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randomvarious · 1 year

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Today’s compilation:

20 Top Hits aus den Charts, 3/2001 2001 Europop / Eurohouse / Eurotrance / Pop / Dance-Pop

Some people may choose to partake in bud on a day like today in order to drive themselves into some kind of delightfully hazy fugue state, but today, rather than indulging in a premium blend of psychedelic jam bands, reggae, and dub, I decided to try to reach that same level of satisfaction by becoming Oskar (that's Euro-Oscar), and blissfully live among piles upon piles of pure and utter garbage 🤩.

Basically, when it comes to these immeasurably goofy and ephemeral Euro-comps from the turn of the millennium, I'm just a single, solitary, little, oinking piggy who's trying to score some disgusting slop. Sure, I'm down for a nice nostalgia rush and a good tune here or there that I've never encountered before, but my primary objective when listening to these Now That's What I Call Music!-Euro-equivalents is to unearth some music that's so patently absurd and terrible that you really can't help but smile at how ridiculous it is.

And boy, howdy, did I manage to reel in a big one with this German hits CD from March of 2001. Berlin-based pop duo Rosenstolz brought in the always theatrically brooding Marc Almond—of Soft Cell fame ("Tainted Love")—and they did a *mind-numbingly awful* and campy Europop cover of German operatic new wave oddball Klaus Nomi's "Total Eclipse." And at first, when I saw the name of this song on the tracklist, I thought maybe Almond was going to sing "Total Eclipse of the Heart" over a modern Euro-beat, but I unexpectedly got something that is so much worse instead. And I fucking love it. Mission accomplished 😌.

The rest of this album, though, unfortunately, isn't nearly as bad as that one song. It's just pretty much run-of-the-mill bad instead of exceptionally bad. Lots of tunes trying to copy Max Martin's playbook—the Swedish producer who's responsible for lots of big 90s teen pop hits from the likes of the Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, and Britney—and coming up short. But speaking of Britney, her song, "Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know," which evokes Bowie's "China Girl," is probably legitimately the best song on this release. It wasn't issued as a single in the US though, and was instead only released to radio, so it didn't chart here, but it was a pretty big hit in Europe. And it's a solid pop ballad with a nice and catchy chorus, but it's nothing spectacular, and Max Martin didn't produce it either.

And Cosmic Gate's "Exploration of Space" is a cheesy bit of big room German Eurotrance that very badly wants to be the B-side to Darude's "Sandstorm," but it actually has pretty nifty atmospherics in its second half. Not a highlight, but a halfway decent track. Beginning's not good at all, though.

So, despite most of this album turning out to be a disappointment, with that one Rosenstolz/Marc Almond song, I was still able to reach that plane that I was pining for. It only resulted in a brief moment of gratifying atrociousness, but that junkyard high was so damn pure, man. Quality over quantity, always 🥰.

Happy holiblaze to those who celebrate!

Highlights:

Rosenstolz feat. Marc Almond - "Total Eclipse"

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dankalbumart · 1 year

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Back To The Scene Of The Crime (The Joey Negro Compilation Volume 02) by Joey Negro Azuli Records / Z Records 2001 House / Deep House / Euro House

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demilypyro · 7 months

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did you guys know that in the social housing system of the netherlands you can only apply to two addresses per day, and you'll have to win a lottery against 2000 other applicants to get it. and you can apply for priority if you have urgent issues like family conflict or becoming homeless but that costs 110 euros in legal fees with no guarantees and no returns if you're rejected.

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mrchiipchrome · 1 year

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Mothers

W.C.- 3k

Your mother didn’t plan on having you at the young age of 15, but after spending 9 months inside your mother you came out a perfectly healthy baby in the year 2000. She had the support of her parents, your grandparents, the second she told them she was expecting and they helped her raise you.

They took care of you while she was away in school and they helped drop you off at numerous football practices and games. You were there for your mothers graduation from secondary school when you were 3, and then later for when she got her undergraduate degree in nursing. When you were 16, she got her license and could officially begin her practice in the intensive care unit.

Nobody was prouder than you when she got it and you made sure that everybody knew that your mother, the one that had you at 15 had become a doctor.

Still, despite her intensive job she made sure to come and see you play at least once a month, to bring you to practice the days she wasn’t called in and to make sure that she told you that she loved no one like she loved you. When you started to play in the boys teams, ‘cause there weren’t enough girls who wanted to play in your town, she supported you. Everytime you came home with scraped up knees or a sprained wrist, she took care of you like a mother as she joked about you being her first ever patient with how clumsy you are.

