CD Baby blog about my US tour up now!

All the states we've covered in 9 months of touring
CD Baby blog - read it here
CD Baby blog – read it here

As an indie artist, CD Baby has been my loyal companion and part of my career for many years. I was lucky enough to met the CD Baby people at the Folk Alliance international conference earlier this year and they emailed me a while ago and asked me to write a blog about how to plan and execute a US tour.

When I got the questions I felt like, hey, my answers will be sooo long it’ll turn into a book, because there’s just so much I’ve learned along the way and there’s so many details that I could include. But I tried to keep it brief so that you wouldn’t loose site of the purpose (or your excitment on planning your tour) halfway through all the tiedious details on how to get a US drivers license etc. I hope I covered the basic “need to knows” as well as some good tips for artists, touring or not, and the rest is out there in cyberspace if you google it 🙂 Read it here!

All the states we've covered in 9 months of touring
All the states we’ve covered in 9 months of touring

New Drivin’ & Dreaming TV show

Drivin' & Dreaming TV

So, since I don’t have enough work with booking, promo and playing shows to fill 30 hours of the day, I also decided to start filming our adventure and do a little TV show out of it. It will air here on my website and all episodes will be available on Youtube. If there is something you’re missing in the show or have a question you would like me to answer send me an email here or on Facebook and I’ll try to put it in the show. I’ll try to release a new episode every week to every 2 weeks.

Please forward this to your friends to boost my viewings, just as regular TV this show’s life depends on how many viewers we get!

Welcome on tour with me!

Ripping off artists

I just got contacted through my Sonic bids EPK by an organization called Bands With A Mission. They took on a personal approach by mentioning one of my songs, but I’ve gotten these kinds of emails before and soon got suspicious of their motive.

After doing some research online I found this blog: http://samsongs.wordpress.com/2009/07/31/band-with-a-mission-not-a-chance/which confirmed all my suspicions.

I think it’s so mean when people try to profit on struggling bands and artists. It’s like this online magazine called Indie Music Reviewer that I sent my album to for a review a while back. I instantly got an automated email saying that I’d be guaranteed a review if I bought this or that advert space. So now every time I see a band being reviewed by them I just wonder if the score they got reflect how much they paid.

I really think companies like that suck and I feel sorry for the artists that get lured into paying money for shit like that.

Ny grym recension för TOANWTS

The Owls Are Not What They Seem

Innan jag börjar gotta mig i den nya fina recensionen min skiva The Owls Are Not What They Seem har fÄtt sÄ vill jag gÀrna pÄlysa lite trÄkiga nyheter om den svenska media- och musikbranschen. Eller jag nyheter Àr det vÀl inte direkt, i alla fall inte för oss independent-artister som kör vÄrt eget race med egna skivbolag.

Mitt bolag Makaki Music som jag drivit sedan 2006 Ă€r givetvis med i SOM – Svenska Oberoende Musiker. Och idag fick jag den hĂ€r hemska statistiken frĂ„n dem i ett mail:
“Under vinterns arbete i SOM kring sammanslagningen EMI/Universal har statistik framkommit som visat pĂ„ en Ă€nnu mer massiv dominans inom media Ă€n vi tidigare trott (90-95 % majorreleaser pĂ„ Europeisk nivĂ„) och dĂ„ frĂ€mst pĂ„ radio.”

Det Àr tufft som det Àr för oss DIY-artister. Men att svenska media Àr sÄ jÀvla köpta (ursÀkta kraftuttrycket) fÄr mig att mÄ smÄtt illa. Jag slÀpper skiva ungefÀr med 1,5-2 Ärs mellanrum och TOANWTS Àr min 5e(!) skiva. Varje gÄng kÀmpar jag hÄrt med inspelning och sedan minst lika hÄrt med promotion. Men vad hjÀlper det nÀr man Àr bortrÀknad direkt för att man inte ligger pÄ ett storbolag?

I November förra Ă„ret tog jag mitt pick och pack och drog till USA för att turnĂ©ra pĂ„ obestĂ€md tid framĂ„t (vi siktar pĂ„ 2 Ă„r). Idag kĂ€nner jag att det var det enda rĂ€tta, för jag har ju Ă€ndĂ„ ingen chans att fĂ„ in mina lĂ„tar pĂ„ rotation pĂ„ svensk radio – Ă€ven om 7 Miles Wide frĂ„n min nya skiva blev framröstad av bĂ„de jury OCH svenska folket som veckans överlĂ€gsna vinnare i p4 radio stockholm för ett tag sedan. Vad svenska folket gillar bryr sig nĂ€mligen inte radio och tidningar om. LĂ„ter jag bitter? Well kanske lite, men kan ni klandra mig nĂ€r statistiken Ă€r som den Ă€r?

NÄvÀl, pÄ grund av detta blev jag extra glad idag nÀr Uppsala Nya Tidning gav TOANWTS en GRYM recension! Just dÀrför tÀnker jag ta och publicera hela hÀr och nu!

[quote]SINGER/SONGWRITER.

PÄ sitt femte album lÄter förra Uppsalabon Sofia Talvik sin akustiska musik bli Àn mer avskalad men samtidigt ocksÄ Àn mer mÄngbottnad. Den spröda, sÄrbara sÄngen och de skimrande vackra refrÀngerna skapar drömska stÀmningslÀgen, dÀr en kÀnsla av skymning och ett ödsligt, vidstrÀckt nattlandskap kommer allt nÀrmare ju mer man lyssnar.

Trots ett synbart vÀnt anslag mÄlar musiken fram bilder av ett annalkande mörker dÀr oanade faror lurpassar. Kontrasterna mellan det sköra och det hotfulla gör att skivan kÀnns allt annat Àn förutsÀgbar och helheten Àr synnerligen fÀngslande.[/quote]
Av: Stefan Warnqvist

Touring and booking

Support me here!

So who’d have thought it would be so much work to tour and book new gigs at once? I need an intern – badly! (please email me if you want to apply ;))

So anyway, there’s several ways of finding new gigs and I really like the house concert setting as people are really there to listen to your music, and so I thought I should be part of Slowbizz.com which is a global house concert network. But to be accepted I need the support of 100 of my fans. So I’m reaching out to you now, hoping, you’ll help me make my booking a little bit easier by supporting me as an artist here: SLOWBIZZ.

Support me here!
Support me here!