Milic Mili on 2004: I Owed Hundreds of Thousands of Euros
Composer Aleksandar Milic Mili told the show Sceniranje how in 2004 he took out a renovation loan and poured it into distributing Ceca's album through newsstands.
Composer and producer Aleksandar Milic Mili said on Ljiljana Stanisic’s show Sceniranje that in 2004 he owed hundreds of thousands of euros, the result of a publishing move built around an album by Svetlana Raznatovic Ceca. The money wasn’t even his. It was a bank loan, taken out on paper for a home renovation.
“I have nothing. I owe hundreds of thousands of euros.”
That’s how he described the day before the album came out. Up to that point, he didn’t know whether the idea would pay off or bury him.
How He Got Into That Position
Mili had set up his own publishing house that year and decided to break with the way he’d been working until then, in which albums were handed over to major labels and the profits split.
“Ceca’s album, 2004. That was when I set up my publishing house. It was an incredible moment. I decided we’d stop giving albums to Grand, Pink, PGP. We used to sell those albums ourselves and then split the profit.”
The decision meant the risk now sat with him. If the album didn’t sell, there was no label to absorb the loss.
Why Was the CD Glued to a Magazine?
Because at the time music could only be bought in one kind of place, specialized record shops, while magazines were everywhere and weren’t taxed the same way.
“In 2004 an idea came to me. Back then CDs were sold in CD shops. If you wanted one, you had to go all the way from Zeleznik to the city center to buy it. And it hit me: imagine if you could buy a CD on every corner. So I came up with the idea of a distribution deal with a magazine, gluing the CD on as a free supplement, because magazines were tax exempt at the time. Marina Tucakovic, Ceca and I all gave interviews, and we sent the CD to every newsstand in the country.”
According to him, the magazine featured:
- an interview with Marina Tucakovic
- an interview with Ceca
- his own interview
The package then went out to newsstands across Serbia, instead of a handful of record shops.
The Apartment Loan Went Into the Print Run
He says he promised Ceca she’d earn double from the arrangement. He promised himself nothing.
“I told Ceca she’d earn double from it. I’d taken out a loan to renovate my apartment. I remember the day before it all. I have nothing. I owe hundreds of thousands of euros. If this doesn’t work out, I can go straight ahead and move to Persia. Or I don’t know where. Then it started selling. That was one of the smartest moves in our publishing history, ever.”
Sales took off and the debt got cleared. Today he calls the move one of the best in Serbian publishing.
The loophole he’d found had an expiration date, too. Value added tax started applying in Serbia on January 1, 2005, so Mili’s arrangement caught the last year of the old tax system. Had he glued the same CD to a magazine a year later, the math wouldn’t have worked out the same way.
What He’s Doing Now
Mili has been working on a new album for a while, and he’s announced it for the fall. The material includes the song “Razvedena od sebe” (“Divorced From Myself”), which he wrote in February 2025 and calls autobiographical.
A first version has been recorded, and he traded messages about it with lyricist Ljilja Jorgovanovic, who has since passed away.
“The first version is already recorded, with one of the biggest and most charismatic voices from our part of the world. As soon as I finished the song, I sent it straight to Ljilja Jorgovanovic, who unfortunately is no longer with us, to get her opinion. She called me right back and said: ‘This subject is completely different and fresh, a whole new angle on the sociological problem of divorce, which keeps getting more common here.’”
He showed the exchange about the song in a video posted to his Instagram, dated February 22, 2025. The track’s working title was “Gitara balada” (“Guitar Ballad”).
“Great albums take a long time to make. The first version of this song came about on February 20 last year, that’s the day it started to live.”
The story of the 2004 debt surfaces at a moment when Mili and Ceca’s relationship is once again being talked about publicly, ever since the singer joined the judging panel on Zvezde Granda. Their working relationship spans two decades.
There’s something in how the two moments compare. To reach an audience in 2004, Mili had to take out a loan and cover every newsstand in the country. He’s announcing the new album with a single post on his own profile, without spending a dinar on distribution.