When your grandmother died, you were nearly 17 and on the cusp of breaking into the senior national team after having outplayed some of the older players in the U23 camp and playing in the first team for your club. Now everything you did was to make her as proud as you could, her last wish was for you to make the senior teams both club and country. And so when you were 17 years old both her wishes came true when you got selected into the England Euros squad, where you actually got to play some minutes in the group stages and then in the closing minutes of the knockout matches. In the end you got a bronze medal and 2 goals in your resume as a substitute.

At 18 you signed with Arsenal and at 19 you were picked for the World cup squad with starting minutes. Unfortunately, an elbow to the face in the USA game had you sitting out the bronze medal match against Sweden, your eye socket and nose fractured. You had seen how worried your mother looked in the stands as you went down, not just from a mother’s point of view but also a doctors . It looked gruesome. But the worst part, you could do nothing as your team was losing.

But through the experience of the incredible loss you grew stronger, the will to win overwhelmed the little voice in your head telling you that it wasn’t possible or that you couldn’t do it. So you continued to train and get better, all while getting mentored by the Arsenal women and winning award after award along the way.

And now at 23, you’re one of the most accomplished youngsters in women’s football after having won the Euros and the subsequent golden boot. And now there was no one prouder than your mother and grandfather. You knew your grandma was watching over your every move and cheering you on from wherever you go when you die.

Winning the Fifa Women’s best player for the 21/22-season, beating out your teammate and the legendary Alexia Putellas had you shell shocked mouth hanging open like an idiot. But when you went up to accept the award, you credited your grandparents and your mother for your success before thanking your coaches. Now that trophy is located on a shelf at your mothers house like most of your other trophies, the only one that lays at home in your apartment is the medal you got for the Euros win.

People hadn’t really noticed your mother before the closing game against Bayern, where she had gotten a leave of absence from her workplace. She was the first one you went to, nearly collapsing into her arms at the sidelines before returning to your teammates to celebrate. Fortunately, the Arsenal media team managed to capture the sweet moment between the mother and daughter, later posting it to TikTok where they captioned it ‘Like mother like daughter’.

Unbeknownst to you, the video went completely viral with thousands of people simping over your mother. You were much too busy to spend unnecessary time on social media, so you had not seen the people obsessing over your mother or the ones asking if your father could fight. That was before you went on international break, excited to finally meet your girlfriend again after a few weeks of only being able to communicate over the phone.

—-

Stepping out of the taxi, you come face to face with St George’s Park once again. You stand still for a couple of seconds before walking in through the entrance, immediately seeing a member of the media team with their fist up. You spud them before continuing your walk to the front desk where the names of your roommates stood.

Your eyes flit over the paper before you find your name scribbled beside Alessia’s and you do a silly dance in your place, happy that you could cuddle with your girl after weeks apart.

An arm slinging around your shoulder has you coming to your senses, looking to your right you see your girlfriend standing there. You pull her in by the waist as you lean your cheek on top of her head just taking a moment to hug her and relish in her company before everything becomes hectic. What you don’t plan on is one of your bestfriends slamming into you and making all three of you fall to the ground. You hear Ella start to speak loudly in your ear but you can’t focus on anything she’s saying, not with Alessia laying on top of you, her body fitting like a puzzle piece to your own.

Slapping a hand over Ella’s gaping mouth you take a moment to relax in the silence, already knowing that this camp was going to be like hell if it continued like that. Alessia puts her hands on either side of your body before pushing herself up to her feet.

She reaches her hand out towards you but before you are able to grab it, Tooney has. Alessia starts the motion of pulling her up, but as she shoots you a wink you know exactly what would occur. Alessia loosens her grip on Ella's hand before she has time to react, dropping her on her arse. The lobby explodes with laughter before you pull yourself up, walking up to your room before going to sleep as soon as your head hits the pillow, Alessia joining you after a short time.

The next few days pass unnecessarily fast and before you know it you’re lining up next to Brazil, ready for the first ever women’s Finalissima. You dominated the first half going into halftime 1-0 up, and with your versatility giving you the ability to drive up the field and create chances while being able to also drop back down and help defend.

In the next half it seems like Brazil has woken up from their stupe and they start pressing in a way that has your defense scrambling and you realize that if you want to prevent Brazil from scoring you will have to help out more at the farther end of the field.

When the ball leaves the Brazilian players' feet, you know it is going into the goal and you can only pray for their penalties to not follow the same path.

