// Spin Records - Home of hits
Though small and independent, the record label Spin Records has hit it big in Scandinavia (and in some cases around the world) with a total of more than 40 gold, platinum, double platinum and triple platinum records within the last 8 years!
Spin Records is based in Copenhagen, Denmark (Scandinavian head office) and Ibiza, Spain (international head office).
Spin Records' core business is A&R development of artists and records. But we also supply the full promotional package on demand (artwork, POS, EPKs, videos, photos, web-stuff, press info etc.).
We are not limited to one musical genre. Or one licensing partner. But we pray to only one musical god: The Hit Song. Meaning the right track in the right production at the right time with the right artist with the right profile to the right target group in the right territory with the right marketing, sales & distribution partner! It's really that simple…
// A History of Hits
The Spin label group was founded in 1998 in Copenhagen, Denmark, by Jesper Wennick and Anders Haarder, who shared a vision of establishing a small, fast-moving and independant label, but with a highly commercial, chart-orientated and mass-media-friendly artist and product roster.
5 singles Top 20 within the first month
The idea was not new, of course. Many others have shared the same vision. But not many others have managed to enter a market so convincingly and (for most competitors) so shockingly as Spin did:
Within one month from the company's first release, it held 25% of the national singles top 20 in Denmark - with a record breaking 5 local debut-singles simultaneously in the chart!
The initial rumours among competitors - that Spin had used the old trick invented by Brian Epstein, who bought the first 10.000 Beatles singles all by himself - quickly stopped, as the products also topped both radio and club charts, and along with follow up singles and albums went on to sell gold, platinum, double-platinum and in one case triple-platinum (the Danish languaged act Blå Øjne, which for months topped even Britney Spears' smash hit record "Baby One More Time" with regard to sales/charts).
A highly creative and highly commercial teamwork
All these products were (and every new product still is) the outcome of Spin's quite unconventional approach to the making of succesful products in particular and operating within the music industry in general. Alltogether a result of the two founders' quite different backgrounds and individual skills, which combined has proven to be quite a powerful force:
The magic ears and commercial flair of Jesper Wennick, a former DJ, concert promoter, and a long time highly respected Artist & Repertoire capacity within the Danish music industry (who signed countless successful acts and records for other companies, as a consultant, and at one stage headed his own label division of a major comany, before Spin was founded to fulfill his vision of a faster moving and less bureaucratic business platform).
And the media and marketing mind of Anders Haarder, former editor-in-chief and financial director of three (simultaneously) market-leading youth and music magazines in Denmark (before he went on to head his own media-group, including TV/video/web/advertising activities as well as being a sub-contractor to the market-leading Danish tabloid paper, Ekstra Bladet, and weekly magazine, Se & Hør, and national IT giant TDC with regards to music & youth content and campaigns.
Though Spin Records today is a bigger operation, now both local and international, involving many more people, both owners, executives and our highly skilled staff, the original spirit and magic of the founding duo is still 100% intact.
An all-inclusive operation featuring artwork, videos and advertising materials
Right from the beginning, the two founders of Spin, who are not surprisingly big fans (mostly Haarder) of the duo the Pet Shop Boys (also a DJ and a journalist.), decided to structure the company quite differently from the average independant label (or major, for that sake). To meet all their demands and wishes based on years of experience within the industry - as well as the needs of artists, producers and songwriters - Wennick & Haarder created an all-inclusive "hit factory" handling both songwriting, recording, artist-development, marketing/PR, artwork, music-videos, tv commercials, websites you name it.
Allthough this all-inclusive (some might say control obsessed) operation obviously limited the company's ability with regards to the quantities of products released, it quickly proved to have exactly the desired effect on the quality of the products released. To this day 9 out of 10 releases have achieved gold or platinum (or higher) sales levels - not a bad "hit statistics" at all - ask yourself or anybody in the music industry!
Local distribution and international licensing deals
Apart from securing quality, control and ultimately commercial success, the production of all-inclusive products/concepts and full "promotional packages" has made some strategic choices rather simple for Spin: In Denmark sales have been handled through various distribution partners (and distribution only) right from the beginning. And for international products aimed at international territories, Spin of course has made licensing deals with various partners operating internationally - who have been more than pleased to license not only a good record, but also a full marketing concept complete with every piece of material you can think of.
