Guest
Jakob Løkkegaard
Jakob Løkkegaard is Co-founder at W.A.S. Entertainment, as introduced on the show.
Episodes (1)
Jakob Løkkegaard, co-founder of W.A.S. Entertainment, explains how the artist management firm survived years of unpaid founders before selling a Sony stake.
Questions these episodes answer
Why did Jakob Løkkegaard start managing bands instead of staying a musician?
He was playing in his own indie rock band, signed to a Danish major label and expecting a big career, when he discovered that a major label deal in Denmark alone was not enough to make it in the industry. That pushed him to manage his own band, then friends' bands, from a rehearsal space in the Copenhagen suburbs, hence the name Suburban management.
How did the founders of W.A.S. Entertainment survive without steady pay in the early years?
The first year the three founders made no money at all. For roughly the last year and a half before selling a stake to Sony, they paid themselves 17,000 kroner a month, but whenever staff salaries had already emptied the company account by month's end, the founders simply went without pay themselves.
Why did W.A.S. Entertainment take a public stance against structural sexism in the music industry?
The company had signed many non-male artists simply because they liked the music rather than as a political project, and could see clear underrepresentation of those artists on the radio, streaming charts and festival lineups. During the pandemic they organized a Zoom conference inviting the whole industry to discuss equality, which also helped the young company get noticed.
Why did Jakob Løkkegaard agree to sell a minority stake in W.A.S. Entertainment to Sony?
He had built the company partly in opposition to how major labels operate, but a Sony director who had been following the company's artists proposed buying in. The founders agreed largely because they were tired of not knowing month to month whether they could pay salaries, and the deal gave them financial stability along with access to Sony's expertise.
What is the most important lesson Jakob Løkkegaard learned as a founder?
He says it is not the number of hours you work that matters but how effectively you work during them. He used to work from early morning until eleven at night believing only he suffered for it, until having his son forced him to become more efficient with his time.