Session 4: Mille on how SPOT Festival actually books its 200+ acts

Mille breaks down how SPOT Festival fills its 200-plus act line-up: roughly half comes from partners and curators bringing their own acts, the other half splits between the open debutant application round and direct outreach from agencies or artists with a clear plan for what SPOT can do for them. She is explicit that SPOT will book artists who haven't released music or played live yet if the project has a clear vision, and that Spotify or Instagram numbers are looked at but never the deciding factor, unlike some booking agencies that only sign artists with an existing following. Her advice for a band's first ever festival slot is to sit down beforehand and agree what you actually want out of it (new followers, a booker, or just a good first show) rather than leaving overwhelmed having done nothing with the access you had. She also flags the partner and open call route as a second way in when the main application round doesn't land, and closes on authenticity: forced TikTok presence is visible from the outside, and a sustainable ten-shows-a-year musical life is as valid a goal as playing arenas.

Full transcript

SESSION 4 — CONVERSATION WITH MILLE
Context-corrected and lightly edited transcript

EDITORIAL NOTE
This version was corrected from the supplied text transcript, not checked against the original audio. Speaker labels were reassigned where the conversational logic made the error clear, obvious speech-recognition errors and names were corrected, and punctuation was improved for readability. One partner name and the opening fragment remain uncertain and are marked accordingly.

Mille:
(Recording begins mid-sentence; the opening words are uncertain.)

…a popular name in Denmark, and we have suggestions below that artist presentation which can lead other people towards other pop acts. So we try to do these things on both a bigger and a smaller scale all the time. That's my job. My inbox is always open to people asking questions and wanting to be connected with other people at the festival, because it is a showcase festival with music-industry professionals. The most important thing you can do is use that opportunity however you want, and in whatever way best fits your career goals.

But yeah, I also think the most important thing is for artists to really think through how they want to use the platform in the best way, and then they can reach out with questions along the way. I can see there's a question from Inka in the chat, so I'll answer that immediately. SPOT Festival is also open internationally, but internationally in the sense that we only book Nordic acts.

We do have collaborations. For example, we have collaborated with Eurosonic, where they send a Dutch act to our festival and we send a Danish act to Eurosonic. So we do these exchange programmes with countries outside the Nordic region, but our main goal is to be a platform for Nordic music. That is mainly because we see festivals such as by:Larm in Oslo and Viva Sounds in Gothenburg, and of course Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg, as colleagues rather than competitors. There are different platforms working internationally across Europe, and we think it benefits both us and the artists if we maintain a more curated Nordic programme.

Eryn:
I wanted to ask the people participating: how many of you are from one of the Nordic countries? You can respond in the chat. I also wanted to ask you another question. Let's say an artist is preparing, or wants to apply to play at a festival like SPOT or another showcase festival. What would you recommend they do to get to that point or get started, to reach the point where they can apply to, for example, SPOT?

Yeah, hang on, let me try to rephrase my question, sorry. Say an artist wants to get to the point where they can connect with SPOT and other showcase festivals. What would they need to have already done in their career to get there? Does SPOT only book artists who are established in some way, or do you also book people who are just getting started?

Mille:
Good question. We are actually open to artists at all levels. We are mostly focused on artists who have a clear vision for their project and who feel ready, and "ready" can look very different. You can be someone who has never performed a concert except in front of your parents in the living room, or someone who has played hundreds of concerts around the country, or even outside Denmark. It depends on what you bring to the table in terms of motivation and how prepared you are for the next step in your career.

To break it down quickly, we have more than 200 acts each year, and you can roughly divide them into two halves. One half is curated by partners in many different ways, local partners, other Danish venues, curators and so on, who may bring one, two, three, four, five, six or even twenty acts to the programme. The other half is handled by my colleagues in the booking department. That part of the line-up is again divided into two: one part comes from our debutant applications, and the other comes from agencies and artists contacting the booking department directly because they have a goal and a vision for performing at SPOT. That could, for example, be bigger or more established Danish acts that want to export their music to Germany, Sweden, Norway, the UK and so on. We want to be a platform for that as well.

