Gessle, Ulvaeus and Ledin behind “Next Big Thing” contest

According to DagensIndustri, pop legends Björn Ulvaeus, Tomas Ledin and Per Gessle are behind a new project which they hope will become Sweden’s biggest music competition – a kind of “Idol” on the web. It drew my attention that artists and songwriters can make money online, says Per Gessle to Dagens Industri.

Behind the contest called “Next Big Thing” is Snowfish.com – the company owned by famous Swedish stars. Anyone who does not already have a record deal can participate in this competition and the idea is that the audience will be a jury and will vote for the winner. It is still unclear if only Swedish citizen will be able to participate in it.

With 100,000 opened accounts, we estimate that around 25,000 are going to be the artists and the rest will be a jury, says Niklas Holmstén, Snowfish CEO. Advertisment revenue is estimated at about 10,000,000 SEK and compensation for the artists will be calculated basing on the number of listeners.

The idea is supported by e.g. Telia Sonera, Spotify, Sony Ericsson and Musikbörsen.

Source: DI.se

Gessle & Ulvaeus invested wrong – again.

Per Gessle and Björn Ulvaues invested money in an enterprise launched by entrepreneur, author and leading light of the Swedish Humanists Christer Sturmark, though they lost by one of his projects before. Now they have left music company Noteheads. It became a fiasco, Dagens Industri reveals.

Noteheads Musical Expert is IT-entrepreneur Christer Sturmark’s latest project. He with Björn Ulvaeus and Per Gessle’s help wanted to sell software which could have been used in music composing. The last year’s profits were very low – just 8,327 SEK. Seven years after the start, from over 700,000 SEK invested, there are only around 50,000 SEK left.

Previous partners decided to go their own ways. Björn Ulvaeus and Per Gessle refused to sign-off the most recent company’s annual report, even though they were members of Noteheads’ board of directors throughout the last year. Only Sturmark, the last board member, signed under. The two world popstars left the company in secret on April 29 this year.

It is the second time Björn Ulvaeus and Per Gessle lost their money because of Sturmark’s projects. Their joint company Fame Studios were closed down in 2003 after just two and a half years’ activity.

Source: Dagens Industri, Expressen.se, Realtid.se, Icethesite.com