want something else, you gotta go with that service. But like all things, it is gonna get sorted out. Because us, as creators, is gonna demand that it gets sorted out, and you as consumers is gonna demand that it gets sorted out. But it’s a work in progress.
Cutfather on the distribution of streaming income
Within the last six months, songwriters and producers are starting to speak up. You can really feel it in the whole community – it’s just about enough. It’s bubbling now. There’s a lot of anger. The collection societies and the organizations should be doing their job. Something will hopefully come out of it. Everything starts with the song. That’s where the power should be.
Che Pope on negotiating deals for artists
The most powerful publishers are also the most powerful labels, so they have two different agendas going on. It’s a tricky thing to navigate.
Pelle Lidell on the use of coercion
Pitch a song to certain labels or TV-stations, and they say ‘we want the song, but you have to give away 50% of the copyright’. It happens all the time. Everyone seems to be moving in on songwriters. I never agree to those deals. A lot of writers do. And that’s disloyalty to other songwriters. They’re feeding that system. That’s alarming. I will never ever play that game. Ever.
A hearty thank you to Aarhus Calling and all participants for joining us at SPOT+ 2015.