Voices of Wonder
Voices Music & Entertainment (VME) is one of the largest independent record label and music distributors in Norway. It was founded in 1988 under the name Voices of Wonder in Oslo and published today, all types of music.
Label history
1988 was founded Voices of Wonder by Ketil Sveen and Dag Krosvold. At first, only Norwegian bands have been contracted. The focus was in the harder styles of music, especially in rock and metal sector. In the early 1990s, the label took over the exclusive distribution of albums by Death Like Silence Productions and made himself as a name in black metal. In addition, it marketed the products of the larger, international independent labels such as Earache Records and Sub Pop in Norway.
In 1996, Voices of Wonder with Tom Jensen to establish itself as a new partner a branch in Denmark. Around this time, the focus of the label shifted. To the skirt area joined another area, which included mainly electronic music and dance.
In 2000, the label achieved a joint venture with DJ Beat Records Gmbh from Switzerland. To this end, DJ Beat Records Scandinavia was established, a label that marketed trance and dance music. This came to independence in 2004 and now works closely with Aqualoop Records from Germany.
In 2001 it was renamed Voices Music & Entertainment AS, AS is the Norwegian abbreviation for Aktiengesellschaft. Voices of Wonder remained as the name of a sub labels still obtained. In the same year another label for the Swedish market was established: Voices Music & Entertainment Sweden AB, which was however dissolved again in 2003. Since then, there exists a strategic alliance with Showtime Distribution AB.
Financial situation
The label makes the most revenue in his native Norway. Their market share reached 4.3% in 2002 with a peak with the Ultimate Collection by The Kinks. This made VME not only the largest independent record label in the country, they even overtook the major label BMG in Norway. Today, the market share of about 6%.
The label has today 17 employees ( six of them in Denmark) and maintains its own label Voices of Wonder Records, Beat Service, Euphonious, Head Not Found, Jester, Bad Afro and DJ Beat Records Scandinavia, which serve a variety of musical styles. A total of about 200 papers published. The top-selling artists are: Mayhem, The 3rd and the Mortal, Motorpsycho and Ulver.
The sales catalog has a stock of about 12,000 titles.
Criticism
The label has been criticized by several under contract with him bands. The band Enslaved, which had actually been on Death Like Silence Productions under contract, moved to their debut album Vikingligr Veldi to Osmose Productions and spoke out against Voices of Wonder. According to his own statements, the American band Hemlock was cheated out of royalties and treated worse because they did not come from Norway; the label should be dealt also with other bands like that. Metalion presented his work at the label Head Not Found, in which the band Hemlock was then under contract, among other things due to constant problems with Voices of Wonder one, the label was continued without him. Sigurd Wongraven of Satyricon and Moonfog Productions described the operator of the label as a traitor. Varg Vikernes Burzum claims to have been cheated by Voices of Wonder by 20,000 Norwegian crowns; the label had the cooperation ended with him because he had admitted to National Socialism.