Regarding the debutants, everybody who has not previously been booked directly by SPOT Festival can apply during our annual debutant application round. The applications go through different rounds in which people from the industry listen to the music, read the motivation texts and consider the full picture: how the artist could fit into the programme and how they could get the most out of playing at SPOT.

This may not be the answer people want, because there is no single model of a perfect SPOT applicant. It depends on the year and on how the applicant has put their project together at that moment. Our mission also includes making sure genres are represented broadly at the festival. We cannot have thirty hip-hop acts or thirty pop acts simply because those are two popular genres at the moment. We also need metal, rock, folk, jazz, and this year even a bit of Latin music, and so on. We look at the line-up as a collected whole, while also focusing on whether each applicant has explained how they could make the most of the festival, if that makes sense.

Eryn:
Yeah, that makes sense. I think you already answered the question in the chat with that response. So there is not one specific route; it depends on vision, relevance and all those kinds of things. I have a question from the community that Ina sent me: how should a band prepare for playing at a festival for the first time in their lives?

The group that asked said they are going to apply to play at ESNS next year, but this would be their first-ever time playing at a festival.

Mille:
Okay. Since they are applying to a showcase festival, I think the best way to prepare is to sit down as a band and discuss what they would like to get out of the performance. In the showcase-festival world, a lot can happen organically just from being at the festival, playing, and having people enjoy, explore and discover your music. But because it is also a platform where you have access to the music business, it is a good idea to make some kind of plan beforehand. Otherwise, you can become overwhelmed and overstimulated by all the possibilities, get through the concert and reach the other side of the festival without having acted on what mattered most.

So I think the most important thing is to sit down and talk openly about what you want from the performance. That could be anything from gaining twelve new Instagram followers, to finding a new booker, signing with a label, or simply having a great time performing, especially if it is your first time. Just having a good first experience of performing live can be a worthwhile goal.

If one of your goals is to make professional contacts or get business opportunities from it, research beforehand whether the festival has a system for contacting the visiting delegates. For example, at SPOT Festival all performing acts have access to the contact information of the music-industry professionals visiting the festival. They can contact them directly without having to go through us or search for them elsewhere on the festival site.

So you can send out an email and invite them to your show beforehand and such. So make use of the possibilities that you have, but be clear on what you really want to have out of it.

Eryn:
And let's say that there's an artist who wants to play at SPOT, who doesn't have much experience performing live, or doesn't have much of a social media presence.

I'm assuming that that is an important part of getting seen. But how might an artist get seen by SPOT in order to be booked?

Mille:
We try to attend as many live concerts in as many places as possible.

You are always welcome to invite us, but we also actively try to discover people creating new music across Denmark and, of course, the other Nordic countries. On the social-media point, and I can see a related question in the chat, we do book artists who have not released music yet.

We do book artists who haven't played live yet. That's not a problem for us. If we can see that they have a vision with their project, that's all fine by us.

We just want to make sure the artists feel ready. In some cases, that is where the application round becomes even more important, because people who have not officially released music or played anything publicly can still apply to SPOT Festival. Everything submitted through the application system is confidential.

It is not shared anywhere beyond the people whose job it is to review the applications. We base our decision mainly on what people submit, and if the talent is there, we are all for it. Of course, to answer the other part of the question about social-media presence:

We do ask for links to your social media, and I may get in trouble with other communications people for saying this, but that is not the main reason we book anyone.

Eryn:
Sorry, that was going to be my next question. How important to all festival promoters and bookers would a social media or Spotify following be?

Mille:
We do look at it. It would be a lie to say otherwise. But we do not decide what the line-up should look like based on whether somebody has twelve or twelve thousand Instagram followers. Their Spotify listener count might not even be visible, or they might have three million listeners.

