Annie Nightingale To Judge Live And Unsigned
Radio 1 DJ Annie Nightingale MBE best known as Britain’s first female DJ on Radio 1 is to judge Live and Unsigned the UK’s biggest music competition for original artists for the fourth year running and will be judging at three of the Area Final shows this year.
The former presenter of the BBC’s OId Grey Whistle Test can’t wait to be involved again, “I am as enthusiastic as always at discovering new music talent. I look forward to hearing and seeing the finalists at Live and Unsigned, and will do my best to encourage them on their way to an exciting and successful future. Bring them on!
“This is great exposure – competing in a competition like this will get you recognised and winning it will attract interest. But there’s a lot more to it, it’s a long haul to be successful in this industry. I think bands need to ensure they are getting out there and building a fan base and getting hits on You Tube. Then it’s about finding the right people to represent you – making sure you have good people around you that can open doors. If you’ve got the talent, you just need to surround yourself with people who believe in it and can represent you in the right manner.”
Annie Nightingale the first ever female presenter on BBC Radio 1 is now Radio 1’s longest serving broadcaster having been with Radio 1 over 40 years and remains the only female DJ in the world to have been honoured with an MBE by The Queen.
Annie’s career has been a fantastical musical journey beginning with hanging out with the likes of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Who, and becoming a journalist and TV presenter. Having cracked the all-male preserve of DJs at Radio 1, she began a long and dedicated career in broadcasting at the BBC. Always insisting to choose her own music, Annie championed dozens of artists who later became worldwide successes.
“Be passionate and be committed. It’s all about confidence. I also think honesty is great – there’s something endearing about someone making a mistake or perhaps not being completely polished. Don’t try too hard to be anyone else and believe in yourself.”
This year the winners of Live and Unsigned will take home £10,000 in cash to spend on developing the act as they wish. They’ll also get a further £10,000 spent on publicity and will take on a UK tour of up to 100 shows. Live and Unsigned is also offering festival slots in Sweden, Italy, Latvia and Ireland, as well as gigs at UK festivals like Beach Break Live and Relentless Energy Drink Boardmasters.
For more information on Live and Unsigned and to perform in front of judges such as Radio One’s Annie Nightingale, sign up for Live and unsigned for next year!
Article source: http://www.entertainment-focus.com/news/annie-nightingale-to-judge-live-and-unsigned
RockNess reveals local line-up of hotly tipped Highland acts set to join star …
It’s already announced major artists including Biffy Clyro, Mumford Sons, Deadmau5, Ed Sheeran and Justice – and now summer music festival RockNess has also revealed a specially curated line-up of local talent to showcase the Highland music scene.
Six of the most promising music acts from the north of Scotland have been confirmed to perform at this year’s RockNess, which takes place from June 8 to 10 at Dores near Inverness.
These include Be Like Pablo (described by the organisers as “guitar-based powerpop”), Homework (played on Radio 1 and 6 Music), Iain Mclaughlin The Outsiders (“grunge with a pop-rock edge”), Red Kites (“emotive and explosive folk rock), Team Kapowski (“tongue-in-cheek rap with delicious electro hooks”), and Whisky River Band (gearing up to release debut album).
The line-up has been curated by Jamie Macdonald and Murray Cameron of Inverness-based Netsounds Unsigned – the weekly online new music podcast, and Chris Lemon of local online music entertainment magazine invernessGiGs.
Jamie and Murray said: “Netsounds Unsigned is delighted to be joining forces with inverness GiGs and RockNess to select 6 of the hottest acts from the Highlands of Scotland to perform at RockNess 2012!
“One of our key aims is about exposing new emerging artists; we are thrilled that this opportunity will bring the best new music from the Highlands to a capacity RockNess audience.”
Chris added: “invernessGiGs are delighted to be working with Netsounds Unsigned and RockNess to provide a stunning selection of some of the best acts that the area has to offer.
“From The Whisky River Band to Red Kites, these bands are worthy additions to the RockNess line-up.
“We are really pleased that RockNess have, quite literally, given a stage to these bands and invernessGiGs can’t wait to see how the RockNess audience respond to them.”
For information on the rest of the RockNess line-up and more news, visit stv.tv/rockness
Article source: http://entertainment.stv.tv/music/306334-rockness-reveals-local-line-up-of-hotly-tipped-highland-acts-set-to-join-star-names/
Band’s big break is out to buy this week
Published on Wednesday 9 May 2012 10:07
HAND-PICKED by acclaimed band, The Kaiser Chiefs, 3hour week will be featured on Universal Records’ compilation album entitled ‘Emerging Icons’, which was released on Monday.
