Music2Deal: Can you give us a quick intro—who is Daniel Silveira? Daniel Silveira: “I’m a creative and music professional with a strong background in artist development, A&R, and music and video production. Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to collaborate with major global brands and internationally renowned artists, directing and producing high-profile projects across the music and entertainment industry. I’ve also led major TV and music events and contributed to soundtracks for iconic Brazilian productions, shaping memorable moments in pop culture. My passion lies in bringing artistic visions to life and creating impactful experiences for audiences worldwide.”
Music2Deal: Have you done international licensing or signed artists abroad? And in your opinion, which country offers the best opportunities for licensing music, and why? Daniel Silveira: “Yes, I’ve had the opportunity to license music and work with artists on an international scale, collaborating with major global brands and industry leaders. Throughout my career, I’ve facilitated international deals and expanded the reach of artists beyond their home markets. In terms of the best country to license music to, it depends on the genre and audience. The U.S., Brazil, and the U.K. are strong markets due to their global influence and streaming dominance, while Latin America and Europe offer great opportunities for artists with culturally resonant sounds. Ultimately, the right market is where the music connects most authentically with its audience.”
Music2Deal: What are some of the standout projects you’ve worked on? Daniel Silveira: “Throughout my career, I have had the privilege of directing and producing high-profile projects featuring world-class artists alongside Brazilian and Latin talents. These collaborations include Taylor Swift, Shania Twain, Michael Bolton, Frank Sinatra with Paula Fernandes, Enrique Iglesias with Luan Santana, Ivete Sangalo with Shakira, Alejandro Sanz, and Nelly Furtado, as well as Akon with Negra Li. I have also worked on audiovisual projects with Caetano Veloso, Jorge Benjor, Zeca Pagodinho, Kid Abelha, among many others. I’ve also spearheaded major television and music events like The Voice Brazil, MTV Studio Coca-Cola, Luau MTV, and Skol Beats Festival, helping shape some of the most iconic moments in live entertainment. Additionally, I’ve produced soundtracks for legendary Brazilian TV series and films, including Hilda Furacão, Kubanacan, and Senhora do Destino, which have left a lasting mark on pop culture. These projects stand out not only for their scale and influence but also for the way they seamlessly brought together music, artists, and media in a meaningful and powerful way.”
Photo with Shania, Danile and his team
Music2Deal: What exciting things are you currently working on? Daniel Silveira: “I am currently in Portugal, working on personal artistic projects and engaging with European music producers, as well as film, animation, and game producers, to develop innovative projects in these fields. My goal is to reconnect with my roots and create original music for the film industry, which is currently thriving due to the growth of video streaming platforms.”
Music2Deal: In your view, what’s the biggest challenge in today’s music industry—and how can it be tackled? Daniel Silveira: “One of the biggest challenges facing the music industry today is fair compensation for artists in the streaming era. While digital platforms have revolutionized access to music, they often fail to provide sustainable revenue for creators. To address this, we need a more balanced economic model—one that ensures artists receive fairer royalties, encourages direct fan engagement, and explores alternative monetization strategies such as sync licensing, exclusive content, and partnerships with film, gaming, and other media industries. By fostering innovation and advocating for better revenue distribution, we can create a more sustainable future for artists and the industry as a whole.”
Music2Deal: What’s on your radar for the coming year? Daniel Silveira: “Next year, my focus is on expanding my work in original music production. I plan to deepen my collaborations with European producers and creators, developing new projects that blend music with visual storytelling. Additionally, I want to leverage my experience in artist development and A&R to work on new cross-market opportunities, bridging Latin, European, and global audiences. With the continued growth of streaming platforms, I see a great opportunity to contribute to high-quality soundtracks and audiovisual productions that leave a lasting impact.”
Daniel with Luan Santana recording Bailando with Enrique Iglesias in Cuba
Music2Deal: What’s your take on Music2Deal.com? Daniel Silveira: “Music2Deal is an exceptional platform that bridges the gap between artists, musicians, and industry professionals, creating valuable opportunities for collaboration and growth. In today’s dynamic music industry, where partnerships can be developed both remotely and in person, having a dedicated space to connect, network, and exchange opportunities is more important than ever. Music2Deal not only facilitates these connections but also helps expand horizons, opening doors to new markets and creative collaborations worldwide.”