There is, of course, value in exposure. Having artists with many Spotify listeners or social-media followers can help spread the word about SPOT Festival as a platform and a place to discover new music. But the most important thing is that the music and the project have a clear vision. We are in a position where we can take an almost idealistic approach and give people a chance as long as the project is clear and strong. Hopefully, that allows artists to grow, develop their projects, become bigger and go on to play other festivals. Other festivals have different considerations they need to take into account.

Of course, they have these A artists, B artists, C artists. You can see that at a poster as well for all the other festivals. There are some artists who will draw in people and make sure they buy the ticket.

In those cases, social-media presence and Spotify listener numbers can be crucial factors. But because of the way our festival is built, we can treat those numbers more as an added benefit than a requirement.

Eryn:
Yeah, perfect.

Mille:
Before we address the other question in the chat, I don't know whether Eryn may be out of the loop now as well, but I can see a question regarding the UMTO project and their stage.

Eryn:
If you want to go ahead and answer that one. Let me see.

Yeah, could you maybe say a few words about civil society, the city, and how many different types of people…

Rasmus:
Do you hear me now, Mille?

Eryn:
Yeah, I do.

Rasmus:
Mille, do you hear me?

Mille:
Yeah, I can hear you.

Rasmus:
Wow, crazy. Okay, I think you don't hear Eryn now.

Mille:
I can't hear Eryn.

Eryn:
Can you guys hear me?

Mille:
I can hear you now, so this is very exciting.

Rasmus:
You can hear her now?

Eryn:
Okay, everyone else can hear me.

Rasmus:
Yeah, I hear you, Eryn. I hear you too, but I don't think... Maybe they're updating something on Discord today. I swear to God.

Mille:
Okay, I can see everybody else can hear Eryn.

Rasmus:
Everyone can hear. Can people hear me also?

Eryn:
I didn't press anything.

Rasmus:
No, this is so weird. But I had an issue before when I was trying to make my stuff work. I also all of a sudden couldn't hear anyone speak, and I had to go in and out of the app again.

Okay, okay. Herve, I can hear you too. Jesus Christ.

Okay, so apparently Mille can't hear Eryn. Well, yeah. I swear I look like a boomer in this setup, but I really tried everything.

Okay, let's see. You still hear me, Mille?

Mille:
Yeah, I do.

Rasmus:
Okay, okay, nice. Okay, then I guess I'll take over from you, Eryn, since Mille don't hear you now.

Eryn:
I have one more question I wanted to ask, but I'll put it in the chat.

Mille:
Should I answer from the city and so on?

Rasmus:
Yeah, thanks, Mille. Yeah, that sounds great. Yeah, thanks, Mille.

Mille:
Okay, briefly: civil society and all the cultural organisations, big and small, are a very important part of how we create the festival. We are the office that organises everything, but if we did not have so many great people in the city of Aarhus who want to work together with us and create the scene, then we would not have the festival in the form that we do.

Every partner is important. All the venues in the city are partners, and everybody who volunteers is a very important part of the festival.

I also think there are many different types of people who become part of SPOT as a whole. The artists, in a way, become more a part of the festival than I have experienced at some other places. It is also a place for them to learn things and learn more about themselves and their careers.

When the artists are not on stage, they go out and become part of the audience. They can freely listen to concerts where their friends are playing and perhaps meet somebody new in the queue for another concert. The whole of SPOT becomes a community, and we could not do it without all the partners, collaborators and music organisations. So yes, this is very important for the project and for the festival.

Rasmus:
I actually have a question related to that, Mille. I think this is a really cool question, also in relation to Marius. Compared with other showcase festivals, SPOT has always embraced many different stages that are not necessarily organised entirely by you.

Have you seen examples where artists themselves take the initiative to create something like that? Is that something artists can do? As I understand it, it is often organisations, like UMTO, which Marius mentioned, and which does a lot for young professionals, that organise these stages.

