From time to time I receive enquiries from Salem fans who live outside Sweden, regarding the availability of his music for legal download.
When I became a Salem fan back in 2007, I was able to buy "Friend" and "Bright Side of Life" from the iTunes store here in the UK. At that time the "This Is Who I Am" CD and "Dream Girl" EP were available to buy on that site - however over the last couple of years they have been removed from iTunes UK and the only Salem songs you can buy on there now are the various Axwell/Ingrosso dance mixes of "It's True".
Over recent months there has particularly been a big demand for "Backseat" and "All Day Love", both of which have not appeared on any of Salem's albums. Yet these songs can't be downloaded legally by fans outside Sweden.
It's very frustrating that people in this country can't legally download his music - it's not available on British sites and you can't download from Swedish sites if you live outside Sweden. The same problem exists for fans in other European countries and North America. And sadly there is no solution to this for the foreseeable future, as there are no imminent plans for Salem's music to be released outwith Sweden/Norway/Finland. :(((
Finally, in response to requests for songs, I would just like to clarify that it is not the policy of this website to share mp3 files so I can't provide this service - sorry.
We can only hope that one day, Salem's music will finally get a high-level international release and promotion to match. I remember reading an interview at the time of Salem's participation in Melodifestivalen, when he commented that he had "given the people what they didn't know they wanted". I think that's a very important comment. People need to be given the opportunity to hear Salem's music, otherwise how will they know if they like it or not?
Do you agree? I think this will be an ongoing debate. Please let me know what you think - your comments are welcome here or in the Planet Salem forum. You can also email me if you want to keep your comments confidential. Thanks!!
Monday, 4 October 2010
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6 comments:
I amd Fernando Perdomo.. I run Forward Motion Records in the USA and I am the leader of Dreaming in Stereo.. I discovered Salem through a blog about 2 years ago and I was so pissed when I had no choice but to steal his music( i have since bought expensive import cds to make my soul feel better).
I have written parlaphone and his publishers to no avail.. I mentioned salem in a feature article in Keyboard magazine and I got one of the main writers interested in featuring Salem.. and the magazine does not want to promote an artist who does not have his music available..
I have made alot of my closest friends Salem Fans with burned cds'
including 3 grammy award nominated and winning artists and producers
his music would do great in America
its a shame that in America i can buy all sorts of bad music but Salem gets no business..
My music has better distribution than he does.. and he is on parlophone.. the beatles label!!!
what can we do?
Hi Fernando, thanks for getting in touch again - I know you've been one of Salem's biggest supporters over the last couple of years and it's great to have people like you around.
You make a lot of relevant points - people in the music business are always complaining about "piracy" but this is often the only option when music is not legally available, and especially when it's not available on CD.
The musical climate at the moment in the USA and the UK may be dominated by urban/r'n'b music but I feel that there is an even bigger audience out there, who are disenfranchised by that type of music - and this is the type of audience which I think Salem would appeal to. So yes I agree that there would be a big audience for his music in the USA too, although your country is so big that it would probably take longer for him to break through.
I'm encouraged by the positive response by music professionals to Salem's music too - it proves they know something good when they hear it.
What can we do? Well at the moment, I honestly don't know. Salem still remains "the world's best kept musical secret". All we can do is keep spreading the word...in the meantime, thanks again for your support Fernando.
Totally agree with you both- it's good to know that Salem has such a big supporter in the USA, Fernando.
It's disappointing that Salem's music hasn't had an international release; when I first became a fan I was surprised to find I couldn't download any of his songs from UK iTunes.
It sounds like his international fanbase is growing, and with so many people now using the internet to hear new music, it's more likely that people outside Sweden will accidentally come across his music, as we have, and want to download it.
I noticed the video for "It's Only You (pt II)" on YouTube has loads of really positive comments from people in different countries who heard it on the Volvo advert, which suggests that there is a wide and appreciative audience for his music, and that he could do really well internationally if promoted properly.
I like Salem's comment about "giving the people what they didn't know they wanted", as that kind of sums up my experience of getting into his music. It's only because of my interest in all things Eurovision that I came across his Melodifestivalen performances on YouTube and the brilliance of "Keep On Walking" - and even though I love Eurovision, it was still quite a surprise to discover someone as amazing as him because of it!
I'm at a loss as to what else we can do really, other than keep spreading the word :)
I'm not in the music biz but, seeing Fernando's comment that "I have written parlaphone and his publishers to no avail.. " makes me wonder what on earth is behind them behaving in that way? Surely everyone involved could earn a very pretty-penny indeed if Salem were more readily-promoted in other countries. And in this day and age, there is plenty of free publicity to be had, specially with all us "secret overseas fans" being more than happy to help spread the gospel for nothing. Tis very curious indeed.
Laura..I am in business school now while running Radio Creme Brulee. Been doing some digging into this whole issue of legal availability of Salem's music outside of Sweden. Obviously, the issue is not unique to Salem. It also applies to an entire bunch of UK artists that are signed to major labels. Their material isn't available in the US at all. It has to do with territorial rights. I am not sure what the fixed costs associated with purchasing these are but I am pretty close to getting an answer. Will let you know right after.
Hi, I have been behind a checking this site, but I saw this and wanted to comment. I was able to download "All Day Love" for free on a website that I thought was affiliated with Itunes. The first 500 people that downloaded was able to do it for free. I think I found it from a post on this blog that had a link to this site. Am I correct? I just want to make sure I downloaded this song legally.
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