German singer songwriter Tim Kamrad rose to fame in 2017 with his single ‘Changes’. The 27 year olds pop oriented hits including ‘I Believe’, ‘Feel Alive’ and ‘I Hope You End Up Alone (With Me)’ and in 2024 he became a coach on The Voice Of Germany. This is the first of a two part interview.
Our professional A&R guru Richard Rogers asks the questions.
Kamrad, Richard Rogers
Richard Rogers: Nice to meet you Kamrad. Music2deal is an online music platform for the music industry. It is to connect people involved with music in whichever area they are working within. As for the platform itself, well, think of a Facebook for the music industry. Getting bands online, bands working with producers. Writers working with other writers, collaborations etc.
Kamrad: it makes a lot of sense actually, I get it. It is (music) after all the most consumed thing in the world after food, I believe. You can obviously connect to a lot of people. different people in different cities and it’s hard to reach them so if you have a platform and a global connection then I think it’s really good.
RR: well we just started a Music2deal online map so that you can find people online and where they are from.
K: that’s really nice.
RR: actually from Music2deal I worked with a band from Munster in the north of Germany. Well, Emsdetten actually.
K: I’ve not actually been there but I’ve heard about it on the radio. Particularly when they talk about the traffic and at some point they say Emsdetten. Laughs.
RR: do you have a team of A&R people around you that you work with or is it a single person or do they (the record company) just let you get on with the A&R?
K: well it’s actually a bit of all of it. Like I have one A&R Annie, the main A&R (at the record company), but we’re working with two or three other people but actually to be honest my main A&R is my producer. We’ve been working together for about seven years now, so we know each other very well. You know, we made all the songs before anything blew up (was successful) so therefore just us two.
Then there are two more guys in the studio working on music and we’re kind of figuring out the sound and where we want to go and maybe suggesting a single to the label and when they say that’s a good song, we’ll probably do it (release it) because you know it has my name on it. So I wanna have my name on it so we have my vision in the way that I want to present it. But then feedback is always good from my management or from some people at the label in A&R and production.
RR: so you have a good bedrock (foundation) so to speak?
K: yeah then again I would rather go for the flop single that I chose than the hit that I didn’t like that somebody else chose. Do you know what I mean?
RR: well I think you’re doing alright so far. Laughs
K: yeah, I think you know if you get a feeling for what is right for me then the next steps are that you should probably go your way but still it’s great to have people you know caring and giving their opinions.
RR: so the record company Epic/Sony Records let you get on with both the writing and the recordings? Are the recordings done in the same studio as your home studio which I think is in Bochum, Germany?
K: well actually it’s the studio from my producer. For some reason on Wikipedia it says the studio is mine and it’s a great studio but it’s not mine it’s my producers. So every day that I’m not on tour, I’m in the studio and we’re working on music and it’s very connected. You know we’re writing and producing so it’s all in one. It’s a really cool base because no one else there does music so we’re on our own, so we’re not too much in the bubble, which I think is really good to stay connected too. The people that really listen to music.
RR: well I’ve been doing A&R for many years and I promise you it’s not the easiest job in the world, to put it mildly.
K: well I think A&R has changed a lot. It’s not really so much picking an artist and a song and believing in it and fighting for it to work, although there are A&R people that still do that. I mean in my team they still do it, I mean, they really do it, but that general A&R now is, finding the viral TikTok and signing them and making this bigger. But it’s not like working on the core, which is the music and I think that has become less of an important thing. From the label perspective.
RR: well now the marketing appears to be more important than ever.
K: and it’s now the hit that is more important than the artist I think. But in the end the artist will always be more important because people want a person to feel connected too and for them to be understood by going to a show for example. You can have 1 million artists and 1 million hits but you’d rather have one artist that you can really connect to such as Ed Sheeran, you know an artist that tells their story. You know in Germany it’s changed into like a viral only concept that I don’t really like and music is so much more than just viral.
RR: okay and when it comes to your albums, what happens because you’ve only released one full album in eight years. So you bring out these EPS with five or six tracks and they’re only about 2 1/2 minutes per song, and I’m not saying that’s wrong I’m simply making an observation. So for you, is it a case of you deciding not to put out an album or do you have something on the horizon album wise? Maybe this year?