Then you have all these other organisations, or even venues from other cities, hosting stages. But would it be possible for a group of artists with a good idea to create a stage? What would it take for them to do that with SPOT?

Mille:
We would definitely be open for the possibility. We try to embrace as many initiatives during the weekend we have SPOT Festival as possible. And if you write an email to one of my colleagues, for example, in the fall and present an idea, you can do that as an artist as well.

We would take a serious look at how it could fit into the overall picture of the festival. If we have an available stage, we would consider how the project you bring to the table could fit there. If you already have a stage yourself, we would consider how it could work with the rest of the festival.

For example, on Thursday we have an initiative called SPOT City, where venues from other parts of Denmark present local talent in bars, restaurants, cafés and so on. It is free for everybody in the city. That is one way for us to embrace projects that we may not have room for on a stage during the main festival.

So if you have an idea, we are always open to considering how it could work. As the person responsible for communication, however, I also have to be realistic and honest: if you build a small stage in the city square on Friday and then email me asking to be part of the programme, sometimes we have to say no. That is not because we are being malicious or do not want to include everybody.

But if we include too much, the festival may lose some of its relevance as a curated platform. That does not mean people cannot use the momentum created by the festival in the city. If you want to organise a pop-up concert downtown, please do.

We would never stop anybody from doing that. We just can't communicate it through our platform that way.

Rasmus:
Of course. You already have a lot of stages and a great deal to manage. If everybody who put up a small stage had to be included, it would create a lot of work.

I can see that Eryn has a good question. She says she has a friend who is a junior booker at Eurosonic, and this friend mentioned that a large number of bookings are business arrangements involving Eurosonic and booking agencies. How much is that also the case at SPOT? How much of the line-up comes through agencies, and how much comes from newly discovered artists?

Mille:
As mentioned before, half of the programme consists of direct bookings made by us, mostly by my colleagues Albert and Katrine in the booking department. Half of that portion again comes from the debutant applications. As mentioned, everybody can apply.

Artists at every level and in every genre can apply, whether they already have a booker or label or are completely independent. The other part is, in a way, what you are describing here.

We do not have business deals with booking agencies, nothing like, "We need to book four of your artists this year to maintain a good relationship." That is not the case.

Rasmus:
Yeah, you're not beholden to anyone.

Mille:
No, exactly. We don't owe anything. We are, of course, looking at relevance.

Of course, we look at relevance. Some artists pitched to us through booking agencies may appear too established for a festival like SPOT. But many venue bookers also visit the festival, and they need to book programmes for their venues well in advance.

They use SPOT as a platform for that. They need to be able to experience artists firsthand and see how those artists might fit into their programmes. Those are often artists who are slightly further along in their careers and in the business side of things, if that makes sense.

So no deals, but deals.

Rasmus:
No deals. It also shows how broad the festival is. From what you are explaining, it sounds as though almost everybody has a chance.

But of course, it's worth for artists to consider that there's so many who want to play SPOT and so many are applying that it is hard sometimes to get a slot there. And if you don't get chosen, that doesn't necessarily mean that you are not relevant at least. But maybe you should just spend the next year trying to work a little harder and get further and then try again.

Mille:
Yeah, exactly. Artists can also look into the possibility of being presented by a partner organisation instead. This year, we tried to make it more visible which partners have an open call that people can apply to after our own application round.

We have a thing on our website called Open Calls that we always try to update on which of our partners has some sort of open call. Some are more specific. You have to be a part of a union or play this kind of music or something like that.

But some of them are also really broad and open to all sorts of music. So that's our way to open up the stage even though we can't take everybody in.

Rasmus:
That is really useful. People should not see the opportunity to play SPOT as only a matter of applying directly to you, because all these organisations also put on their own stages.

