Ifpi about the artists who ship the record companies: "Risks of losing revenue"

Uploading your own music on streaming services and distributing it via social media is no stranger today. That is why more and more people are choosing to simply skip the important step for older artists: to be sown by a large record label. In Sweden, the trend is most evident in hip-hop.

- Record companies usually take percentages for things they might not help so much with. They may not prioritize the artist as much as we would do, says independent rapper ZE to the Cultural News.

His debut album My pen bleeds reached first place on the Swedish album list and right now he has as many Spotify listeners every month as Håkan Hellström.

Ludvig Werner is the CEO of Ifpi, which represents the Swedish music companies. He thinks that development is logical.

- In many ways it is a good development. This means that many more artists can test themselves how they want to communicate and how often they want to release music, says Ludvig Werner to the Culture News.

What worries him, however, is that many people do not seem to be aware of their rights and sources of income.

- An important thing, which we can sometimes be a little worried about, is that those who have no contact with the industry can miss revenue. It is so important that you register your rights with Sami, Ifpi and Stim so that you get all the compensation generated when your music is played on radio or in other public contexts.

To reach out with the information, Ifpi today collaborates with platforms such as the media house Fanzingo in southern Stockholm.

- There we have a dialogue with music industry surfaces that do not have much contact with the industry and where the industry may have been too absent. We also need to provide information in social media and on YouTube, says Ludvig Werner.

At the same time, Ifpi is doing everything they can to make the money reach its creators, according to Werner.

- We look up the artists and make sure they get their money. Then you notice that they are not registered and that they are not familiar with exactly how to do.

But if you can distribute your music, market yourself and you make sure the Stim money comes in, what does a record company need?

- As an artist or composer, you are usually full of being the creative person. The reason why record companies are so often connected is that you can offer a lot of expertise but also adapt it to what a specific artist needs.

There seems to be some distrust of the big record companies among the young, new hip hop artists. What do you think it depends?

- Absolutely. They feel that "they did not care about us and then we shit in them". I can respect that kind of attitude. If you consider that you have done good things for a long time but no one has been interested in listening, then you think: then we do this ourselves instead.

Do you as CEO of Ifpi feel any concern about this confidence step?

- There has always been no matter if we talk about soul in the 60s or about the punk that was also on homemade labels in the 70s. But when you become an established artist you often start to collaborate with the industry after a while. Many have started themselves, but today they have gone on to work with established actors.

According to Ludvig Werner, it is important for artists to know their rights and sources of income for a continued live music landscape.

- If the radio plays ZE or Einár a number of thousand minutes, they have made quite a lot of money. And if you want to be able to live on your music, you have to make sure that all smaller or larger transactions come to the right owner. The value of keeping track of their rights is super important now that no part gives them a lot.