K: that’s a good question. You know it’s really hard because I’m not much of an album listener. Still I know an album is still really important to build the brand of an artist. To really attach fans to a project in a way cause I feel like singles are great and they make people notice you and they make people maybe buy a ticket to a show. If you have an album out then people will come again and again and again and that is what you want, particularly if you wanna have more than 1 or 2 years (in the industry), maybe 20 years, yeah a full career, so I feel like you know there’s gonna be an album. But I want to put out as much music as fast as possible so I felt that the fastest way to do it was release EPs and it’s not because I’m lazy or anything or I’m trying to be attractive to the algorithm.
It’s rather, I make the song that I would rather listen to and I have a feeling that when I have a four minute song, I’d rather play the two minute 30 second song twice. So not to get bored by the four minute song, this is my idea of doing it. There are some four minute songs that work really well but for me, it’s like ‘get to the point and listen to it again’.
RR: well fair enough. Had you not thought of doing both? Whereas you could do an extended mixes EP and the ordinary short versions EP.
K: well we do that live, so we have long versions of the songs and I really like that. And I think at some point there’s gonna be an extended thing to present what we do on stage as well as onto the streaming platforms. This is like a weird thing because I’m so much into trying to make a great hit and a great pop song and not only the success of it. You know the writing, you know being so on point of a hit. This is what I really like and gives me the biggest smile. I’m a big Max Martin junkie, I studied everything he did. For me, I try to make the best pop song possible. So it’s hard to go the five minute way when you want to do that.
Part 2 of the interview with Kamrad will be available on Music2deal shortly.
Kamrad’s latest EP ‘Wanna Be Friends’ was released in November 2024 and he is currently supporting this release on the ‘Friends Tour’ in Germany, Switzerland and Austria for a number of months from January 2025 with more tours planned going into Winter 2026 across Europe. In addition he is now one of the judges on ‘The Voice Of Germany’.
Richard Rogers new book ‘Taylor Swift – ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ the Ultimate A&R Companion Guide’ will be released in April 2025 with contributions from Kamrad and Midge Ure. It will be available to Music2deal members for a heavily discounted once only price.
Midge Ure Interview – Essigfabrik, Cologne, Wednesday 5th October 2022
A new series of in depth conversations with Richard Rogers, A&R man, Music Consultant and Artist Manager and our Music2deal UK/Eire/Malta partner.
Our first guest is no less than the legendary multi-instrumentalist Midge Ure, famous as the man behind Slik. Rich Kids, Ultravox, Visage and of course Band Aid’s ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’ which he both produced and wrote the music for.
In part one of a two part conversation, Midge and Richard discuss live music after Covid, Kate Bush, Hans Zimmer, Mick Karn, Bauhaus, The Princes Trust and the single that never was.
Richard Rogers and Midge Ure
Midge Ure (MU): So you were managing Mick Karn! (Mick and Midge released the hit single ‘After A Fashion’ way back in 1983)
Richard Rogers (RR): Yes I was looking after Mick Karn until about one year before he died and we released the ‘Selected’ album. Mick had been unwell for quite a while before he passed away but he was a great man to manage and very sympathetic and he also helped me through some ordeals in life. He had been working with Pete Murphy from Bauhaus in that final year.
MU: I think Pete Murphy has recently just had to pull his American tour because he got into trouble. Bauhaus were out touring and they had to pull the dates. I believe that he possibly had a drinking or drugs problem. But I’m not 100% sure. So they’ve only just started the shows and I read today that they are not cancelled but postponed, but they are still going to do them.
RR: So Music2deal is an online professional music community and music business website that has been going quite a few years. The idea is to get people in the music industry working together and to get deals done.
MU: Sounds like a good idea. Really great.
RR: So this current tour based on the ‘Quartet’ and ‘Rage In Eden’ albums had previously been postponed I assume due to Covid.
MU: Well actually it has been postponed twice due to Covid. For the industry side of things it has been difficult as all the deals were done in 2019. So we based the cost of the tour on the 2019 figures. Of course, It doesn’t relate to what we are doing right now. Everything has escalated in value so much. PA, lights, trucking, hotels et cetera. Everything has gone up. So we decided I had to pull the tour again or bite the bullet and that’s what I decided to do, just go out and do it no matter what because I think that eventually people will start to doubt your honesty. Postpone once and they can understand it, postpone it twice and the public start to doubt you, and of course you can no longer get tour insurance. So no matter what, we were going to go out and tour this time. So if I catch Covid then of course everything grinds to a halt. And of course everything still has to be paid for.
