In 2016, Svein got his first-ever tattoo made by one of the best artists in Hong Kong, Zac Wong. The tattoo became a reflection of all the hard work and marked the last 10 years of dedication to build his own organization and find success within the business. The text tattooed is also found within the lyrics of an ACX/DC song - ”Hell ain't a bad place to be”.
During his teenage years, Svein dedicated all his spare time to music and sports. He worked regularly as a DJ at the local hang-around and built his own audio amplifiers in the basement. With a big influence from the punk and rock-n-roll era, Svein started to play the guitar and found a strong interest in customizing clothes to look like his idols such as Sex Pistols, The Clash, AC/DC, Judas Priest, Scorpions, Skid Rock, and others. Svein can still be found sitting in his office window wearing his leather jacket and playing one of his many guitars.
When Svein turned 18 he joined the Norwegian military and moved away from Kirkenes with nothing more than a small bag of clothes and a strong mentality. Svein stayed in the military for 6 years where he both served on the field as well as graduated as an optical engineer.
During the late 80s, MTV and other pop-cultural influences entered Norway, and the music industry where flourishing. Svein started to read music magazines, collect vinyl and follow the trends over the Atlantic - especially Hollywood and the legends like The Troubadour, Whisky a Go-Go, Rainbow, and The Roxy. With inspiration from The Rolling Stones magazine, Svein even started his own music- and culture magazine at the age of 15; writing about music, clothes, and lifestyle.
During his early 20s, Svein started to work as an engineer within the power supply industry, while simultaneously being a part of a band with a couple of gigs every month. He later became Head of Sales at another company- quickly realized that he misses the music in his profession. With a background of being an engineer, together with being an expert on power supplies, Svein moved into audio electronics to work with many well-known audio brands such as Bowers & Wilkins, Zeppelin, Bang & Olufsen, and more.
After a few years, Svein decided to start realizing his long-lived dream of building a business within music and technology. After a couple of months of preparations, Svein launched Audiomoda in 2012 - a company delivering high-end, luxurious audio speakers with premium materials and beautiful design. Thanks to all the business traveling to US and Asia within previous roles, Svein had built a strong international network which became critical to outbuild the new business foundation. This led to one of his first big contracts of his - partnering up with the luxury car manufacturer Aston Martin to develop a state-of-the-art audio speaker. One of Svein's favorite sayings from this experience, still being used today is ”why sign a small contract when you can sign a big one - the work is still the same”.
Svein later started his second company, Acoustix in 2018 which delivered music streaming technology, audio hardware, and professionally curated music atmospheres for hotels, gyms, restaurants, cafes, libraries, and more. Acoustix has since then transformed into what today is ACX Music PRO.
From what initially was a B2B music streaming discussion, Svein managed to pitch a B2C niche music streaming platform to his contacts over at the global sports, event,- entertainment company IMG. During these discussions, one of the biggest sports organizations in the world, the mixed martial arts organization UFC picked up interest and eventually said yes. After 12 months of development, ACX Music saw its day of light together with the first-ever music streaming platform UFC Ultimate Sound.
After a successful capital raise and a signed UFC licensee contract, the ACX Music team quickly grew from 10 to over 30 employees and has today become a true rock-n-roller and rebel on the international music stage with offices in both Oslo, Barcelona, and Las Vegas.
… and the journey has only just begun.