You find yourself in an incredibly stressful situation as possibly the last penalty taker, it all depended on whether the ball hits the back of the net or not. Feeling strong hands place themselves on your back and a soft whisper of “You’ve got this” from your girlfriend has all your nerves washing away and your senses clear, the only focus on putting the ball in the back of the net.

Looking towards the crowd, you try to spot your mother and grandfather. When you catch sight of them you gain even more confidence as most people in the stadium couldn’t look on, your family just looked on with smirks and knowing looks on their faces.

You place the ball in the penalty spot, completely relaxed and calm despite having run around the pitch for a full 90 minutes plus stoppage time. The goalkeeper tries to distract you, jumping around and pointing at different parts of the net but you see the obvious dread in her face. You’re known for absolutely slamming the ball into the goal with an uncanny precision, especially penalties.

Kissing your fingers before pressing them into the shield resting above your heart, you start your runup. As you strike the ball with a power entirely your own you can feel how it’s going to hit the back of the net, it’s a feeling you’ve experienced many times before so many times that it’s become a staple of your matches.

The roaring of the fans confirm your thoughts and start running around the pitch all while expressing your delight through a loud yell echoing loud over the fans. Soon enough your teammates catch up to you and trap you in a tight embrace that you have no intention of escaping. As they start to depart from the team hug, Alessia and you remain in a tight embrace, covering your mouths when you speak to each other.

Whispers of ‘I love you so much’ and ‘I am so proud of you’ are exchanged before you are interrupted by a staff member informing you that the medal ceremony would take place in a short bit. You go and stand with your team as the shimmering medals are placed around your necks, walking towards the podium set up for you with a smile that could light up the entirety of Wembley.

Watching as Leah and Mary lift the trophy high above their heads has you feeling an immense sense of pride and joy. Proud to be part of this record breaking team.

As soon as you’re done with taking all the pictures needed featuring your medal, you’re off heading in the direction of your mother. Noticing the smile on her face, the one you inherited, has your feet moving faster in her direction. You grip the medal between sweaty fingers and pull it off, putting it around your mother’s neck.

“You’re the real champion here Ma. Thank you so much for being here today and supporting me, I love you” She replies with her own ‘I love you’, putting her fists up and doing your own celebration you made with her as a child by putting your own up and kissing them before double fistbumping her.

Staying with your family for a little longer, you depart from them to go and celebrate with your team. You barely reach your girlfriend before you’re whisked away for an interview with the broadcasting.

Putting on the headset and taking the mic from the staff, you hear the recognisable voice of Alex Scott flooding through your headphones.

“-And now we’re joined by the Euros and Finalissima winner, Y/n Y/l/n. How are you feeling after winning yet another trophy? I imagine you must feel quite ecstatic.”

“Spot on Alex, but yeah I am in disbelief honestly. Brazil were in form today and were incredible opponents. Yeah so this is an accomplishment we’re fortunate enough to experience.”

You spend the next few minutes speaking to the former player, talking about a large range of things before the topic of your mother comes up.

“I saw you were giving your medal to your mother earlier, is that something you always do?” Alex questions you.

“I usually give her all my medals and awards because I don’t have the space for them at my apartment. I've given her all but the Euros trophies as those are on a shelf in my bedroom. A reminder that I can do anything I set my mind to.” Your mother had always been the safekeep of your trophies, even as you reached adulthood she took care of them for you.

“Speaking of your mother, have you seen the comments circulating?”

Clear confusion lays over your face like a blanket, no clue about these ‘comments’ apparently regarding your mother.

“Comments? What comments?”

“You haven’t heard?! Oh boy you’re in for a ride.”

You can feel how whatever’s going to come out of her mouth next won’t be something you will enjoy hearing.

“Before you start, I feel like I won’t enjoy what you’ll say so before you continue I’ll need my emotional support human. Just a second.”

Sticking your fingers in your mouth and blowing, you let out a deafening wolf whistle loud enough to catch Alessia’s attention.

As Alessia turns towards you with her big blue doe eyes, you can’t help but practically melt under her affectionate gaze. Realizing that you are still on national television, you quickly wave her over.

When she stands beside you, the arm hanging by your side instinctively wraps around her waist in a protective grip. The same staff member that gave you your headphones hands Alessia a pair to be able to understand.

“Okay, so now that my emotional support human is here you are allowed to continue.”

Alessia smiles at the cheeky comment, the smile soon turning into a confused frown, not knowing the subject of conversation.

