I haven’t really written a post in English yet, and thought it was about time to do so.

Just recently a new initiative regarding music distribution was launched under the name of “The Swedish Model“. It’s collaboration between 7 independent record labels in Sweden, with the idea to create a discussion platform where we can refine music as an art form, look at what the future really holds for it, and how to get there. Very interesting, not to say necessary, in these times of piracy-debates.

I found out about this through the weblog Copyriot of well-known Swedish debater Rasmus Fleischer. He writes about “The Swedish Model”, and adds “We must hope that the premises they have formulated also will be translated into other languages, because even if they are matter of course they are rarely straightly expressed. And under a strong trademark.” Because of this, I decided to give it a shot and translate the front page of theswedishmodel.org – which I’ve done without permission of the authors.

Music industry 2.0

Hi music industry, hi all of you who daily must stand an unbalanced debate on distribution of music, and hi dear music fans.

The future of music as art form looks brighter than ever before. There has been democratization and the possibility for musicians to reach out is a lot greater compared to just a few years back. Above all, the interest during the last year has grown rapidly. It is not by mere coincidence that this has happened. Music distribution has gone through a change of paradigm. The product has been degraded and the content has ended up in greater focus.

We in the music industry have shown ourselves unable to follow in this change. Some of us have even waged war against those the music is recorded for – the listeners. The rift between producers and consumers has never been larger. The thing is that there is an absolute fantastically wide grey scale to play on. Our contemporary period is not black or white, pro or con. Internet is a grey scale of possibilities. Instead of fighting back we ought to obtain learning from the daily newspaper-and the computer game industries. They early realized the superiority of Internet and developed new services there. Their new departments today are those who run the companies forward and where we in the future expect that the majority of the income will be.

Yes, you have read right between the lines. We like computer nerds who put their souls into building protocols that efficiently spreads the music that we love. We are modern you know. We don’t want to have appeals against laws or pirates. We don’t want to have appeals against the appeals either. We want to have a creative discussion about how we can refine the distribution forms and how we further can refine the art form of music.

It is impossible to say yes or no to file sharing. It is something that exists and can’t be removed. Get started and put the energy towards driving the development instead of trying to slow it down. It’s not possible to slow it down – the force in great changeovers that are good for humanity is much too strong for special interest organizations and laws to stop it. That’s it. Stop whining. If you are creative and the music you make is good then there will always be space for you.

It hurts when former business models break. New models will however always take its place. Right now we’re at the end of one epoch and in the beginning of another. The key to moving on is to let the old epoch die and the new germinate. That can only happen if one accepts the new conditions the internet has brought. And it is really time to try new ideas instead of clinging to the old.

We believe in music and welcome every new way to spread it. That increases our audience which in the end makes it both easier for us and our artists to get compensation for committed work and increases the possibility to further spread more of the music we like. Welcome to come along with us and drive the discussion forward instead of digging the hole you’re standing in deeper.

The Swedish Model is a newly created cooperation and discussion platform consisting of 7 Swedish independent record labels. We have a common agenda. We want to restore focus on the music. We believe in the future. We are doing this because we want to bring forward good music and will do this as long as there are creative people. The creative will not stand and fall with an economic model or a physical product.

Good morning boys and girls. For too long I’ve been walking around in the dark night. This weblog represents the break-through of the sun beams – and it’s time to step out in the light. I will write in both Swedish and English, whichever I feel like at the time. Step up, step in and stay tuned!