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Roxette World Tour 2011 schedule

Kobalt signs Roxette in North America

Written by Pascal on January 13, 2011 to and .

NEW YORK - According to an article appearing today on the website of Music Week, Roxette has signed a North American administration deal with Kobalt Music Group, a leading global independent music publisher with close ties to Sweden. Kobalt will manage – in North America where Roxette Recordings' contract with EMI Music Publishing does not apply – copyright administration and creative licensing services. Although it is not a record label deal, it would appear to be one more indication (in addition to Per's comment to TDR during our recent interview) that the USA might see a release of the new album Charm School. 

"The agreement is the first of the new year for the company and as part of the move the publisher will represent Roxette for sync in films, TV, gaming and ringtones. The deal will cover the release of the band’s new album which is set for release next month."

Rebekah Alperin, a senior vice president at Kobalt, tells TDR that they will be actively promoting Roxette's music for use in movie and TV soundtracks, and in television commercials. "That's what we do," she says.

17 comments

realsugar said on :

This is great news! Can’t wait to hear more details.

Rox-USA said on :

Hmmmmm, seen this song and dance with U.S. Rox releases in the past ... To import or not to import, that is the question.

realsugar said on :

Import, of course.

ettexor said on :

might be a good opportunity to revive roxette in usa

CoyRoy said on :

The only way to revive Roxette in the USA is to PROMOTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i really hope EMI do some work this time...... Roxette has the ability to become bigger than Madonna - without looking like cheap hookers......

ettexor said on :

@CoyRoy you’re right! The same thing should happen here in Italy, where the promotion with the latest album was little.
Advertising is the soul of a business! I hope things go differently with this new album and that Roxette are in Italy for the Sanremo Festival, as I read some time ago. I also hope that the radio give us a hand by sending the new single, but so far nothing yet ....

by from italy

CoyRoy said on :

@ettexor: Same here in South Africa... We haven’t heard the new song on any radio station yet. But EMI SA did mail me and said they are going to do some decent promotion for Roxette since they are tourin in SA too. So....I really hope EMI would do something decent this time.

I still think Roxette should assign ME the job of promoter. hahaha...I would promote my ASS off!

roxtexanet said on :

Hmmm... I’m not sure that this makes a “Charm School” release any more probable in Canada or the US (although my fingers are firmly crossed!). I think all it means is that *if* EMI or some other label were to release the album, then the mechanism for collecting publishing royalties is already in place. That’s really not a new development; Roxette was already under the BMI umbrella for those purposes, and the States never did get a release of “Have a Nice Day” or “Room Service” (although both, and indeed all Roxette albums and both of Per’s English solo albums were - eventually - released in Canada). We all know that BMI lists all kinds of songs that weren’t released anywhere, let alone the US or Canada. Anyway, a step in the right direction I guess!

By the way, Kobalt is no Edel... they collect royalties for Kelly Clarkson, Pearl Jam, No Doubt, Toby Keith, Kid Rock...

CoyRoy said on :

I really don’t know what this all means, I see on Kobalt’s site they have quite a few BIG names, which is good. It means this company must be doing something right - and if they can help Roxette make it big again - so be it!!

But what I’m more interested in, is the fact that this deal was in fact done in the first place. It must mean that Per and Marie are eager to make more than just one new album for the future. It means they are back in the business for good!!

So....maybe we all can see a lot more new Roxette albums to follow.

Let’s all keep our fingers crossed!!

Raëlian said on :

Some people should wake up! I can’t stand Madonna nor her music, but could Roxette be bigger than her? LOL. She doesn’t need promotion at all, that’s a fact. Roxette’s momentum in the US is long long gone, just face it.

royalball said on :

Hmmm...well...I love Kobalt tools! Even though I don’t own any of them. https://www.kobalttools.com/

Rox-USA said on :

I wish you were wrong, Raelian, but you’re not. I know they had 4 #1’s which is certainly nothing to sneeze at. The number of bands that have one #1, let alone 4, is surprisingly small–HUGE acts like Pink Floyd have never had even one #1! Still, as an American who grew up with Roxette, I can tell you Roxette never had much real momentum here.