“I can see how you’re a bit confused there Alessia, so I’ll catch you up to speed. I was just asking Y/n if she had seen the comments under the Arsenal post, to which she said she hadn’t so I’m telling you both now.”

Judging by the mortified expression that crosses Alessia’s face you deduce that she most definitely knows exactly what comments Alex is talking about. You send her a skeptical look before telling Alex to start telling you about the comments.

“Arsenal posted a TikTok after the game against Bayern of you hugging your mother over the barrier. That video has gone viral, with thousands of people ‘simping’ over her in the comments.”

Even without hearing these comments you’re horrified, people hitting on your mother or thinking she was attractive wasn’t something new. It came with having a young mother but you’d never really been too bothered by them before. But now, knowing that thousands of people have the hots for your mother makes you want to crawl into bed and stay there until your last breath.

“Really?! My mother? That’s so weird on so many different levels bro…that’s just so weird and frankly quite gross. Don’t get me wrong, my mother is an incredible person, but knowing that thousands of people think that your mother is attractive is really unsettling. Now I’m curious about what they’ve said.”

Alessia nods along to your statement, knowing how much you struggled with seeing people on the internet thirsting for her and to now have people thirsting over your mom would make it worse.

“Ready? Okay, ‘Who was supposed to tell me that Y/n Y/l/n’s mom was such a MILF?’” Alex’s reading leaves you dry heaving as you quickly realize your mistake of wanting to hear the comments. Alessia pats your back in a ploy to comfort you all while holding back a giggle at your vivid reaction.

Continuing her assault on your ears, Alex recounts many different comments surrounding your mother and you have an equally vivid reaction to each one. Alessia keeps on rubbing your back in circles, though she can’t hold her laugh back anymore, the brilliant sound your only savior from the extreme embarrassment of the situation. Social media is already flooding with new memes of your reactions and you know that you’re going to be memed for the rest of your lifetime.

“Stop, stop! I tap out! No more. I love you Alex, but enough. Thank you for the interview, I’ll see you soon.”

You remove the headphones from your head and hand them and the microphone back to the staff before making your way back to the locker room, where it seems like people have already gotten a hold of the memes. Even Arsenal’s official page has plastered your reaction all over their social media.

When Alessia and you go and visit your mother a few weeks later, they’re both amused to realize your inability to look her in the eyes. Their apparent shared love for tormenting you makes your life a living hell over the next few hours and as you settle in your car to drive home you tell her,

“You’re sleeping on the couch tonight.”

“No I’m not” She replies through a smug smirk.

“Yeah you are”

“Unless you don’t want to sleep tonight I’m sleeping in our bed”

You hate how well she knows you and your sleeping habits while she’s near. Your only response is a huff and Alessia knows that she’s won this time. You let her think that for a little before sneaking your hand onto her thigh as you keep on driving, paying little attention to her. When you feel goosebumps rising under your hand and see her shiver out of the corner of your eye, you know that you’re the true winner.

I kind of hate this, but it’s pretty funny so it’s what you get, and I would usually put a read more thingy on longer docs like these but I can’t figure out how you do it on mobile

#alessia russo #alessia russo imagine #alessia russo imagines #alessia russo x reader #woso #woso x reader #woso imagine

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lady-byleth · 8 months

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My parents really wear rose colored glasses while going through life

When I tell them that living has gotten vastly more expensive between their time as young adults and today, they literally try to dodge around it by going "oh but there's so many things you couldn't buy, and we all earn more too"

Yeah we do...

average income in Germany was around 900 Euro (converted from DM) per month in the 50s

2020 the average German got around 2000 Euro

So looking at this we earn a bit more than double what we would've gotten back then

Now the problem is that building a nice little house was around 20.000 then and almost 300.000 now

So we earn double but having a safe, permanent place to live costs over 10 times more and that's not fucking okay

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juneviews · 4 months

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Hi Axelle! Big fan of your channel btw, I watch your video about IPYTM just to get mad sometimes(my resentment towards that show is astronomical).

