Lars Eric Mattsson: hall of metal interview

News:
12-05-2008:
The guys over at hallofmetal have put together an interview with Lars Eric Mattsson, who discusses his latest release, how lion music operate, insites into cd sales and the dreaded P2P file sharing. Here's just a taster for you.

Asked whether his musical skills influence signings:
I think it does influence the way I think no matter what but in order to survive the “businessman” inside of me must also always be present. I have learned how the business works and come to understand that just being a good musician does not sell an album, and that people want other things. For instance the buyers of instrumental music definitely choose fast playing rather than mature and well structured.


Asked about p2p file sharing :
I don’t blame internet, I blame our stupid politicians that prevent musicians and labels to protect their works. Thanks to P2P our artists are getting paid much less and in many cases they will have to invest far more money into the production of their abums that they can ever get back from royalties. Many artists won’t be released at all. There seem to be more bands looking for a way to have their album released than ever and since the buyes are fewer many albums will not be released at all. Also other people in the industry who design artwork, own studios and even music magazines suffer. If the problems get worse we, as well as most other labels might stop releasing CDs completely. I don’t need to be doing this work...

...People don’t buy what they can get for free, that is just a fact. If you could borrow a car for free every day you would not buy it. Of course labels can’t do publicity when the buyers don’t support them. And due to the internet revolution it seems like almost every music fan out there is doing a website in hope of getting free music...sometimes less is gonna be better for the artist in the long run.




Asked about signing for his label:
I am surprised from time to time, but generally I have noticed that artists that are good at promoting themselves either by playing much live, writing in guitar magazines etc or who hold a strong internet presence does better. Instrumental albums sell much better as downloads than vocal albums in general. Seventh Wonder, Satyrian, Mind’s Eye, Joe Stump, Rusty Cooley, Iron Mask and Sun Caged are some of our better selling artists...
...This cool attitude comes from our artists themselves and it’s nothing I can take any credit for, but I really do prefer to work with nice people. The assholes can find another label, I don’t need any of them.?

Read the full interview

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