The Scunthorpe based band have been together making music for the last three years, and this could be their big break into the music industry.
“We uploaded our music to the Unsigned Band Review last year, as a lot of unsigned artists do, as music is reviewed by industry professionals,” explains Danny Richardson of 3hour week. “Using the review site, Absolute Radio select artists they like and feature them on their weekly unsigned show, Emerging Icons.”
Last year in May, 3hour week won the Emerging Icons weekly competition with their track, Adventure Potential, and were featured on the national station along with a radio interview. It wasn’t until December that the Kaiser Chiefs collaborated with Universal Records and Emerging Icons to develop the Emerging Icons compilation album.
“We found out just before Christmas that we had been chosen by the Kaiser Chiefs to feature on the album, which was an amazing Christmas present,” continues Danny. “We were asked to go down to Universal studios in London to record an acoustic version of Adventure Potential, as well as be interviewed and a full photo shoot. This was a fantastic opportunity to be in the headquarters of a major record label and to see the magic happen, and also great fun rearranging our song to suit an acoustic style. Being surrounded by cameras and lights was a new experience for us, but the song went down well with the producers, and we left on a high.”
3hour week have gone from strength to strength in the last year. They regularly feature on BBC Introducing Lincolnshire, and have also just performed live on BBC Introducing Humberside for Alan Raw. With a lot of gig dates already confirmed for this summer including the main BBC Introducing stage at So Festival in Skegness, Summer Saturnalia festival in Skipton and the Cockpit in Leeds, the band are going to be busy, as well as promoting the Universal Record album.
“The Kaiser Chiefs have been a massively influential band over the last decade, so the thought of them enjoying our music and selecting us out of hundreds of entries was a huge honour,” says Danny. This release could see the first compilation of unsigned artists achieving a position in the official charts, so we need everyone to buy a copy!”
The album can be found on iTunes, or can be pre-downloaded before it’s release at http://itunes.apple.com/preorder/emerging-icons/id519664262. It costs £6.99, or each track costs £0.79.
For more information on 3hour week, please visit their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/3hourweek, or www.soundcloud.com/3hourweek.
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Article source: http://www.epworthbells.co.uk/lifestyle/band-s-big-break-is-out-to-buy-this-week-1-4528131
ABSTRAKT: Tiger Lilly’s Difinitive Guide to Being A Successful Independent Artist
Today’s market is an extremely interesting one for the independent music artist and bands. I’m definitely not saying it’s any easier due to the new tools that are at their disposal, as the music business has always, and will always be, a cut throat industry. However, it’s an extraordinarily exciting place to grow and develop creativity, whether you’re an acoustic musician or a full on heavy metal band.
One of the most exciting and inspirational independent music artists I’ve had the privileged to come across over the past few months is a lady called Tiger Lilly. She’s take some time out to offer an insight on methods and the mentality she uses on a daily basis in order to grow her creative business and art and move from one level to the next in a professional and successful manner.
So, what really does make a successful independent artist? I’m not talking about talent or fame but how do you DIY and achieve what you may currently think you need a manager or label for. How far can you truly take your music?
I am going to write this article from what I have achieved myself, from first-hand experience. Therefore, please note, this is not a definitive guide but an insight in to someone who is currently doing it herself.
First off, set yourself clear goals. Any decent manager should discuss with you what you want to achieve with your music and where you see it going. Now I have never had a manager but I do manage myself and this is where I started. This is not to say you won’t evolve and change direction but you need to have a point A to start from. If you have the space make a ‘vision wall’ this is a reference to the book I read by Rhonda Byrne called ‘The Secret’, place images and text of how you want to see your career pan out in this space. Cut out clippings from music magazines, post art work that inspires you and write your own affirmations of what you want. Eventually you will replace the images with ones of YOU and text about YOU and YOUR music!
Why is this important you may ask? It is simply to keep you focused! When you get the days where you are delving in to self-doubt and you want to throw in the towel you stand in front of that wall and you visualize where you want to be and what you can truly achieve. Success is a mind-set and if you are to live the life you want to live you have to start from inside your own head. It is the age old famous saying that ‘If you don’t believe in yourself’, who will?
Once you have made a start on the above keep working on it throughout your career.
We are in the digital era and your online presence is essential. This does not cost you anything but your time and effort. Again, if you do not invest this in to yourself why would you expect your potential fans or a record label to do the same for you?
“But will this cost me money, because I’m a musician and I don’t have any?!” Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr are all free sites and tools you can use, and these are just a few suggestions. You do not have to have an expensive website to gain a following. Uniform your pages however and this sometimes can cost if you do not have friends who can do a shoot for you.
