Tracks & Fields spoke to Playground Music’s founder Jonas Sjöström about their history, concept and business strategies as one of 2010’s leading independent labels.

Independent label and distributor Playground Music pride themselves as “a company where music matters.” Aside from their own artist roster, they also handle distribution in Scandinavia for many other well known independents including all of the Beggars Group labels (XL, Matador, 4AD, Rough Trade etc.), Domino and Mute. As part of our second round of label specials on Tracks & Fields, we spoke to Playground’s founder Jonas Sjöström about their history, concept and business strategies as one of 2010’s leading independents…

T&F: How was Playground founded and what’s your concept for the label?

JS: It was founded when I (and many others) left the company I was running for 20 years previously called MNW. We left in protest of its new owners 11 years ago, and basically we just decided to setup the best possible operation and for it to be Scandinavian, not just Danish, Swedish or Norwegian. We started in all 4 countries from the beginning and we tried to sign bands in all Scandinavian countries, although it’s more Danish and Swedish. Our biggest success, though, so far has been Finnish.

I think the concept originates in the work I started in the 70’s with M&W, and what we did was very much alternative and politically leftfield. We’ve always been in opposition against the majors. We’ve never been interested in making records aimed at a mass market in terms of music that we think people would like. We’ve very specifically done the things we like. So it that sense it’s a very private thing and if other people like it that’s fine, and if not we may have a financial problem but at least we’re happy with the music. So our identity is basically artists with strong integrity who make music that we really like. And that can be all kinds of genres, whether singer song writers, rock n roll or jazz. But it needs to come from where we think good music is created and have some honesty, and come from artists who have something to say.

T&F: How did you come up with the name Playground?

JS: Well we started the company very quickly and the clever guys that work with us came up with it and people liked it. We like the feeling that it’s not limited in scope. It’s supposed to be in a specific direction but it’s quite open and free, and we see ourselves as more of a mirror. We want to mirror what’s happening in the music scene at given time so rather than having a musical profile like metal or dance, we just want to be a company that mirrors what’s happening today, which of course is changing all the time. The things we’re doing today are quite different from what we were doing 10 years ago.

T&F: Did you start as a label or distributor?

JS: Playground has been both a label and distribution from the start, and since we represented labels like Beggars Banquet and Mute and so on from the start, that of course indicates where we are. That’s the type of music we like and those are the types of labels we like, so we want to involve ourselves with labels that are similar to us, representing them here and working with them outside of Scandinavia whenever possible.

T&F: Which labels do you distribute at the moment, and do you distribute them through the whole of Scandinavia?

JS: All of the labels we distribute, we do them through the whole of Scandinavia. Right now it’s all the Beggars Group labels such as XL, Matador, Beggar’s Banquet, Rough Trade, 4AD and also Domino who are really interesting and have some sub labels too. We still do Mute, in its new state, and we have some world music too such as World Circuit which is another great label. We do Eagle Vision DVD’s which is more of a classic rock label but very exclusive with great packaging. Then we have another 25 different labels including Naiive in France who I like very much, and for them we do Carla Bruni and Marianne Faithful. We also do Network from Canada who’ve had some really good records and New West from the states who we like very much. So we’re very eclectic and we just pick what we like from different genres.

T&F: Do you also distribute those labels digitally?

JS: We do some full scale such as Network, but we mostly tend not to distribute digitally because it’s too much work. Instead we’re paid an override on the digital sales in our territory. It’s extremely time consuming to have Metadot and two systems and register everything, so we mostly want to only be on an override because that’s a lot easier for us that way.

T&F: How do overrides work?

JS: If a label has a net income of 100,000 Euros from sales in our territory, part of our distribution agreement says that since we do all the promotion work and marketing we would be paid say 15 or 20 % from that amount, as an override.

T&F: Do you have offices in each country?

JS: We have local offices and people in every country. We have 2 offices in Sweden, then 1 in Copenhagen, 2 in Finland and one in Oslo.

T&F: What’s your approach to signing deals with new artists?