RR: And this tour is with a full band?
MU: Yes full band, full lighting, full rig. Nightline are out there which is mouthwateringly expensive.
RR: And I assume that you will have your band Electronica with you?
MU: Yes that’s right.
RR: I found out that you played nearby at the Mitsubishi Halls in Düsseldorf only in August.
MU: It was an acoustic festival and that’s easy, you just turn up with a guitar and your ears and away you go. That might be the way it goes from now on in all honesty. The industry has changed so much as well you know Richard. This is from extreme too extreme and on this tour there are only 12 or 13 of us. You have to see it through and that’s what we’re doing.
RR: Well good luck on that. Are ticket sales ok?
MU: Well no they’re not really. It’s all across the board. I went across to America which had opened up again for some acoustic shows and we found we were down on ticket sales but you were also down on bums on seats. So people were buying tickets but then not turning up because of fear with the Covid thing still happening. It was still very fresh in America and had only just opened up after Covid. I toured with Howard Jones earlier this year and it was the same thing, around 20 to 35% of people who bought tickets were not turning up for the shows. That has been happening here in Europe and the UK as well. You’ve got to be on social media to show people that you’re there and that the shows are really going to happen because there is a massive element of doubt now. People don’t want to pay €50 for a ticket or whatever it costs and then find out that the gig is not going to happen. They’d rather hang on to that €50 and then see if that show is going to happen and turn up and pay on the door. But even now there is 15 to 20% no-shows and certainly my demographic are aware of this, these are the people that are most susceptible to it. My demographic is probably the 35 to 65-year-olds.
RR: I think it’s just as bad if not worse for the younger bands because people are simply not turning up, end of.
MU: it’s odd I guess and almost a double edged sword. A lot of bands out there touring who I’ve never heard of and at my age I shouldn’t know of them which is as the music industry should be, I shouldn’t know who these bands are. But these bands are turning up and selling out, and that must be to do with social media and music and games and movies or TV products and syncs that people have a following through that. The old way of doing it through radio and stuff just doesn’t work anymore. Young people don’t listen to the radio, they send each other things hence Kate Bush (recent success).
RR: I was just about to mention Kate Bush in regards to the Netflix series ‘Stranger Things’ that pushed her back into the limelight with ‘Running Up That Hill’ becoming a number one hit in the summer of 2022.
MU: Well the youngsters find something on there like Netflix and then they let their friends know and they say what a great track it is and they send a clip. So you find it’s this completely viral thing and it’s totally out with anything that you and I Richard would have dealt with in our time.
RR: after years of performing A&R at Major publishing companies like Warner/Chappell, IMN, six record companies and corporations such as the BBC, I do find that the way the A&R works now to a certain degree is totally alien in some aspects, not all but some aspects. Luckily, the basics are the same, yet still I find a lot of younger artists have no idea about A&R. Incredible. All this stuff about meta data and algorithms, I’m sitting there and I’m thinking a lot of this is just bullshit, at the end of the day a good song is a good song.
MU: Well yeah I agree, that’s what you’d like to think and hope.
RR: I first saw you play live almost 40 years ago when Ultravox played live at the Brighton Centre but even then you could go and see a gig with 40 people watching. I remember seeing Warren Cann, the Ultravox drummer playing live at a small venue called The Flag next to the Dog and Duck pub in North Wembley in front of a few dozen people.
MU: Ah the band Helden. With Hans Zimmer. Now a worldwide star.
RR: yes, after the gig, I was leaning against the bar and Warren Cann came up and bought a drink. I said to Warren ‘I found out about you and Helden from the fanzine ‘In The City’, if you remember that?
MU: yeah yeah. I do.
RR: There was a free single from Helden attached to one of the fanzines featuring one song from Helden and the other and I can remember the name, a band called Hoi Polloi. The Helden track was very Bowie-esque and that is me down to a tea so I thought I’ll go out and buy the single. So I went to my local record shop which was Rounder Records in Burgess Hill in Sussex and asked the lady Wendy if they had the Helden single and she said ‘yes it’s in the bargain bin for 10p’. She said in fact ‘there are four of them’ so I decided to buy all four singles for a grand sum of 40p. So I then related the story to Warren Cann and I’m leaning against the bar and he’s a tall lad and I’m quite short and all he said was ‘cheers’, rolled his eyes and gave me a look that would’ve melted chocolate.