This brings me nicely on to image. How many of you go shopping and have your eyes drawn to ‘finest’ or ‘best of’ ranges rather than the ‘essential’ packaging? You have 3 seconds maximum to grab on lookers attention. What does your image say about you? Does it match your music and who you are? Are you imitating or under dressing up what your brand is?
Stay true to your music, of course, but we are in the music business! Our business is everything who we are and what we create. If you are the buyer what are you looking for? Reverse your role and look in at yourself. Ask yourself, ‘would I buy this?’ If not, why?
Another point to think about is networking! And I mean both online and offline. There is plenty of fantastic music networking events to attend such as FM fmfirstmonday.com. Get off the sofa, if only once a month, and go out and meet other people in your industry from all different areas of the business and be brave. Ask questions! You learn by asking and doing, not just waiting.
How about that waiting game? So many aspiring artists wait for success, waiting to be discovered. I get told so many times, “you’re so lucky, you have so many followers/contacts!” Where did this come from? Did I wake up one morning and find it already there? No. You make this happen by doing all of the above. The harder you work the luckier you will get.
Being in the right time and right place has some truth but there is also a lot you can do yourself. Something to consider is approaching companies for sponsorship to fund your work. They will look at what you have achieved yourself first and again they need to see why they would invest in you. Lazy doesn’t attract sponsors.
In the past 4 years I have self-released an EP, 2 albums and made 4 music videos. I have booked 3 of my own UK tours and organised my own press coverage and been my own radio plugger. If I can then you can. Get yourself a copy of the Unsigned Guide and start making contact with booking agents if you feel you need help with this.
There is a lot you can do from self-distributing, booking tours, self-promotion and working on your online and offline presence.
To summarise…
Do your vision wall and set out your own goals clearly. Without this you will be all over the place and have no focus. Who are you? What is your brand? What do you want to show the world? What is your story?
Package yourself and your material so you are a strong brand. This is not selling out, it’s working your business.
Look in to booking yourself a promotional tour. Create an EPK and send to your local press and music website.
Distribute your own music (see companies like CD Baby) Work your craft and make a noise in the smart way not the hard way.
Whilst writing this article I am fully aware that there will be questions you will want to ask that I haven’t covered in depth but the point as I mentioned when I started writing this is to give you an insight and not a definitive guide. It was written to spark off a fire in you to go out and ask those questions, to research these subjects and realise you can do a lot for yourself.
Once you get to the point where you have all of your content and you are working your fan base, well that is another article entirely, and one I will write when I have done it myself.
Tiger Lilly
Article source: http://hangout.altsounds.com/features/147459-abstrakt-tiger-lillys-difinitive-guide-a-successful.html
Talented Lap Tapping Guitarist makes Southern England Finals in National Live … – Your
Thursday Apr 26th 2012- 15 year old singer, songwriter and acoustic guitarist Liam Iliffe from Bournemouth has taken the judging panel of the UK’s biggest original music competition by storm and is now just one good performance away from playing at London’s O2 in the Grand Final of Live and Unsigned. Liam will be competing against the most talented bands and artists in the UK at the Southern England Area Finals on May 26th 2012 at the Portsmouth Guildhall. But not only was he voted by the judges as one of the best so far in the regional competitions, he was also one of only five artists selected out of 60 to play at the Southampton “Music in the City” Festival in October 2012.
Liam battled against the best musical talent in the region, to secure a coveted place in the Southern England Area Finals and Southampton Music Festival. He now has the opportunity to prove he is one of the hottest unsigned acts in the UK. The acts taking part in the live Area Final Showcase in front of hundreds of spectators will also get to perform to a professional judging panel, including judges from Radio One, Kerrang and Choice FM.
More than 10,000 acts entered nationally and the few still left in the competition are in with a chance of making their way to the Grand Final at London’s O2, winning the £10,000 main cash prize and a place in the Live and Unsigned festival tour. There’ll also be a £10,000 publicity investment in the winners.
The winning act of Live and Unsigned 2012 will embark on a remarkable festival tour this summer spanning 15 top festivals across the UK including; Relentless Energy Drink Boardmasters, Norfolk Spectacular, Strawberry Fields Festival, Cloud 9 Festival, Glass Butter Beach, Brownstock, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and seven other summer festivals including additional international festivals with festival partners in Sweden, Italy or Latvia.
This year’s competition is also being filmed for broadcasting on Sky TV in an exclusive fly-on-the-wall documentary, Live and Unsigned: Uncut. All the acts in the competition are battling it out for the chance to play at Live Fest at The O2 in London. The Grand Final is incorporated into London’s biggest indoor festival on the 14th July.
