Richard Jones on the global Last.fm Radio announced  yesterday an upcoming change. Last. fm will only be free in USA, UK and Germany. Other listeners are very soon required $3.00 per month for listening! There are 30 million listeners from all over the world. There are over 7 million tracks available. Last.fm work with 280 000 labels and artists from all over the world, I am one of them.  

It is is very sad. There are many listeners who are going to leave their beloved Last.fm because of this. In a couple of hours Last.fm got over 1600 blog comments about the announcement so Last.fm disabled further comments. $3.00 is much money in some parts in the world. A girl from Colombia wrote that she has to pay a sum that would be as big as 12 euro i Europe every month.

Until now I have loved Last.fm. I have listeners from different parts of the world that send me wonderful feedback that really makes my day. I am of course a listener, too. I listen to music in a way I never did before, I get recommendations from other listeners that  introduce me new music. There are really people who love music, they live and breath music and are the best listeners ever. Many of them listen to music the whole time they are awake. 

We have to try to stop this madness. Keep Last.fm free!

Listen to my music on Last.fm here

Last.fm radio announcement

Lastfm is unfair  Bring back the free Last.fm

Last.fm payment subscription protest  FREE IS FREE

Richards Jones shoutbox

Thank you all for all feedback about my previous blog post about picking songs to Swedish National Election of ESC Melodifestivalen. Most of you agreed and many of you had guessed long ago that the rules are not followed.

I think that the most important thing is  that SVT tells everybody what the real rules are, as I wrote in my previous blog post. It is not a human right that anybody can send their song to the competition.  SVT can choose to do the selection in whatever way they want to. But it is much better to tell us how things are and not pretend that the songs are picked according to the rules. It is obvious that some of the composers and artists are picked before they even sent in their demos. In Finland it is the same but there the record companies choose artists and suitable songs for them.

We that are not satisfied with how things work should disagree loud and clear. Maybe there will be an opinion that forces SVT to begin to follow the rules. It is also important to limit how many times the same composers and artists are allowed to compeat, as a wise blog comment to my previous blog post suggested.

Soon is time to pick songs for ESC 2010 and it is really time for a change. Why is it so difficult to let in new composers and artists? SVT and Christer Björkman, let the new ones suprise you! There could be a new Carola knocking on the door. Open the door for new talents, both artists and songwriters, and you will see that the competition will get a fresh start and the winner of Melodifestivalen will be able to suprise Europe again!

If you live in Sweden maybe you saw the Culture News Kulturnyheterna on Swedish Television SVT last week. They let us know that the information from SVT about that anyone can send a song to the Swedish National Election of ESC  is just a fake. 

You have not just to be a wellknown composer, the artist that sings your song on the demo must be famous, too.  Fredrik Kempe told on Culture News that when he and Henrik Wikström sent their song Cara Mia to the contest for the first time it was sung by an unknown artist. The song was not selected by the jury. When they sent in Cara Mia sang by Måns Zelmerlöw the song was chosen by the jury to the Swedish National  selection of ESC Melodifestivalen.

According to the Culture News  the thing that happened Marie Lindberg, an unknown artist singing her song right into listeners hearts  and becoming famous over night, is never going to happen on Melodifestivalen any more on. It is really sad!

They also told that famous artists now queue to participate in the contest because it gives them so much attention. Unknown artists have really no chance to be picked by the jury these days.  It’s really a pity that those magic moments  when a new unknown artist touch our heart and gives us something new won’t happen any more. It is very much repetition this year, we have heard the artists  before and the composers write melodies that are very much alike the songs by them that we heard before.

According the rules all the songs that people sent in are going to be judged, first by Swedish Music Publishers, then by a judge group from Swedish Television (SVT).  I know the rules because I have sent songs to the competition two years in a row now. The composer and the lyricist must send in an application form with their names to  SVT together with the AudioCD. The application form  has to be sent in a separate sealed envelope and is NOT going to be opened before the songs already have been selected by the jury. Otherwize the song will be disqualified.

I accuse the judge from SVT of breaking this rule all the time!  The composers that participate are the same all the time, it is a small group of composers and it is obvious that Christer Björkman have ordered songs from them. In the competition for 10 days ago, Sarah Dawn Finer and Malena Ernman were duelling against each other but both songs were by Fredrik Kempe that is a fulltime composer. 

So, it is obvius. The composer must be wellknown and the artist must be wellknown, too, otherwize you can just save your many for the postage of your song.

I really think that there are lack of great melodies on the competition this year, it is becoming more and more obvious each and every year.  The same composers  cannot vary themselves in style and melodys so much.  Christer Björkman defended himself on Culture News by saying that  amateur composers cannot compete with the professional composers. He is so right, they cannot, because they are not allowed!

SVT must tell us now what the real rules are. They are not the rules I got from SVT.  At least the rules are not followed.  SVT has to tell everybody that the rules are just a fake, and let’s see what Swedish people think about that! I think that most of us want have more variety,  more new composers and new artists, songs that touch our hearts instead of hit-machines that are so alike each other.

Sign against cheating Stoppa fusket i Melodifestivalen

Read about cheating  Aftonbladet  Bimbo Boys blogg  Stoppa fusket i Melodifestivalen! Read about Melodifuskivalen

Blogs about Christer Björkman   Melodifestivalen  TV

You are very welcome to check up my video Lähden yksin  (I Am Leaving). It is produced for TV6 in USA and has been aired on TV6 twice. It took 5 months to produce the video because there is both winter and summer on it. For English lyrics,  see topdown. I think you will like the Swedish nature. The views are from nere my hometown. 2007 was a rainy summer. Look at those dark coulds towards the end of the video! It was not easy to find a suitable day for filming, it was always raining some part of the day.

Lähden yksin  (I Am Leaving)

Music: Maini Sorri

Orig. lyrics: Marjo-Riitta Oksanen

English lyrics: Barbara Helsingius

DVD by SoL Productions,  Sweden

Music arranged by Jaakko Viitala

Music recorded by, all instruments, mixed and mastered by Jaakko Viitala, Krumhults kultur, Hjularöd, Sweden

I AM LEAVING

Snow on the ground,

snow all around,

where we buried the past

and the feelings we found.

Storms in the night,

prayers for light,

wishes for wonders

to make wrong turn right.

Chorus:

I may long for your touch once tender,

but don’t think I’ll ever surrender.

I must try the taste of living

among those warm and forgiving.

I must change the ice for fire,

see the sun and feel desire.

Now I’m leaving, 

Yes am leaving,

Oh I’m leaving,

I am leaving.

 Doubt in the air,

mem’ries we share,

truth or illusion?

I really don’t care.

This is my way

right or astray,

I’ll manage I’ll make it

or else I must pay.

Chorus:

I may long for your touch once tender…