MU: (laughs), yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah! The bargain bin I don’t think Warren would’ve wanted to hear about that.
RR: I have a story about Hans Zimmer to add. A very good friend of mine is called Denis Conoley and Denis was signed up in the 70s to DJM records, Pye records and various other record labels and was a very good friend of Marc Bolan from T. Rex. Marc Bolan even plays rhythm guitar on two of Denis Conoley’s singles. So Denis was putting out another solo single and the record company decided that despite Denis being a great guitarist and keyboard player that they would get in another keyboardist. They mention this young guy whizz kid who is German and said he would do the keyboard on the track, Denis was not happy about this but relented for the record company. When the song was completed with Hans Zimmer’s keyboard lines replacing Denis keyboard lines, Denis said no way is it as good as my version on the keyboard. I don’t think this guy will come to anything.
MU: So Hans took his talents elsewhere. LOL.
RR: I want to talk about a few of your songs that I felt never deserved the accolades that they deserved when they were released. From an A&R position I do not feel that these songs deserve their due credit. One of those songs was ‘Sister and Brother’ which many people are unaware you performed as a duet with Kate Bush.
MU: Yeah I think that was on my second solo album ‘Answers To Nothing’ but I’m not too sure. I can’t remember now. Yes I was a lucky boy, she doesn’t do duets with many people. I was working with George Martin for the ‘Quartet’ Ultravox album and I’d just done a cover of ‘No Regrets’ and it was in the charts (it made the UK top ten). George came in one day and said ‘they’ve asked me to become musical director for this charity called the Princes Trust’ and he said ‘Eric is doing it, (Eric Clapton), Phil’s on drums (Phil Collins) and Pete Townshend is in charge of the band and he said ‘would you come on and do your song’ and I said ‘great, fantastic’ and when George mentioned it to Pete, Pete said ‘I’ve just reviewed his records on Roundtable’ because they did a blind review and I was on roundtable with Pete and the programme guy said ‘we’re gonna play your record, do you mind?’ and I said ‘no that’s fine’ and they paid my record and luckily he liked it and he said ‘oh whoever is playing that guitar he’s great.’ He said ‘ah it’s Midge, he can play guitar you can come in and he can play in the band,’ so I’m in the house band and Mick Karn is on bass and that is where I met Mick.
RR: Ah, that’s where you met Mick.
MU: that’s right. And we ended up backing Robert Plant and some others I can’t remember now and Kate Bush was on and everybody was in love with Kate, everybody loved Kate. We did ‘Wedding List’ which as you probably know is a very complicated song. We met through that and a couple of years later we were at a Thank You party that Prince Charles and then Lady Diana threw for all the artists for giving their time for the Princes Trust and we were standing chatting at the party and Kate asked me what I was up to. I said I have this song that I would love you to do and she said, ‘great, send it over.’ So I sent her over the multi track knowing she was in the middle of her own album which I think was ‘The Hounds of Love’ and I thought oh well I’ll hear back in six months when she gets five minutes for her to knock off a vocal. She phoned me up three days later and said, ‘do you wanna come and hear what I’ve done?’, and I went to her studio and she played the tape and it was a Kate choir! It was her multitracked and she’d spent obviously a lot of time doing this and I was completely aghast with a lump in my throat, a tear in my eye listening to Kate singing one of my songs and it was just fantastic. Oh yeah they are the magic moments, not the big bits on stage, the bits that nobody sees, that’s the good stuff.
RR: Did you or your record label which I assume was Chrysalis Records ever consider releasing it as a single?
MU: it was chrysalis records. We talked about it and Kate cleared it and then it never came out, it never happened for some reason.
RR: that’s a real shame.
MU: yeah the ones that go away, I’ve got lots of them. It would’ve been great, I even had the UB40 guys on backing vocals. Ali and Robin Campbell, both of them were singing on the choruses. I asked them to do it. I called them up and asked them to do it, they’ve got fantastic harmony vocals as only brothers can have, you know? That sound that they made, so next time you listen to it listen to the chorus.
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