How did Milwin get signed to Universal?

As you all well know, our worldwide network of Scouts is one of the most important parts of Spinnup. Without them we’d be… well we’d be like every other distribution service out there. Our Scouts volunteer their time to Spinnup, lending their ears and expertise to our artists giving them feedback to help them improve as a musician and navigate the industry. But what else do they do outside of Spinnup? What music do they listen to in their own headphones, what do they do for fun?

To answer all of this and more we’re introducing the Scout Takeover, where one Scout will ‘take over’ our Spotify and Instagram for a full month. First up is one of our new Scouts from Sweden, Kimberly! As a Scout for Swedish artists, Kimberly is also one of special International Scouts which means she is pushed releases from artists all over the world in countries that don’t have their own local Scout team.

But that’s just one part of what she does… read our interview with Kimberly below and make sure to follow her Scout Takeover playlist to see what tracks she is loving right now, which will be updated each week for the whole of August. Who knows, she might just come across your release to add to her playlist. She’ll also be taking over our Instagram adding photos and stories from her summer escapades!

 

Spinnup: Hi Kimberly, thanks for being our first scout to ‘takeover’! Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

Kimberly: For as long as I can remember music has always been a part of who I am. During my younger years, I competed in song contests and performed at every social event I could. From the age of four, I was constantly engaged in activities where singing and dancing played a big part. Ever since music has always been my greatest interest and passion.

Now that I’m a grown up (kind of) I have been working towards getting into the PR in the industry, so I chose to study media and communication science; to get the development I need to break into the field.

Outside of the time I put in being a Scout (of course!), I love hanging out with my friends and family here in Sweden. But at almost all times you will always see me with my headphones on!

S: How long have you been a Spinnup Scout?

K: I joined the Scout team in May of this year, but  already I have stumbled upon a lot of great music and cool artists the world needs to hear! Make sure you check out Isak Danielson, Leo The Kid and Mos Isley!

S: What made you want to be a Scout?

K: Finding new sounds and unique artists is something I put a lot of effort into and something I truly enjoy doing. But I also wanted to find a way to do this and incorporate my existing experience and skills in music and PR to help artists reach their dreams!

S: What’s your favourite track you’ve come across on Spinnup so far?

K: That’s a tough one, but I would have to say ”Ingen som” by MIKI. It’s currently on the Scout Picks playlist on Spotify.

S: What’s your favourite genre of music?

K: Oh that’s tough – every kind of music that grabs my attention from the get-go really! Whether it’s funky rhythms or a soulful voice.

S: What kind of tunes can we expect to hear on your playlist this month?

K: It will be eclectic for sure. Everything from smoky soul, rhythm & blues through to electronic poppin’ sounds and Hip-Hop. Tunes that will definitely make your heart and body feel some sort of way. Basically anything that I like!

S: What else will you be up to during your Scout Takeover?

K: I will be updating my Scout Takeover playlist each week for the month of August, but you will also get to follow me on Spinnup’s Instagram. You will be joining me when I visit Way Out West festival in Gothenburg (my favourite Swedish festival), the school’s kick-off and perhaps get a glimpse of my own music project!

Make sure you listen to Kimberly’s Scout Takeover playlist, and follow Spinnup on Instagram to see what else she gets up to during her Scout Takeover!

A couple of weeks ago we announced our new signing Milwin, but we thought it was about time we got to know him a little better, and find out just how he came to be signed.

Milwin had been a Spinnup artist for a few years, even since the release of his first single ‘Coming After You‘ in 2015.  After releasing a few more singles the Swedish Spinnup team discovered hMilwin’s latest track ‘Follow Your Heart’ and they introduced his songs to the A&Rs at Universal Music Sweden. Polydor saw potential in the 20-year old music producer, and the whole thing ended with a signing to Polydor Sweden! He re-released his single “Follow You Heart” with Polydor -it’s a great summer-banger that we hope you haven’t missed out on yet!

You can stream or buy the track it here!

Since then, we’ve gotten to know Milwin better, and now he has also given YOU a chance to get to know him too! Watch the video below to listen to his story behind ‘Follow Your Heart, his musical history, and don’t worry, he also has some advice for Spinnup artists who are serious about wanting to get discovered and signed!

Want to hear what Milwin is listening to right now? Check out his Favourites playlist on Spotify, and don’t forgot you can create your own artist playlists on Spotify – all you need is a verified page! Read our blog post here on getting verified on Spotify to find out how.

We’re always so proud of all our Spinnup artists that ’graduate’ from our service and go on to be signed by Universal Music. We make sure to keep tabs on them and update you all with their successes from time to time.

Swedish Capitol Music signing Albin Johnsén is a former Spinnup artist who was discovered after he released the song ”Din soldat”. It was picked up by the Scouts, who passed it on to the ears of the A&Rs at Universal Music Sweden. The track became a major hit locally, and in just two months was certified platinum! Today it was been streamed over 40 million times on Spotify!

Kosovare Asllani, forward in Swedens women’s national football team was a big fan of ”Din soldat” and asked Albin to write the official women’s euro-cup song.
Albin, who’s a huge football fan, did not hesitate to take her up on the offer!

He’d already begun writing a track set to the tempo the team requested, and set about crafting lyrics to match. The track is about fighting, not only within football but in life. The song is called ”Hjärtan av guld” and is inspired by Albin’s fight against anxiety and low self esteem.