JS: In these days we work very hard and it’s very tough financially, so we want to have artists that we feel very comfortable with and whom appreciate the work we do. We don’t have deals where a lawyer comes and presents something and we negotiate an advance, we have deals where we talk directly with the artist and where we feel the artist is on the same track as we are.

T&F: Do you agree with the “360 degree model” for artist contracts?

JS: I don’t agree with it, for the same reason that I think one should not be a manager and a publisher for a band at the same time, and sit on all the shares. I think bands need to have independent advice. Yes, if we had a great organization for booking bands then why not, but if the thing fails and the band has a label that couldn’t sell the record, and they’re sitting with the same company and not booking any gigs. Contractually you’re locked in and I don’t think it’s not good for creativity. So I’d rather have tougher deals with the bands and they do their live thing separately. And then you can always debate about whether or not you should have some kind of override depending on the development. Contractually I think we should do records, publishing, management and live performance all separately.

T&F: It seems as though you’re focussed pretty much on Scandinavian acts…

JS: Yes, we’ve had a few exceptions but that’s basically what we do, because we want to have artists close to us. The foreign singings we’ve had before have always been problematic when things start to move, so we mainly stick to Scandinavian acts.

T&F: Do you accept unsolicited demos?

JS: Yes, we receive loads and we listen to loads, and we pick up a lot of stuff from demos. That’s definitely a key area for us.

T&F: Would you ever consider signing artists who don’t perform live?

JS: It would have been easier to accept that in previous years. I think if we like something we’d probably do it, but today, in the tough environment we have the live aspect is necessary to get the attention and the sales. Sometimes we make exceptions though. But the other issue is that live performance is becoming more important because of the sales a band makes when they’re touring, so it promotes sales both directly and indirectly. I think we we’ll see fewer and fewer record stores, and the sales connected with touring will become even more important.

T&F: What kind of percentage of physical sales do bands typically make at concerts?

JS: For some bands it’s actually the majority of the sales. It depends, but on average, for a band that tours a lot I would say maybe 35% or more of sales are made directly on the tour.

T&F: What’s your typical development process for new artists?

JS: We try to spend a lot of time, and we don’t work with people who want to rush release within 2 months of signing. If you have a good plan and if you handle the pre-promotion and pre-work correctly you can really see the results. A rush release is nearly always a problem, so we want to build up the artist and that means schooling them in certain ways, preparing them for how to meet the media, how to handle the live aspect etc. So it’s a pretty long process and before we sign something we want to be confident. Then it takes at least 8-10 months before we release the first record.

T&F: What are your strategies for launching new artists nowadays, given the current media landscape?

JS: The normal commercial radio and mainstream TV shows are closed for the types of artists we have. We’re basically talking to special radio programmers, journalists, blogs and other websites, and we also try to involve people working for management companies and then book festivals and the rest of the live circuit. So unfortunately we’re confined to quite a small portion of the total media around. We’ve tried with commercial radio so many times and even if we have things that are very talked about they basically never pick something up, so it’s the music journalists really that are our key entrance point, covering a mixture of on and off-line publications.

T&F: How have your marketing strategies evolved since you originally established the label?

JS: Well the TV aspect of our marketing is basically gone now with very few exceptions. With radio, we never really did anyway because that’s more for the hit stuff. We’ve stopped profile advertisements for the label because we don’t see any connection with those kinds of advertisements and actual sales. So mainly it’s soft marketing which means we talk with the shops, give out pre releases so they can listen early, and we have the bands playing in the stores and visiting different radio programs and magazines to get features. Of course the online aspect has totally taken over, but on the marketing side we don’t spend anything like we did before, and if we do spend something we only really ever buy banners. The print media has gone but on the promotion side, the online thing has taken off enormously and nowadays maybe 60 or 70% of our activities are online. We do digital mail outs to people all over the world, and we really try to build an online presence for upcoming artists through blogs and other sites.

T&F: How are streaming services such as Spotify affecting your business?