I've always wanted to move abroad, Seoul being the goal but I want to keep my options open. I know you have several videos about living in Thailand but I'd really love to hear more about your experience. Quality of life, language barrier, weather, expenses, xenophobia, visas, housing, pests, healthcarejob opportunities basically anything! Thank you so so much🙏🏻

Hope you have a fabulous New Year 🎊♥️

hi, thank you so much it means a lot! 🥰 glad to know someone hates ipytm as much as I do lmaooo! ok so let me do it point by point!

quality of life: much higher than living in france. rent is like 4x cheaper for way newer buildings with great amenities such as a pool & a gym, I can order food every day without breaking the bank, and bkk is such a lively city there's always so many cool things to do there for not crazy expensive! I would NEVER be able to afford my lifestyle here in bkk if I was back in paris, and the hot weather also makes it so I don't suffer from seasonal depression which is HUGE!

language barrier: I'm the only foreigner I know who speaks thai, and my foreigner friends have no trouble getting around relying on english. bangkok is one of the most expat-friendly cities ever imo!

weather: the weather is extremely hot in thailand, very humid & also it rains a lot and rainy season is no joke. however I prefer this weather over the french weather bc the sunlight we get everyday no matter the season is 12 hours a day, which is huge when in paris we can go from 14 hours of sunlight in summer, to only 6 in winter. again, really helped with my seasonal depression. also, I can go to my building's pool year round lol! the heat is not for everyone, but personally I feel like I'm on vacation year round & it has done wonders for my mental health!

expenses: as I said, bangkok is much cheaper than paris. however, with thailand's economic boom in recent decades, it's not dirt cheap either like the idea many people had like 10 or 20 years ago. the biggest thing where I really save the most money is rent, but transport is actually more expensive than paris, and imported things are unbelievably expensive. still, I live a very comfortable lifestyle with 800 euros a month, whereas to live the same exact lifestyle in france I'd need like 2000 euros.

xenophobia: there is barely any xenophobia in thailand. in fact, I'd argue that there is a romanticization of foreigners here, especially white ones. however, there are a lot of barriers to being a foreigner in thailand. getting the citizenship seems relatively hard, getting a job as a foreigner is unbelievably hard since the business visa needs to be renewed every 2 months which annoys employers, if you start your business in thailand, you can only own 49% of your own business while a thai person owns the majority, etc. most of the difficulties are legal & related to immigration, but thai people don't discriminate against foreigners. however, they will always tend to see you as a tourist & will try to scam you way more than a thai person, no matter how long you live in thailand... as expressed in videos, as a foreigner, you'll never be seen as a thai citizen, even if you spend your entire life in thailand, and that sucks...

visas: they're hell. as said before, business visas are like the shortest in the world, you can't have that many tourist visas, and the only visas that are easy to obtain are study visas (bc you pay a lot), or retirement visas that last 10 YEARS (bc they pay a lot.) however, thailand seems to slowly be relaxing its visa system, so there's hope.

housing: very easy to find something cheap, I found my 2 apartments in under 2 weeks each time, whereas it'd take me months in paris for a shittier place.

pests: first apartment had lizards, new one has insects...

healthcare: no healthcare as a tourist unless you got an insurance. now that I'm a student at the most prestigious thai uni, I have a lot of free services with the related hospital & health center. I also bought my own insurance so I'm pretty much safe. still is shocking coming from a country with completely free healthcare lol.

job opportunities: finding jobs as a foreigner is AWFUL & idk how I'm gonna find one once I graduate lol, I hope my professors can help me 😅

hope that helped, & I hope you get to do everything you're setting out to do 💜 happy new year ✨️

xxx

#answers #axelle goes to thailand #thailand

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ultra-nohai · 3 months

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Have you checked out my newest single yet? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wk7tH0qgCTs

#y2k #y2k aesthetic #2000s #webcore #y2kcore #2000s aesthetic #wallpaper #neo y2k #graphic art #graphic design #trance #eurodance #euro house #ny2k #desperate reality #music #electronic music

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thisisrealy2kok · 3 months

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Smile.dk - Dancing All Alone (2001)

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elceeu2morrow · 1 year

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OCTOBER 25, 2022 BY TIM INGHAM

Did you happen to find yourself in a provincial German discotheque in the early 2000s, somewhere betwixt Berlin and Dresden, watching Rednex – and we say this with a modicum of charity – ‘perform’ Cotton Eye Joe to a wide-eyed dancefloor?

While you were there, did you notice a 19-year-old woman, stood to the side of the throng, with a handbag suspiciously stuffed with tens of thousands of Euros?

If so, we do hope you were polite to her. Because she went on to become one of the most influential international executives in the global music industry.

Today, Dominique Casimir is Chief Content Officer at BMG, and sits on the board of the Bertelsmann-owned music company. Most importantly, she oversees BMG’s ‘repertoire’ (that’s publishing and records) operation in 17 separate territories, including Central Europe, Latam, and the UK. Or to put it in a more succinct way: Casimir runs BMG’s entire music operation everywhere outside North America.

