Meet The Danish Music Bizz: Alexander Pedersen, General Manager at disco:wax, No3 and at OneSeven’s international Label

SPOT is much more than concerts: Denmark has also got significant agents in various parts in the music business, and while we are counting down to the festival, we aim to present some of the people you can meet at SPOT in brief Q&As.

This time it is Alexander Pedersen, General Manager, disco:wax, No3 and OneSeven’s International Label 

What do you work with (booking, management, publishing etc.)?

My primary job is as general manager at disco:wax, No3 and at OneSeven’s international label + related areas. I’m also head of A&R, and on a few separate projects I work management as well.

What is your business background (time in the business, education etc.)?

I’ve been working many different areas, but I started out as a performing musician and songwriter. It wasn’t until I started managing Panamah and was regularly employed at a record company, that I realized what my ambitions were, and how far I would go to make them come true. I have many years of experience in the business and have been working full time for the past eight years. I have been three years with Universal Music as International Marketing Manager and later on with disco:wax where I started out doing marketing and later shifted focus to corporate strategy and A&R.

What are the most important, exciting, well known, or interesting things in your portfolio?

When it comes to artists and international success, I think it’s important to mention Martin Jensen. So far, he is our most successful artist outside of Denmark with platinum certifications in many countries including big markets such as Germany and the UK. This level of success is of course the ambition for many of our artists, and that is why I am excited to see the career development of artists such as Ea Kaya, Artifact Collective, Nathan Goshen, Daniel Joy, Benedicte and Small Talk. They are all very interesting acts that add something new and unique to the music industry.

What is the most important thing to happen to Danish music in the last five years?

It’s definitely the globalization of the music business via streaming. It has been very important for a country such as Denmark to be able to spread Danish music to places, that up until now had been unimaginable for a Danish master rights owner to hatch, plan and dictate a global plan that would eventually lead to success.

What are the most important questions or pressing issues in the music business right now?

The way I see it, the biggest question right now is, how to create enduring artists. We’ve had a couple of years, where the song has become more important than the artist. That has turned around in the past 10 months. I primarily refer the commercial part of the business where sales, live, radio and especially streaming are important aspects of keeping the engine running and the business viable. I believe we need to find new ways of marketing our artists and not just be dependent on playlist adds.

For the music business the biggest concern is probably how to stay relevant in the eye of the artists. We need to be more innovative and better than the day before. At disco:wax we have a skilled and creative team, which has accumulated a lot of knowledge, that we constantly apply and adapt to the projects we are working on. If we keep honing our knowhow and stay on the edge of anticipating trends, I believe we can maintain our relevance.

Which international business people and lines of business would you like to meet at SPOT this year?

I hope to meet some of the international contacts who I already know and get the opportunity to spend some time with them under more sociable circumstances.

What are you going to do at SPOT/what are your goals for this year’s SPOT?

I hope to see a lot of artists I don’t already know. Apart from that I need to present the artists I represent to interesting business contacts.

Besides your own artists, which ones are you looking forward to seeing at SPOT this year?

Apart from our own artists, I’d very much like to see Asbjørn, Frida Sundemo, Pasha, Shirin, Fool, Jada, and probably many more, once I’m there.