When I released my first album 3 years ago I experienced a short periode with momentum, and after that: silence. A little airplay and a few reviews wasn’t enough to book concerts in Denmark, and the only offers I could get was places that relied on me to bring most of the audience myself. I enjoy to play concerts for my friends, but the whole idea of making an album is to get your music out to a new audience, and I felt I wasn’t able to do that in Denmark.I think the biggest problem in Denmark is that everything is controlled from the top of the industry. Very few people get to decide what should be played on Danish Radio and also who is playing the big festivals and the important showcases. This structure continues all the way down to the smallest venues, and as a newcomer without a hype going for you, you don’t stand much of a chance.These structures are also present in Germany, but the difference is that the independent scene is much bigger, and here everything is controlled from the bottom - the audience are the ones to decide what they like and what they don’t like, and they don’t really care how much following you have on social medias or how many clicks you have on Youtube. As one of the concert-organizers said: “You can literally play you ass off in Germany. For some it pays off in the end and they end up on the biggest venues or even stadiums, and for some it doesn’t pay off. But at least you have the chance to do it”
SO WHY GO TO GERMANY?
1. The opportunity to play your music for an entirely new audience - not your friends, not your mother, but an audience that shows up to hear YOU.
2. You will get a better routine both as a musician and as a stage performer. There are certain things you just can’t learn in the rehearsing room, that you need an audience for, and I find that playing many concerts in a row really helps you grow.
3. You may not make a lot of money right away, but you may grow a fanbase and a network. Every year I play more and more concerts in Germany, and I meet many people down here who were at my concerts before or who got a recommendation for it. I get a lot of help from concert organizers who invite me back, and some of them even offer to organize two concerts the next time. This means less work for me and more concerts.
4. You will get rit of a lot of CD’s, vinyls and other merchandise, and if you (like me) have a lot of that lying around, it´s really nice to know that people are actually buying them and hopefully listen to them as well.
5. TOURING IS FUN! And traveling is fun. It is hard too, but when you are having a glass of wine in a new city after a fantastic concert, it is just so much better then sitting at home waiting for the world to discover your music.