Twenty years ago, such professional heights must have seemed a long way off for Casimir, who had moved to Berlin as a teenager with the initial intention of becoming a doctor. Within a few months, she’d pressed pause on these medical ambitions, and found herself studying an aimless mix of subjects at university, while waitressing in her spare time to pay the rent. One day, a realization hit her: “This leads to nothing.”

Following her innate passion for music, she signed up as an intern for a German talent agency that specialized in booking shows for Swedish pop acts. It was an eye-opening introduction to the music business.

She spent most of her time in a van, “picking up acts like Rednex and [nu-disco trio] Alcazar, and taking them to shady discotheques for playback performances – multiple venues in one night. When we got to each show, I’d been told to [accost] the venue owner: ‘No one goes on stage until the money is in my handbag!’”

This precarious lifestyle was a thrill for Casimir until one December night, still in her teens, she found herself arranging an emergency helicopter to the local hospital. The lead singer of Rednex had succumbed to a life-threatening fever… in a minibus driven by Casimir… which was stuck on the Autobahn… because of an avalanche. Casimir was out of money, out of phone battery – and very nearly out of a lead singer of Rednex.

Somehow, Casimir made it back to her parents’ house in Hamburg that Christmas. And far from being scared off the music industry, she decided to double down.

Returning to Berlin that New Year, Casimir launched her own successful independent booking and management company – keeping her contacts from Swedish pop-land, while also branching out into management of young German rock bands. She made enough waves over the next half-decade to impress Fremantle, a Bertlesmann-owned TV content company, who hired her to handle sync licensing and music publishing agreements in 2007.

A year later, her work caught the eye of Hartwig Masuch, who had just become CEO of the ‘new’ BMG, a startup music company backed by Bertelsmann capital. (The ‘old’ BMG was no more, after Universal Music Group acquired its publishing assets in a USD $2.19 billion deal in 2007.)

Today, outside of the major music companies, BMG is arguably the largest music publishing and recorded music entity globally.

In the first half of 2022, BMG turned over EUR €371 million, up 25% year-on-year, with 40% of that revenue figure coming from recorded music and the remaining 60% from publishing. Its repertoire across publishing and records includes all-time classics from Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones and Tina Turner, through to modern releases by the likes of George Ezra, Kylie Minogue, Jason Aldean, Slowthai, Lewis Capaldi, Mabel and Louis Tomlinson.

Remarkably, Hartwig Masuch says that BMG had achieved its 25% YoY revenue uplift in H1 2022 “with virtually no hits” – his point being that BMG’s primary focus is not on achieving global chart-toppers, but instead on amplifying the prospects of all its repertoire, regardless of audience size.

As head of BMG’s repertoire outside the US, Dominique Casimir oversees music that is responsible for around 50% of her employer’s worldwide turnover.

Many of her most notable moves to date have come in her home nation of Germany. In August, for example, BMG swooped for Telamo, Germany’s largest independent record label and a specialist in Schlager music (often described as Germany’s equivalent of country music in the US). As a result of that deal, BMG now stands as one of the largest label groups in the German market.

Casimir has also personally been at the forefront of BMG’s investment in three significant areas of live music. During the pandemic, she led the majority-acquisition of German live music promoter Undercover. She also led BMG’s backing of the stage musical Ku’Damm 56, which has sold over 200,000 tickets to date, and was recently extended to the end of February 2023.

Most recently, Casimir took the wraps off BMG’s latest foray into live entertainment: The firm has booked out Berlin’s most renowned theater, the 1,600-seat Theater des Westens (TdW), every night until the end of 2024.

BMG, in conjunction with Bertelsmann, will pack that theatre with live content each week, with a view to emulating the Vegas/Broadway-style ‘residency’ successes of artists in the US such as Bruce Springsteen, Adele, and Celine Dion.

Here, Casimir explains what her early experiences in music taught her about treating artists and why she believes BMG has cracked the right way to do deal-making with artists – as she reveals an interesting theory for why the music industry continues to obsess over weekly charts…

YOU STARTED LIFE IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY AS A TEENAGER, SITTING IN SPLITTER VANS WITH SWEDISH POP ACTS AND GERMAN ROCK BANDS. IS THERE ANYTHING YOU LEARNED DURING THAT TIME THAT STILL RESONATES WITH YOUR PROFESSIONAL LIFE TODAY?

Definitely. As a manager [in the early noughties] I saw a totally unbalanced, unfair and super-weird situation: The artist would be putting their entire life into this, and you had the industry – whether that was live or record companies – making all the money and calling all the shots.