JS: It’s maybe too early to say, but we support them because we think it’s a great tool and it’s a great environment if you’re interested in music. The problem we might have is that it cannibalizes physical sales and digital downloads through site like iTunes. And until they have a revenue model that brings in equal payments for us it’s a bit of a problem, but we should also remember that it’s a big success for Scandinavia, in the sense that it’s a service that’s basically taken half a million to a million kids away from Pirate Bay. So I think it’s good, but I think they have to watch out to not give away too much too cheaply, because then neither the labels nor the artists will be able to survive from their incomes.

T&F: How do you anticipate the evolution of business models for labels in the coming years?

JS: I’m trying to find out but it’s unpredictable that’s for sure. For a while I thought the physical market would become a collectors market only, with specific limited edition stuff signed by the artist and so on. But I think it’s very hard to know because today I’m still seeing signs that people are willing to buy records and CD’s, and there are a certain amount of people who feel that the digital thing isn’t really fulfilling their needs. I think we’ll probably have 10 years or so of a mix of digital and physical products and with more and more specific collector’s items, which I think will be an increasingly big market. But it might also be that technology will change all of this because if I was asked this question 10 years ago, I would never even of dreamt that something like Spotify would come around. Who knows, there may be something completely different around the corner. I think we’ve got another tough 5 years ahead because the biggest problem is that so far people aren’t recognising that music has to cost. People are really eager to consume and listen to it but there’s a lack of understanding that one needs to pay for it. People pay for coffees but not for music.

T&F: Would you say you’re climbing out of the dip in sales we’ve seen in recent years?

JS: I hope so, but I think it’s very unpredictable. One thing that I’ve seen taking over in Scandinavia now is people are giving away CD’s for free with magazines. And the DVD market was destroyed by that as well. When you give pretty much new albums away like that I think it devalues the music and it’s a model that we can’t have.

T&F: Which artists are you most excited about from your current roster?

JS: I’ve seen Anna Von Hausswolff 3 times in the last couple of weeks and she’s a very odd bird but just the type of thing I like. She’s got a great voice, a great personality and she’s very young and very different in her way of doing things. I’ve seen 3 of her shows in a row now and I’ve fully enjoyed them. She delivers an unpredictable and fantastic performance every time. People are just shocked that this little person can have this fantastic voice and do these fantastic things with just a piano. Jenny Wilson is another favourite and a great female singer songwriter.

T&F: How do you feel about launching remix contests through Tracksandfields.com and what do you expect from the results?

JS: I think it’s a great idea. To have the legal possibility to remix great songs and present them is fantastic and it’s something that people really enjoy. Sometimes the results can be boring, but equally they can be really great. Remixing is a new creative art form of its own.

T&F: What historical remixes, if any, do you prefer to the original versions?

JS: I really like U2’s Mission Impossible remix because it brings out totally new ideas in comparison to the original.

T&F: What can we expect from Playground in the future?

JS: Well, I think first we have to fight for survival, and when you’re a big company and you go down with big overheads it’s tough. So we’re going to fight for that by being very efficient and good at what we’re doing. Secondly it’s to keep signing bands that we really like, and also to keep signing labels that we’d like to represent in Scandinavia. We have 6 or 7 new signings for the autumn which we’re really excited about, and we’re probably going to have another 4 or 5 new signings for spring 2011. So that’s what we’re in for and hopefully some of those will also have international recognition, because in a small country like Sweden you definitely need something that really works in the international community, at least once every year or two.

T&F: Can you reveal any of your new signings?

JS: Yes, we have one guy called Prince of Asuria who’s an excellent singer songwriter with a very different sound and someone who I really believe in. We have Capetown, a mix of South African and Swedish guys who are doing a kind of experimental pop, concept record which I’m really excited about. We have Teron Beal, and a new band called Amplifets coming out with their first single. Concretes are another great one. We have several others as well and it’s going to be a strong release schedule for us, but whether or not we’ll sell is a different issue.

T&F: Thank you very much Jonas.

JS: Thank’s a lot.

(The article is taken from TrackAndFields, read the original post here, written by Joel Davies)