Burning Heart Records

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

In 2002, the American indie label Epitaph Records acquired 51 percent of Burning Heart. Thus the distribution possibilities of the label in the U.S. and Australia have been improved. Despite this Faktes Burning Heart Records continued to work independently in matters that concerned the A & R and the artistic development of artists. From December 2003 to October 2006, there was an office in Berlin, which took care of all matters of Burning Heart in Germany.

History

In addition to the obvious economic interest, namely recordings for sale, Burning Heart Records was an example of an independent record label that was founded out of pure idealism and love for music as one -man business ( See also Revelation Records, Victory Records, Noisolution, Epitaph ). Peter Ahlqvist had already started in the 1980s with Uproar Records his own little punk rock label, and lived primarily from vinyl swap with other small labels and fanzines such as the Maximum Rock'n'Roll. 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 Punkrock-/Hardcore-Selbstverständnisses, eventually led to the creation of Burning Heart Records.

By unleashed by The Offspring, Green Day and NOFX punk rock enthusiasm of the masses was also for Swedish bands of the same genre like Millencolin and No Fun At All an interest which at first was limited to Germany, the Netherlands and the U.S., but in - for a small indie label like Burning Heart - amazing sales figures suggested. This label the stamp of " Punk Melody Labels " was very early impressed, but faded away by Plattenveträge with bands like Breach, Refused or Nasum.

The company grew and the number of employees rose to last 9 In particular, the success of Millencolin, Refused and The Hives made ​​for long-term economic stability. After the Hives have been built up over many years into an international firm size, the band Burning Heart Records left in 2003 before the expiry date to Universal Records, resulting in a protracted litigation moved to itself, which was decided in 2005 in favor of Burning Heart Records.

End of 2006, the record company was restructured and only consisted of Peter Ahlqvist. Peter Ahlqvist cares indeed continue as Managing Director and Head of A & R for the publication of new contracts and Burning Heart, all other work but were taken over by Epitaph Europe in Amsterdam. The departure of Peter Alqvist in 2009 also ended the existence of Burning Heart Records.

International market position

In the last 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 Money Brother, The Hives, Millencolin and Refused testified to the success of the company.

Burning Heart Records was considered one of the largest independent music Exporters Sweden and was honored for this reason by the Swedish Ministry of Culture for his support of the Swedish culture. In recent years, the focus of the strict focus on Swedish artist has developed away, which was reflected in the record contracts with boysetsfire, Samiam (both USA ) and Hell Is For Heroes (UK).

List some solid international distributors of Burning Heart Records:

  • Germany: SPV
  • Austria: Edel
  • Switzerland: Phonag - precious
  • France: Pias
  • Australia: Shock 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 U.S., the publications of Burning Heart Records were sold primarily by Epitaph Records, in exceptional cases only releases were licensed to other indie labels (eg Nasum on Relapse ).

The strongest market for Burning Heart Records was next to the homeland of Sweden ( with regular top- 10 finishes and several gold and platinum awards ) particularly Germany (again with regular chart positions, as well as a fixture in the underground indie and punk rock scene), and the U.S., Japan and Australia. In the United Kingdom, South East Europe and especially South America, it was firmly rooted in the underground culture.

Economic Development

After a steady upward trend throughout the last decade, Burning Heart Records has (much of the music industry as ) struggle with declining sales. Since the structure of artists had brought great success in recent years, one could on the Swedish and German markets, the label could refer to good chart positions for many publications. The sales figures were world according to Peter Ahlqvist 8000-150000 albums sold per publication.

For sales particulars can not be made, because these data are not publicly available and the company is not listed on the stock exchange.

Bands

Some bands whose plates were published at Burning Heart:

  • Liberator
  • Looptroop
  • Midtown
  • Millencolin
  • Moneybrother
  • Monster
  • Nasum
  • Nine
  • Promoe
  • Raised Fist
  • Randy
  • Refused
  • Samiam
  • Satanic Surfers
  • Team Blender
  • The Hives
  • Turbonegro
  • The Accidents
  • The (International ) Noise Conspiracy
  • Voice of a Generation
  • The Weakerthans
  • Within Reach
Rock music Hip hop music Breach (Band) Relapse Records Liberator (Band) Looptroop Rockers Invasionen Midtown (Band) Monster (Band) Randy (Band)
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