That triggered something in me from minute one. There was this tone from the music industry during that era: We have the power; you, artist, are small. Now shut up while we overrule you, because we know better.

I met lots of anxious artists who were so busy trying to make their A&R at the record company happy. They were delighted when one of these ‘super repertoire’ people from the label visited the show. To the artists, it felt like these label people really could open the gate of magic at a major music company. But that was actually when the trouble would really start!

WHAT DO YOU MEAN, TROUBLE?

I believe that the most important thing you can have when you’re starting a [commercial] discussion with an artist is clarity. Clarity on what it is we can achieve together, but also clarity on agreeing on a realistic picture – sometimes, a reality check! – on what the best case scenario looks like at the end of a project.

That means not promising the sky and everything in it just to get an artist to sign to you. Because what happens in that scenario is you enter into an ‘us and them’ relationship. Record companies might think [when the artist signs with them] that they have ‘won’ a deal, but if you haven’t invited clarity and honest discussion into the room, you will be left with a huge amount of pressure. And, soon, you will be left with the blame game.

The moment you create a relationship with an artist where there is ‘you’ and not ‘us’, it just won’t work.

Artists are not always super-predictable – that’s part of the reason we all love them so much. But when they know who they are, you can all agree together what the goals are and what the goals aren’t. When they’re willing to get into the ‘boat’ with their [record company partner], when you’re in it together, there is no blame game. You have a recipe for success.

ISN’T THE ‘PROMISING THE MOON’ ELEMENT OF RECORD COMPANY DEALS WITH ARTISTS VERY OFTEN BECAUSE THE ARTIST INVOLVED HAS A LIKELIHOOD OF RELEASING A CHART HIT – OR ALREADY HAS ONE ON THE WAY?

Yes. I know you noticed Hartwig’s comment about BMG not requiring a hit to grow 25% in the first half of this year. That is the new music industry.

Of course it’s nice for every artist to have a hit, and we’ve had our fair share. But hits come and go, and for some of them [the record labels] massively overpays. Some artists have just one hit in their career, and it’s not even a super-hit.

You can’t live off that forever, but it might cost you everything because of the way your deal is structured; if that deal, for example, is completely predicated on you having a second hit, with massive expenditure [baked in] at radio. If you don’t get that second hit, you’re toast.

Think of it from the artist’s perspective: The industry often doesn’t talk nice about artists who don’t get that follow-up hit, especially if a lot of money has been spent trying to get it, and artists know that. A huge part of this industry still spends all its time and attention – and a lot of its money – playing that hits game, and it leads to bad incentives.

Traditional record label A&R is like cooking spaghetti: throw 10 pieces at the wall and hope one sticks. Those pieces of spaghetti are artists! It needs to change. There are so many ways of making a living for an artist today. Even though it remains really hard to do so, focusing on just the hits and the recorded music charts – in an age when 600,000 new songs a week are going on to streaming services – isn’t a sensible strategy.

WHAT IS A SENSIBLE STRATEGY?

Our perspective is to look at artists and ask: Is there an interesting brand here, an interesting story we can use our expertise to grow around the world?

As an artist, you need as diversified an income as possible – Covid proved to all of us that just relying on live income can quickly be disrupted. It’s not about just living off your vinyl sales or D2C, or Spotify, or ticketing; you need to understand which income streams work best for you, and turn up the volume on all of them.

We don’t just promote records anymore – we promote artist brands.

WHY DO YOU THINK SO MUCH OF THE MUSIC INDUSTRY CONTINUES TO FOCUS ON CHARTS AND HITS? SURELY THAT DOESN’T MAKE SENSE UNDER YOUR ARGUMENT; THERE MUST BE A SOUND ECONOMIC REASON FOR IT?

One of the reasons I’m so thankful I started out in live is that I got to witness that ‘live moment’ – when eveything you’ve worked on together as a team is realised. You hear the audience; it’s such a direct and satisfying reaction.

That’s something you don’t get when you work in a record company. That’s one reason I think the charts remain so important to friends and colleagues in the record industry – charts are a mirror that tell a team: ‘You’ve done something successful.’

But the truth is the charts only reflect a small proportion of the music industry, and even if you do have chart success, it should only be one part of a much bigger story.

That was made clear to me from the first minute of being interviewed to join BMG. Hartwig was very strong and opinionated: we need to apply expertise and systems to what music IP is, and what an artist identity is. That’s the goal. And we need to do it while being honorable, transparent and offering the best level of service – not overruling or overpowering because ‘we know best’.