Talented contestant Liam Iliffe specialises in a rather unusual technique of guitar playing called Lap Tapping. This involves placing the guitar flat on his lap and tapping the guitar body and strings percussively alongside the melody. This allows him to inject more raw emotion and drama into his songs. Liam Iliffe is now just one good performance away from making The O2 and competing in the Grand Final. The talent competition also coincides with the launch of Liam’s debut album “Slap Tapping”, now available on iTunes and Amazon.co.uk.
For more information about Liam, visit his website at http://www.liamiliffe.com or his youtube channel and Facebook pages – liamslaptapping to watch him in action.
Please direct press enquiries to press@liamiliffe.com
Article source: http://your-story.org/talented-lap-tapping-guitarist-makes-southern-england-finals-in-national-live-unsigned-competition-328598/
Slash to Take Unsigned Bands on Tour
Guitar legend Slash will give 20 unsigned bands a boost by offering them support slots on his latest tour.
The former Guns N’ Roses star kicked off a series of North American shows in Baltimore, Maryland on Thursday (03May12) and he has teamed up withU.S. chain Guitar Center to give a number of aspiring groups the chance to join him on the road.
Bands can submit their music for consideration and the winners, to be personally selected by Slash, will open for the rocker at the tour stop closest to their hometown.
Slash tells The Pulse Of Radio, “Right now, for kids starting a band and all that, it’s like the Wild West out there. There’s no set path. There’s a lot of great opportunities, there’s a lot of different avenues that are available to you now that weren’t available back in the day, but they’re all hit or miss. You know, you’ve just got to take your chances”.
Motley Crue and Kiss have both been involved in the scheme in previous years.
Article source: http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/music/musicnews/Slash-238210.html
Vote for the Best Music – Win Great Prizes – Final Round
Vote for the Best Music – Win Great Prizes – Final Round
Vancouver, CA May 04, 2012 in Games
[prMac.com] Vancouver (BC) Canada – Koolhaus Games have launched a contest to find the very best Unsigned musical talent worldwide. iMP Surf the Music’s Unsigned Band Contest. Four preliminary rounds of voting determined The Best of the Best International Unsigned Musical Talent. All the Fan Favourite Winners are featured in the Final Round and its ON NOW through to May 31st, 2012. Musical artists from the Four Corners of the World have made the cut. Musical artists from countries like Brazil, Russia, Canada, Slovenia, Sweden, India, Cyprus, Australia and the USA are all available for your listening pleasure.
And now you decide who moves on:
This Round is for all the marbles. The Top Ten Favorite bands win a spot in the upcoming iMP Surf the Music Unsigned Band iPhone/iPad Game! It’s a real chance for fans to make a difference and music that rocks to get the recognition it deserves!
But wait – there’s more!! One lucky Voter in the Giveaway wins an iPod touch and is automatically entered to win an iPad3 or iPhone4S! Just like Rounds 1 through 4 Giveaway winners Adelina from Pennsylvania, Amarjot from India, Mary Beth from Illinois and Alexander from California. Congratulations to the winners! Good luck to the new entrants!
It’s simple and easy to vote with no obligation. Just visit the site, click on the Contest link and go to “Fans: Vote and Enter”. Check out all the great bands and vote for your favorite. Then, enter for a chance to win that iPod touch and more. Enjoy fantastic new music and be part of getting these Unsigned Acts in the Game!
Entry is free and easy with no obligations of any kind (personal information is confidential and will not be passed on to third parties). So don’t miss out. Come vote for your favorite amongst this amazing pool of International Talent and enter the Contest for a chance to win some great prizes. See you at the site.
System Requirements:
* iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad
* Requires iOS 3.0 or later
* 9.6 MB
Pricing and Availability
iMP: Surf the Music 1.3 is $1.99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies) and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Games category.
Koolhaus Games, developer of record breaking, highly acclaimed, number one games such as Tiger Woods Golf PGA Tour 12 iOS, Madden 12 Android and Madden NFL 2011 Football iPad, is located in the center of Canada’s premier gaming community in Vancouver, British Columbia and has developed games for Activision, Electonic Arts, Square Enix, Konami and others. Copyright (C) 2009-2012 Koolhaus Games Inc. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPad and iPod are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.
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Wolfgang Hamann
Pres/CEO
778 863 4263
Canada
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Contact Information: Koolhaus Games Inc http://www.koolhausgames.com
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Games Music Contest Surfing Soundtracks Funk iOS
Article source: http://prmac.com/release-id-42244.htm
Can Manchester music move on from its past?
