SABATON's JOAKIM BRODÉN On Surviving In Music Business In 2024: 'We Can Only Accept The Facts And Deal With It'

In a new interview with Rodrigo Altaf of Sonic Perspectives, SABATON frontman Joakim Brodén was asked if he and his bandmates are bothered by the fact that not many people are paying for music nowadays and whether it affects their mindset while working on new albums. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Nah, not really. Well, yeah, I agree in that sense — it's a shame that nobody values… There's a lot of people who value music, but the general public, in many cases, see it as background noise today. However, in the metal scene, I think there are enough people who care about it. And we don't wanna be a band who's living off what we did 20 years ago. We're still young and sharp enough to be able to produce decent tracks every now and then. So, we figured for as long as we can and want to, we wanna keep this going. I mean, it's not like it's something bad. We enjoy recording music. We enjoy writing music. We enjoy touring. And if we can make a living out of that, we're gonna keep doing it."

After Altaf suggested that bands like SABATON have to find new ways to generate revenue that doesn't involve sale of their music, Joakim concurred. "Yeah, absolutely," he said. "I mean, in a sense, it's a big part of the income that's gone. The days of a really high fees for shows, they're still there, but there's so many people in between squeezing there, and there's a percentage on the merchandise to be paid, so I know a lot of a lot of tours these days wouldn't be economically viable if it wasn't for VIP experiences. It could be people who want early access, special seating, stuff like that. Unfortunately, I think it's a shame, but it's the way it is. We can't run the business. We can only accept the facts and deal with it, unfortunately."

Back in December 2022, Brodén spoke to AndrewHaug.com about the realities of post-pandemic touring, including increased travel expenses — gas, tour buses, hotels and flight costs. He said: "It's tricky in a sense… A lot of us — not only us, but a lot of bands — have tours with tickets sold a long time ago that have been postponed. And those tickets are sold with a special calculation in mind, that these are our costs, and that's what we need to be able to make. So there's the reason as well for a lot of bands that even if they sold out a show, they're gonna lose money because of the increased costs. So it is a bit of a struggle for a lot of bands. Luckily enough, we're not in danger of becoming bankrupt, so for us it's more of a situation — luckily enough — that we aren't really making much money but we aren't, on the other hand, on the brink of extinction either."

SABATON recently announced that over 700 cinemas spanning 26 territories are taking part in the global premiere of their explosive concert film "Sabaton - The Tour To End All Tours" in Europe. The event will also land in nearly 500 North American cinemas for two nights only — October 30 and October 31. Go here to find the cinema and screening location nearest you and to purchase tickets.

Other participating countries include Australia, Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Moldova, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, and the U.K.

The "Sabaton - The Tour To End All Tours" concert film was recorded at the sold-out Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam, where 16,000 fans gathered to watch the band during their 2023 European tour.

SABATON is currently serving as main support to JUDAS PRIEST on the legendary heavy metal band's fall 2024 North American tour.

In the more than two decades since their launch, SABATON have achieved quadruple-platinum sales, headlined major festivals and sold-out arena concerts across the globe, and earned a legion of loyal fans by carving out a reputation as one of the hardest working bands in rock. SABATON combines standout stage design and production with epic concept albums, linking real-life historical war events with classic kick-ass metal. To date, the band has released ten studio albums, amassed six gold, two platinum and one four-times-platinum awards, seen eight of its albums score Top 10 international chart status, and six claim the Top 5. The band has earned eight Metal Hammer/Golden Gods Awards nominations, taking home the award for "Breakthrough Artist" in 2011 and "Best Live Band" in three different years, and a Grammis nomination (Swedish equivalent to the U.S. Grammy) as "Best Heavy Metal" band. SABATON has also accumulated more than two billion streams across all streaming platforms.