WHAT WERE YOUR FIRST IMPRESSIONS WHEN YOU MET HARTWIG?

He was busy choosing the new BMG logo at the time! I remember him turning around and saying, ‘Why do you want to join this new music company.’ And I said: ‘Actually, I’m not really sure why the world needs another major music company.’ That got him going!

He looked and me and said: ‘I will tell you why…’ And that was followed by Hartwig in full inspiration mode: What he wanted, why he thought artists and songwriters deserve it, and the type of people he wanted around him to make it happen.

SINCE MAY, YOU’VE BEEN CHIEF CONTENT OFFICER OF BMG, OVERSEEING ALL REPERTOIRE OPERATIONS OUTSIDE NORTH AMERICA. WHICH MARKETS AROUND THE WORLD ARE YOU MOST EXCITED BY FROM A BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE?

Mexico, and Latam more generally, stand out. We announced we would launch BMG Mexico earlier this year, we’re in the process of getting it up-and-running and it is already so much fun. There’s tremendous growth, of course, in LatAm [territories] with many of them growing by more than 30% per year for three years in a row at this point.

Streaming and digitalization of the LatAm markets is generally very advanced. But on the other hand, other parts of the industry – the live business, brands, merch, the sync business – all have room to become much more relevant, and I think we as BMG will really make a difference to that.

YOU MENTION LIVE: BMG HAS MADE SIGNIFICANT STRIDES INTO LIVE IN ITS HOME MARKET IN THESE PAST FEW YEARS, ESPECIALLY WITH YOUR MAJORITY ACQUISITION OF UNDERCOVER, AND MORE RECENTLY WITH YOUR TWO-YEAR RESIDENCY OF THE BERLIN THEATRE WHERE YOU’VE SEEN SUCCESS WITH THE KU’DAMM 56 MUSICAL.

Germany is a good country for us to test things. It’s the fourth biggest music market in the world, and in some years it’s the third [overtaking the UK].

What we’re trying here with Bertelsmann, is to ask: Can we extend what we do in rights management in music to the live business? Because from a marketing and promotion and storytelling perspective that idea makes a lot of sense. We’re very good at that in [music rights]. And then another thing we’re very good at is financial transparency, and I think there’s a need for that in the live world. And we found a company [in Undercover] just like us. The first meeting I had with [Undercover founder Michael Schacke], he said: ‘We are about fairness and 100% transparency. Our artists can come and audit us anytime.’

One big annoying needle in every artist’s foot in live is the consumer data. There’s a huge amount of valuable fan data created in the process of selling tickets, but it’s often difficult for artists and managers to access that information. We are trying to crack that open with some artists, and get the fullest picture possible of their fanbase, so we can really optimise their income streams.

Our involvement in live concert promotion is the opposite of a ‘360’ deal structure: We offer live promotion and agency services on an opt-in basis to our [recorded music and publishing] artists. We hope those artists do opt-in, because we think we’re offering a lot of added value. But it’s their choice and if it doesn’t suit them that’s fine.

ONE OF THE BIGGEST STORIES IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY THIS YEAR HAS BEEN THE REVIVAL OF KATE BUSH’S RUNNING UP THAT HILL VIA A STRANGER THINGS SYNC OVER THE SUMMER. WHAT WAS YOUR TAKE ON THAT, AND HOW EVEN THOUGH IT’S A ‘CATALOG’ RECORD, IT EXPLODED LIKE A NEW STREAMING HIT AMONGST MILLIONS OF TEENAGERS WHO WERE HEARING IT FOR THE FIRST TIME?

It’s a beautiful dynamic, and it’s not about ‘catalog’ or ‘frontline’. Kate Bush is an icon and an iconic brand. The question for this new generation of consumers, and those in the music business working to maximize this moment’s potential is: What’s the core of the brand? Why why did she have such a cultural impact? What’s the essence of this artist’s appeal?

I translate that to what we’re doing with Tina Turner [whose music interests BMG acquired last year]. What is the essence of why people feel so strongly and so connected to Tina Turner (pictured)? We’re talking about a premium brand here, and a brand that comes with very strong emotional attributes attached to it. Obviously, it’s about the music, but it’s about more than the music.

So, again, that’s the question: Why was an artist so culturally impactful in the first place? Once you can answer that, you go from there.

#for you clem #lt mention #business worldwide #10.25.22 #business stuff #dominique casimir #bmg #chief content officer #hartwig masuch #music business worldwide #my repost

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