When would be a good time to begin looking into that? Say you are an artist who wants to play SPOT and you are thinking, "Okay, I applied through the official round, but I also want to see whether I can get into one of these partner programmes." When should you start looking?

And how would you find out what the next year's partners are going to be? Are they most likely maybe the ones from last year? And so you try to reach out in good time.

But what would you advise on there?

Mille:
Yeah, I think I would take a look at who's partnering this year and maybe last year. Many of them are long-term partners in some way. So they have been here some years now.

Take a look at those partners and perhaps reach out to them. They do need to make an agreement with us first.

So you cannot assume anything is confirmed in advance. For example, we have a local partner (partner name unclear in the supplied transcript). They have been with us for around three years. If everything continues as it usually does and they create a strong stage and line-up for their presentation, I cannot see why they should not be here next year.

But they need to speak with us before telling an artist, "Yes, of course, we can present you at SPOT 2027." So as an artist, I would still apply through the official round.

Once we have responded to all the applicants about whether they are playing SPOT through the official route, start looking from January onwards. We will then be able to say more about which partners are likely to be part of SPOT and which of them have open calls.

Rasmus:
Okay, that is very useful. I have a fun question here from Havack, but did you want to add something first?

Mille:
I just wanted to add that, regarding the booking-agency point, it is not only agencies that can contact our booking department after the application round. As recently as last week, an artist emailed our booking department saying, "I missed the application round by a few months, but I would really love to play SPOT."

"Here is my EP, links to my music, my press kit and my motivation." We will take a qualified and serious look at what they send us. So you do not need to have an agency or an established contact in order to reach out after the application round.

Rasmus:
That's really, I think that is pretty cool. Of course, it probably goes to say that people should not have the biggest expectations, but there is still that little chance.

Mille:
Yes, there is a small window maybe, but the window is open.

Rasmus:
You just better write it on a Friday when everybody's happy. Not on Monday. Okay, so Havack is asking, I don't know about this one though, but maybe a little bit.

So Havack is asking, do you guys go out to bars and around Aarhus to scout for new bookings? Like in the movies, you know? I don't know what movies means, but I guess.

Mille:
I think I know what movies they mean. Well, we do in a way. We're curious people.

We all love music, and we go to as many concerts as possible. Of course, we are more likely to be aware of something if people email us an invitation or send a DM, because we cannot keep track of everything that is happening.

Aarhus may look small to many people, but it is still quite a large city with many things happening, fortunately. I have not seen that many bands playing in bars recently, but I am going to a show with that kind of atmosphere in a few weeks.

So the possibility is definitely there.

Rasmus:
That's nice. And then Inna here is asking also, if you are an artist that wants to set a stage up, where would they reach out to you? Or what email is to reach out to with something like this?

Mille:
If you are an artist, you should reach out to my colleague Katrine, who is responsible for the festival's musical partnerships. I would say it is a little too late for this year because we do not have any more stages available, but please email her as a starting point.

You can email her at katrine@spotfestival.dk. You are also always welcome to send things to our general information address, info@spotfestival.dk. I am one of the two people responsible for checking that inbox, and I will make sure anything that lands there is forwarded to the right person on our team.

Rasmus:
That's very nice.

Eryn:
Thank you, Mille.

Rasmus:
Okay, I think Ina will pull that and then share it with everybody. So I have one more question for today. I see we ran out of time already, but part of what we're doing with the project...

Okay, thanks, Mille. Part of what we're doing is there's a part to this project that tries to look a little bit at how can we also help artists become a bit more mentally robust, since it is a hard industry to be in. There's a lot of focus on mental health and well-being.

I don't know if this is a big question, but you've been in the industry for a lot of years now, and so you've also seen a lot of stuff and such. Are there any tricks, or maybe not tricks, but are there any advice that you could give artists to consider in terms of, let's say, handling the industry better or their careers or something to take into account which might help them on their path?