International exploitation and award winning videos
Spin’s first product designed for international exploitation was the duo Toy-Box, and though critics (mainly locally) pointed out that the overall sound was too similar to the one of the Danish phenomenon Aqua, the artists and their songs quickly proved their - and the whole concept's - own strength and right among the young targetgroup (kids).
The debut-album FanTastic went on to sell more than a million copies as well as several gold and platinum selling singles in as different territories as Scandinavia, the Netherlands and the Far East. Apart from riding real elephants in the rainforests, as featured in the video to "Tarzan & Jane", the duo also sailed on board the great ship of Toytanic in "Sailor Song" and had a Tom & Jerry-like fight-for-fun in a 100% computer generated environment in the award winning "Best Friend" video (created entirely on motion control shots).
Another act developed for international exploitation, was the 13 year old amazing artist Jay-Kid, who also was targeted at the young audience (kids/teenagers). The debut-album "Bringing Back The Magic" was licensed to Universal Music for +38 territories and featured a string of great, but not too well known, Michael Jackson songs. Having achieved platinum sales in Denmark, and with the single "Blame It On The Boogie" charting as different places as France, Colombia and India (where he toured extensively!), everything seemed almost too good to be true, when Jay-Kid, based on Michael listening to his recordings, was invited to perform at Michael Jackson's birthday party and later visited Michael's home in Neverland Valley Ranch and was signed to Motown for the US. Unfortunately the whole project was soon there after cancelled, due to the new allegations against Michael Jackson from a boy almost the same age as Jay-Kid. Allegations, for which Michael later was totally acquitted.
Following the cancelled Jay-Kid project, and the natural artistic as well as financial disappointment of this +500.000 Euro project (developing costs alone), the Spin label for some time thereafter obviously had to lay low on developing it's own big international concepts, focussing instead on subcontracting for other labels as well as returning to the core business: The creation of hit songs - both songs written by our own writers as well as rights obtained from third parties. Today the label is not only refinanced, but more importantly also re-geared for the charts with a host of new smash hits. When you hear the forthcoming album from our artist Emilia (and other albums currently in production) you will know exactly what we mean!
A personal message: Trust us
Spin has never recorded - and will never record - a "Tubular Bells" album. But we never wanted to buy our own airline company anyway. Our joy in life is creating hit music. Our projects are cost efficient and always geared for the present market-situation, including targeting the right audience with the right product at the right time at the right initial expense both for ourselves and our licensing partners. We have a tendency to foresee new developments in both the music and the marketplace (allthough we didn't see the Santa Barbara bomb coming). And presently several new exciting projects are under development for international exploitation (as well as several local projects), not at least the aforementioned forthcoming album from Emilia ("Big Big World" - 4 million units sold!), which initially will be released in Sweden in Swedish, but later also will be available in English for other territories. When our new hit records are ready, you will automatically know. Trust that!!
// Profiles - The Founding Fathers
Jesper Wennick (35) - DJ turns hit-machine
Jesper Wennick was always "the record man" - the guy who could spot a hit-song from miles away, within seconds after listening to the hook (agreeing in the great motto of Per Gessle from Roxette: "Don't bore us - get to the chorus!" - say it loud and notice the nice rhyme). Jesper started out jampacking dancefloors as a DJ - surprisingly often introducing new, unproven tracks to his various audiences. Went on to become a concert-promoter, signing acts up at an early stage, only to be rewarded later when the anticipated hit records actually entered the charts (and the media) and a public demand for extensive local touring arised. Soon, of course, he was headhunted as A&R consultant for record labels, at one point he headed his own division of a major, and managed over years to contribute successfully to the signings at almost every Danish label, including Sony (S.O.A.P - "This Is How We Party" among others), BMG, Universal and Mega Records. Jesper (together with Chief 1 and Remee) also created the first "concept band" in Scandianvia (that actually sold records - many records - Sound Of Seduction) but during the last years his focus has obviously been on acts developed and owned by Spin. One exception was made, when (on a Spin brokerage deal), he signed the act JuniorSenior to Universal Music, who subsequently hit the no. 3 spot in the UK with the debut-single.