”Hjärtan av guld” was released on June 8th and only three hours after being released it had already reached 100.000 people and at the moment the release has over 160.000 views on Facebook.

The Swedish/Cape Verdean producer duo VAZ is made up of the sisters Jenny & Cecilia Vaz. You may recognize Cecilia, as not only is she a Spinnup artist, but she was also a former Spinnup Scout in the Swedish team! The sister duo last week released their new release ”Luxury Problems”.

Having established themselves on the Swedish festival-stage in 2012 with the great success of their first release “Miss Frost”, the singer/songwriter/producer duo make music that is a mix of traditional African drums with electronic beats and multi-dimensional harmonies.

They want ”Luxury Problems” to be an inspiration to other producers and have made the song’s stems available for download – free for everyone to modify and remix! You can access the stems via the track’s website (http://lxry.pro/) which was made in collaboration with Stockholm-based creative network CCCOLLECTIVE.

Once you’ve pieced together the beat’s different parts – you’re able to download the ”Luxury Problems” remix pack, containing stems and press photos for the song. If you’re inspired to make your own version of a Luxury Problems remix and you want to show it off, Cecilia and Jenny are waiting to hear it! Send your remix over to remix@lxry.pro and they’ll get back to you as soon as they’ve listened 🙂

This is a great opportunity for all the Dj’s and producers out there to be creative with some very cool ready made stems!

Listen to ‘Luxury Problems’ here!

We are so proud to announce our 31st artist signing, Sweden’s Milwin! Not only has he signed to Polydor Sweden, but is releasing his new single ”Follow Your Heart” today!

Edwin Lindberg, known as ”Milwin” is a 20-year old music producer from Uddevalla who’s whole life has revolved around music. As a kid he showed an interest in playing drums, so his grandfather bought him a drum set. This drum set eventually turned into a guitar and then into a piano, in other words – this guy is a musical genius. The knowledge of how to play so many instruments inspired him to learn how to DJ and to produce music. In 2015 Milwin released his first single ”Coming After You” through Spinnup which received a huge number of streams!

”Follow Your Heart” is the single that Milwin is releasing with today, and the story behind this song is quite interesting.

Milwin actually found an early version of this track made by artist ”Sha”, who is based in Nigeria, on Soundcloud and asked him if they could re-work the track, and so the magic happened! After they released the song through Spinnup a while ago the Spinnup team in Sweden picked it up and showed it to the A&Rs at the local Polydor office, which resulted in a new signing!

Stream “Follow Your” Heart on Spotify below, or stream/download from the other stores.

We are so excited about this and congratulate Milwin on his signing!

 

When you’ve put so much effort into your music, don’t let your release down by pairing it with anything but amazing cover art.

A great track needs a great artwork – with millions of songs on Spotify and Apple Music these days you definitely need a professional cover art to stand out in the crowd.

Our friends at Cover Art Factory have always given Spinnup artists 10% in store, and even helped us celebrate reaching 100,000 artists by offering a limited time offer that was three times that during our special free release period.

We are so excited to announce that Cover Art Factory now offer a huge 25% discount on all of their products!

Cover Art Factory is the #1 online design service for the music industry. In addition to cover art design they also create lyric videos, social media design, band logos and much more. All designs are created by professional, verified designers and always with fixed, affordable fees and fast delivery.

We’ve had great reviews from the numerous Spinnup artists who have used Cover Art Factory in the past. So make sure you take advantage of this special offer, as it will only last until May 31, 2017.

To receive 25% off all products at coverartfactory.com, use code SPINNUP25 at checkout.

 

 

Last weekend Spinnup Sweden teamed up with the audio production-school SAE Institute for a Songwriting Camp, and MAGIC was created!

The day started at 10am at Soundtrade Studios where current and old students of SAE gathered at the school for an introduction with different briefs to work on. They were divided into groups and kept working together for the whole day and the results from this were amazing!

We hope to hear some new releases from this songwriting camp coming through Spinnupvery soon! Well done to all the songwriters who attended and worked hard all day, and big thanks to all the people who participated and help put on a great day!

Check out some of the photos from the songwriting camp below, or view them all on Facebook.

Do you want the chance to win one of Scandinavias biggest awards?

You as a artist, band, songwriter and producer should apply for this great prize “Rookie Award” at Denniz Pop Awards. You’ll get recognized and judged by some of the biggest people in the music industry like Tove Lo, Max Martin and many more. The prize is a great push in your music career, and $10.000!!!

Last day to apply for this is on May 7th
So hurry up and get your songs ready to send them in!
You can enter here: dennizpopawards.com/enter

What is Denniz Pop Awards?

In 2013, the members of the Swedish music company Cheiron started Denniz Pop Award to honor one of the greatest songwriter and producer of Sweden whose name was Dag Krister Volle, but people around the world know him as Denniz Pop.

Before Denniz Pop passed away in cancer in 1998, he worked closely with artists like Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys and Nsync and put his mark on the new sound of pop that became big in the world in that era.

Denniz Pop Awards is a non-profit event for aspiring artists, songwriter and producers with great potential and to win a award here helps liftning them to reach a music career on an international level.

The jury consists some of the greatest artists, songwriters and producers of Scandinavia and most of them were close friends and colleagues of Denniz Pop. Max Martin, Tove Lo, Laleh, Rami Yacoub and Andreas Carlsson just to name a few!

This is something we want all our Spinnup-members to apply to! Who knows, maybe you will get something interesting out of applying to this 😉

Enter here