Mille:
Both from a communications perspective and more generally, based on the many artists I have seen over the years, I think the most important thing is to be authentic about your project. That sounds like a cliché, so I will elaborate. You also need to be honest about how much pressure you want to put on yourself as an artist, what you want from your career, and the fact that a career can take many different forms. Right now, it is very easy to fall into a trap when you see these very talented…

In Denmark, we have many talented artists who rise very quickly. They go from playing small venues to selling out some of the biggest stages in the country within a matter of years. That is very impressive. If you are Danish and heard the recent episode of the podcast Genstart, then you know that Aphaca had a plan for it. That is great and amazing, and they succeeded.

But there are other kinds of careers in the music industry. You do not have to aspire to play huge concerts. You can instead aim to have a sustainable musical life.

You might plan to play ten concerts a year to sustain your musical life and spend more time on the production side. Maybe you love writing songs more than you love performing.

Maybe you love creating funny videos and using your music in that way. The internet is a big playground for everybody, and if you feel comfortable with using that as a platform for your music in a different way than playing live, use that. Just be authentic on how you would like your musical life to be, because it shines through when people like me look at a project.

I can easily spot when somebody's TikTok presence feels forced because they think their project has to have a TikTok profile. Not everybody needs a TikTok profile for their project. It can help if you know how to use it in a way that suits the project, but if you only have it because somebody told you that you need one, it is shit.

We see it. I see it. I use too much time on that platform.

Yeah, authenticity.

Rasmus:
I guess it comes back to a very old idea. As you say, it may sound clichéd, but you should remember that you are doing this because you enjoy it. It should be about that enjoyment, rather than constantly measuring whether it is successful enough.

That's unnecessary pressure to put on yourself. If you're enjoying it and it goes well, then it might lead to success. But yeah, it should not be the goal, the end goal.

Mille:
I think all of us working in the music industry, whether we work at computers, as technicians, building stages or creating music, do it because we cannot stop doing it. But that does not mean everybody has to be the top name on the poster to have a great career in the industry. Of course, that may be what everybody dreams of at first.

Rasmus:
That makes a great deal of sense. I can see Eryn writing that many booking agencies mainly become involved with artists once they already have some social-media following. So it is refreshing that SPOT is not so focused on that.

Mille:
I mean, they are businesses, and I come from a somewhat commercial background, so I understand why they do it. But I do not think it is viable for the music industry as a whole if you only add people to your roster who already have an online presence, because things change so quickly online.

You can have the most successful artist online one week, but if they do not have a project that feels authentic in the long run, then it may remain only an online presence for however many days, weeks or years it lasts.

Rasmus:
Yeah. Mille, thanks so much. I'm very sorry about the tech issues.

I feel incredibly old, but I think I found out what the issue was. It was so weird. I really tried on, but it's worked all the other times.

So it's super weird. It didn't work, but I think it was something with, I had put my input sensitivity on the mic to manual instead of automatic. That seemed to solve it, which is weird.

Mille:
Well, Eryn did a great job in the first part, and you did a great job in the last part here. I hope everybody got something out of it.

Rasmus:
I am sure they did. I think we will have to get Eryn to host more of these as well. She did an amazing job.

You can talk to her after this event. She's up for that. That would be great.

Mille:
I saw the invitation, but I have a concert that weekend, so I cannot make it. Thank you for inviting me, though.

But thank you. I hope you have a great concert.

Rasmus:
Very nice. Okay, Mille. Well, I'll see you around.

And otherwise, I look forward to SPOT Festival this year.

Mille:
Yeah, and to see as many of you as possible in the audience or anywhere else at the festival. And yeah, shoot me an email if you have any questions here afterwards. Either Rasmus or Eryn or one of the others can send out my email.

And then you can find me on the web.

Rasmus:
We'll definitely do that. Thank you, Mille. And take care, everybody.

Have a wonderful Sunday.

Eryn:
You too. Bye.

Multiple participants:
Bye. Bye.