Jesper Wennick's personal favourite artists: Emilia - George Michael – Sade – Frank Sinatra –Barry White – Seal – Michael Jackson – Eminem – Dr Dre – Depeche Mode – John Lennon – Patrik Isaksson – Portishead – Tim Christensen - Nik & Jay
Anders Haarder (38) - Journalist turns business-executive
Anders Haarder was always the "media and marketing man", though he started out as a writing journalist for MIX Magazine (the Danish answer to Smash Hits/Bravo). He became editor-in-chief at the age of 21. Raised the circulation of the magazine to sales exceeding 100.000 units per issue. Invented the bonus-CD one year before Q Magazine. And finally reached his "teeny mag" goal, when the brand MIX Magazine in the beginning of the nineties, according to an official Gallup survey, was known among 99,9% of the teenage target group, aged 13-19, in Denmark. In comparison, "Donald Duck" scored only 99,7%! He moved on to (also) head, editorially as well as financially, two more magazine concepts, Vi Unge (like Just Seventeen) and Wild Magazine (like Q Magazine) who also soon became market leaders in their respective fields/formats. Mission accomplished, he decided to quit his jobs in Aller Press and soon launched his own media group (incl. Zoo Magazine), as well as an advertising agency, a TV and video production company and a communication consulting company, that for years exclusively supplied youth & music related editorial content, premiums, added value offers and campaign materials (incl TV commercials) for the three Danish market leaders in three main areas: Tabloid newspapers (Ekstra Bladet), weekly magazines (Se & Hør) and internet entertainment (TDC).11,4 million CD's later (and tons of words, pictures and video used on other people's products), he finally decided to produce his own music, closed his other operations and teamed up with Jesper Wennick to form Spin.
Anders Haarder's personal favourite artists: Beatles - Madonna - Abba - Emilia - Depeche Mode - Heather Nova - U2 - Sven Väth - Pet Shop Boys - The KLF - Rammstein - Ich + Ich - Ennio Morricone - David Bowie - Torsten Fenslau - Axel Boys Quartet
// Activities
Spin Records is a small and independant record label, but with an astonishing record of both local (Scandinavian) and international hit releases, since the label was founded in Copenhagen in 1998 by Jesper Wennick and Anders Haarder (read more under "history").
Most local Danish artists and products are - and have been - sold and marketed in Denmark by the label itself through various distribution partners (the gold and platinum-selling acts Blå Øjne, Danny Kool, Christian and Regina just to mention a few). And for the Swedish market, several Swedish acts are presently being developed to various local partners, for instance Emilia ("Big Big World") under exclusive license for the Swedish territory to the Bonnier Amigo Music Group.
For international exploitation purposes - with regards to records made in the English language and aimed at a broader, international audience - Spin Records has chosen to cooperate with various licensing partners all over the world. For instance the gold and platinum selling act Toy-Box who hit it big from the Netherlands to the far East. Not to mention the very young wonderkid Jay-Kid, who was under exclusive license to Universal Music for +30 territories (Motown in the US). And our next big thing will - without doubt - be Emilia's forthcoming international album, ready for licensing 2007.
Apart from our core business - developing artists and records to be released by Spin Records itself and by our various licensing partners - we also represent producers, songwriters (music publishing) and deal in general music industry brokerage. For instance the act Junior Senior, who hit the no. 3 spot in the UK, was signed to Universal Music by Spin Records' Jesper Wennick.
But we also have a great track record in creating artwork, packaging, promotional tools and video/tv/web productions. The act Aqua's video products, for instance, as well as several internationally distributed TV-programmes with Aqua, were produced for Universal Music by Spin Records' Anders Haarder, as well as music videos and TV-commercials incl. artist profiles for both Sony-BMG, EMI and several other major companies.
// Catalogue
Some of the artists from Spin Records. For all potential licensing partneres, please contact Spin Records for detailed information on available catalogue.
// New Talent
At Spin Records we are always interested in new talent - and who knows... maybe you are a superstar waiting to be discovered. Or a super songwriter with some great material for others to record.
Please send us your demo on CD/DVD (see addresses under "contact") or e-mail it to [email protected] (mp3 or RealAudio format). Make sure to include the word "DEMO" in the "regarding" field.
If you are a performing artist (singer), please enclose a photo and a brief description of yourself; your age, interests, dreams and a little about your everyday life. Remember to add you name, address, mail and phone number to all your enclosures (if you use snail-mail).
Please note that it can take a while for us to contact you after receiving your demo - and though we always try our absolutely best to answer everybody, sometimes it is simply not possible. By e-mails, however, our response rate is close to 100%.
If you have any questions, you are also more than welcome to contact us.