Burning Heart Records

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Burning Heart Records is a music label based in Örebro , Sweden , which was founded in 1993 by Peter Ahlqvist and in the first few years focused primarily on music styles such as punk rock and hardcore . Burning Heart was a label independent of major record companies. Several trends in the Swedish music scene that received worldwide attention had their roots in releases on Burning Heart Records. In the last few years of existence, the musical horizon of the publications has expanded from the strict focus on punk rock and hardcore to other fields of music such as soul , rock and hip-hop .

In 2002, the US indie label Epitaph Records acquired 51 percent of Burning Heart. This has improved the label's sales opportunities in the USA and Australia. Despite this fact, Burning Heart Records continued to work independently on matters relating to A&R and the artistic development of artists. From December 2003 to October 2006 there was a branch in Berlin that took care of all matters relating to Burning Heart in Germany.

history

Burning Heart Records was founded as a one-man company. Peter Ahlqvist had already started his own small punk rock label with Uproar Records in the 1980s and lived primarily from trading vinyl with other small labels and fanzines such as Maximum Rock'n'Roll. The interest in the British and American punk rock and hardcore scene, as well as the do-it-yourself attitude, which is an integral part of the punk rock / hardcore self-image, ultimately led to the establishment of Burning Heart Records.

The punk rock enthusiasm of the masses triggered by The Offspring , Green Day and NOFX also arose for Swedish bands of the same genre as Millencolin or No Fun At All , which was initially limited to Germany, the Netherlands and the USA, but in - for a small indie label like Burning Heart - astonishing sales reflected. As a result, the label got the stamp of a "Melodypunklabel" very early on, but this was done through record deals with bands such as Breach , Refused or Nasum .

The company grew and the number of employees rose to 9. The successes of Millencolin, Refused and The Hives in particular ensured long-term economic stability. After the Hives had built up a permanent international size for many years, the band left Burning Heart Records in 2003 before the contract with Universal Records ended, which resulted in a long-term legal battle that was decided in 2005 in favor of Burning Heart Records.

At the end of 2006 the record company was restructured and consisted only of Peter Ahlqvist. Peter Ahlqvist continued to take care of the publication and new contracts of Burning Heart as Managing Director and Head of A&R, but all other work was taken over by Epitaph Europe in Amsterdam. The departure of Peter Alqvist in 2009 also ended the existence of Burning Heart Records. The label was closed in 2010 and Ahlqvist opened the Panic & Action label with kid-down singer Eric Höjdén . At the end of 2014 it was announced that Burning Heart Records would reopen with a new model. The first bands that came to Burning Heart were all signed to Panic & Action before. These include Her Bright Skies , Walking with Strangers , Bombshell Rocks , Asta Task and Adept . The latter have now signed with Napalm Records .

International market position

In the last few years of its existence Burning Heart Records had become a fixture in the international music scene. Several Swedish Grammys and gold and platinum awards for Moneybrother , The Hives , Millencolin and Refused testify to the company's success.

Burning Heart Records was until its temporary closure as one of Sweden's largest independent music exporters and for this reason was recognized by the Swedish Ministry of Culture for its support of Swedish culture. In recent years the focus has shifted away from the strict focus on Swedish artists, which is reflected in the record deals with boysetsfire , Samiam (both USA ) and Hell Is for Heroes ( UK ).

List of some permanent international distributors of Burning Heart Records:

Furthermore, many publications were also licensed to other labels for the international market (especially Japan ). For example, "The Misery Index: Notes From The Plague Years" by boysetsfire to Solitary Man Records . In the USA, the publications of Burning Heart Records were primarily distributed by Epitaph Records, only in exceptional cases were releases licensed to other indie labels (e.g. Nasum an Relapse ).

The strongest market for Burning Heart Records was next to the home country Sweden (with regular top 10 placements and several gold and platinum awards), especially Germany (also here with regular chart positions and as a constant in the underground of the indie and punk rock scene), as well the USA, Japan and Australia. In Great Britain, Southeast Europe and especially South America they were firmly anchored in the underground culture.

Economic development

After a steady upward trend throughout the last decade, Burning Heart Records (like much of the music industry) is also struggling with declining sales. Since building up artists had brought great success in recent years, the label was able to point to good chart positions for many publications. According to Peter Ahlqvist, worldwide sales were between 8,000 and 150,000 records sold per publication.

No information can be given on sales, as this data is not publicly available and the company is not listed on the stock exchange.

Bands

Some bands whose records were released on Burning Heart:

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lambgoat : Burning Heart Records back in business