As much as I hate to say it, their chart success was largely built on the strength of airplay on adult contemporary stations. Roxette was never cool with the kids, so to speak. I was a kid in junior high school and high school at the peak of their success (1989 - 1992) so I can tell you with pretty good authority nobody envied my Join The Joyride tour t-shirt I wore nonstop around school. ;-)

The concert I went to was full of adults who no doubt heard It Must Have Been Love, thought “Roxette” was a solo female ballad act ala Celine Dion and were stunned to find they paid to see a rock ’n’ roll show! (I’ll never forget the tepid response to early songs like Hotblooded and how Per & Marie had to fight throughout the show to win the crowd over – which they eventually did. Nobody wanted them to leave the stage by the end, but it was a struggle to get the crowd there.)

Don’t get me wrong–with even half-way competent support from the beyond-useless EMI, they could have continued to be successful. (Selling 2/3 of C!B!B! at McDonald’s for $5 like a cheap novelty CD?! Really, EMI?!?! Ugh ... Yes, I’m still bitter.) But they were NEVER destined to be popular here, not like a Madonna, U2 or even Depeche Mode. It just wasn’t gonna happen. Period.

And there’s nothing wrong with that.

I wish they were able to maintain a presence here so there would be incentive for SOMEBODY to release their music in the U.S. so I don’t have to hunt down over-priced import CDs, I’d be able to find their catalog on iTunes where those infernal exclusive bonus tracks keep popping up that I have NO way to import and we’d get the occasional small venue concert here (which, frankly, at this point of my life, I’d enjoy more than the sweating masses and poor sound of a stadium gig, anyway). But I’m WAY past caring whether the kids will wear their t-shirts and I’d suspect Per & Marie are, too.

Barrett said on :

At the Detroit Joyride concert, the 30-something year old couple sitting next to me kept saying “I never knew they did they performed songs like The Look or Dangerous. They came to see Marie sing LTYH and IMHBL.

I would say The Look was popular with teens and Dangerous got a lot of air time on MTV when it was released, but Rox had the problem of people not associating all of their songs together.

Some Americans associate Roxette with the Look, others It Must Have Been Love. But rarely do people realized that they did both.

I’ve actually gotten into arguments with people who insist that It Must Have Been Love was done by Berlin (know for the Top Gun song Take My Breath Away).

Rox-USA said on :

Barrett,

I was at the Detroit show as well! 19 years later it’s a small world!

You’re exactly right about American fans not associating the pop tracks with the ballads. You’ve articulated it better than me.

I’ve never heard anyone insist IMHBL was Berlin, but I’ve argued that LTYH was not by Heart! :-o

Barrett said on :

Cool. I was in the first row of the balcony at the Detroit show. There were also a group of Swedish exchange students sitting near me and we all were chanting “Sommartider Hej Hej Sommartider” throughout the concert.

I think one of the reasons for the confusion Americans have about Roxette was that the US adult contemporary stations aired completely remixed versions of Roxette songs. The guitars were removed almost completely from songs like Listen To Your Heart and Fading Like A Flower.

So some Americans got used to hearing those songs completely toned down, and don’t even recognize the real versions as being the originals. The A/C remix of LTYH doesn’t sound like it could possibly be done by the same group that did The Look or Dangerous or see Roxette as being a rock band.

Then right after Joyride came out, the Top 40 stations that were playing the regular versions split between being more hip-hop and grunge/alternative rock (some also went to country-pop). Roxette was just left with the Adult Contemporary, but they became more of synth-pop and that didn’t fit into any of the US radio formats.

A few years ago when 98.7 (Star) in Los Angeles had a 80s hour, The Look was played quite a bit, but the D.J. seemed to treat them like some one-hit wonder. But with that audience (modern/alternative rock), saying they were the same group that did IMHBL wouldn’t work.

Rox-USA said on :

All GREAT points. (I tend to think of the AC mixes as the “Dentist Office Mixes,” more akin to elevator muzak.)

As for Detroit, I wasn’t far away: 3rd row balcony. Don’t remember the chants of “Sommartider,” though I doubt I would have understood what that meant at that time anyway. I do seem to remember looking down to the floor and seeing a giant Swedish flag being held up. I also remember the balding middle-aged dude in front of me who clapped politely for the first few songs but slowly got into the show as it went on. By the end of the concert, he was an exhausted, sweaty mess from dancing, clapping, cheering, etc. What a strange (and slightly disturbing) thing to remember so vividly! :-P

Thanks for the trip down Amnesia Lane, Barrett.

konstpaus said on :

too bad its not a 360 degree record deal, then they would have to tour so the record company gets a split of their tour profits. there used to be a label called koch that did that, they would basically sign anyone, and now they are named E1 music. they are ment to be the larges independent record label in the states....they sign you, put out your record and you would have to give them a cut of you sales, touring and t-shirts ect.

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