3 May 2012
Last updated at 19:51 ET
The Stone Roses are set to play their first gigs together for 16 years
Manchester has produced some of Britain’s best and most influential bands, and most of them are back this summer. As the oldies lumber back into action, are they threatening to cast a shadow over the next generation of rock ‘n’ roll stars?
On Saturday night, music fans in Manchester will party like it’s 1989, when two of the biggest bands from the “Madchester” music scene, the Happy Mondays and Inspiral Carpets, play a comeback concert at the city’s arena.
Next month, 225,000 people will watch the hotly anticipated return of The Stone Roses at three gigs in the city.
New Order are currently on the road, while their estranged bassist Peter Hook is playing Joy Division albums live, and planning a rave in the car park of the legendary Hacienda nightclub to mark its 30th anniversary.
Meanwhile, The Buzzcocks co-founder Howard Devoto is rejoining his bandmates for the first time in more than 30 years, and 1990s The Charlatans are playing their 1997 album Tellin’ Stories in full on tour.
That is not to mention Take That’s record-breaking stadium reunion tours.
The seven original members of The Happy Mondays have reformed after almost 20 years
Of the legendary Manchester bands of the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, only The Smiths and Oasis still have hatchets to bury.
“We’re proud of what we’ve achieved over the years and just at a time where we think we should celebrate it,” says Inspiral Carpets drummer Craig Gill.
As well as playing with his band, Gill is a tour guide who takes fans to see the city’s musical landmarks. Artists like New Order made history, he says.
“If anybody’s got a right to be nostalgic about things, then it’s people like that – people who were involved in the scene and are here to tell the tale. I think we should be grateful that people like that are still doing stuff and willing to celebrate what has been a great past 30 years in Manchester.”
Many big-name Manchester musicians have helped nurture new bands, Gill says, and he cites The Janice Graham Band and The Deadbeat Echoes – who recently supported the Inspirals – as proof that the local scene is still alive and kicking.
But will fans be paying to see them reform in another 20 years time?
Continue reading the main story
THE BEST BANDS IN MANCHESTER RIGHT NOW
- Janice Graham Band (pictured) – Old heads on young shoulders, they sing about love, sex, hope, despair, death and life with the poignancy of a young band making their own time and writing their own rules.
- The Travelling Band – A perfect blend of country, folk and Americana with songs full of meaning, passion and reflection.
- Everything Everything – Nominated for the Mercury Prize, their music not only instantly hits you with its pure genius and intensity but also creeps inside you with every listen.
- Kid British – Social commentators to beats and melodies which pull you in and are very hard to let go of. Supporting The Stone Roses.
- Delphic- Burst onto the scene in 2010 with indie-electronica that nodded to and diverted from their forefathers. Now teasing their fans with glimpses into their current world.
By Michelle Hussey from BBC Radio Manchester’s Manchester Music and BBC Introducing
Elbow are the biggest current Manchester band and have been in the limelight for more than 10 years. Otherwise, The Courteeners have played arenas and The Ting Tings have enjoyed chart success.
Pop nostalgia is certainly not just a Mancunian phenomenon – everybody from The Police to The Pixies have jumped on the reunion bandwagon over the past decade.
That has coincided with a drop in sales of current guitar music, sparking debate about the supposed “death of rock”.
“There are probably more bands in Manchester now than there’s ever been before,” says John Robb, who wrote a book on the Stone Roses and, with his blog Louder Than War, is a vocal champion of new music.
“Every kid seems to be in a band,” he says. “You always read this stuff that guitar music’s dead. You think, who is this in these rehearsal rooms I go to?
“There are bands crammed into the rooms. There’s not one band per room, there’s about 10 bands in each room.
“In the punk days there were probably 10-15 bands. But [now] you could probably find 2,000-3,000 good bands in town.”
So why does it seem harder to break through?
Natalie-Eve Williams, who co-hosts Manchester Music and BBC Introducing on BBC Radio Manchester, says shifts in technology and the music industry mean it is more difficult to make an impact.
“There are bands out there that I’m confident are going to break through, but I do feel that the greats – those big rock ‘n’ roll bands that have this great big following and dominate the market – are a factor of yesteryear, sadly,” she says.
“The whole record industry is nothing like it was over the last few decades.”
Rather than relying on record labels, more people self-release material and compete to get noticed on the internet, she says.
“It’s good in one way because it’s very much more accessible, but also you don’t get the huge budget behind you.
“Unless you’ve already reached a certain level, I don’t think there’s a lot of backing for new bands to go and do what Oasis or The Stone Roses did.”
One new group who have been given a big leg up are Dirty North, a self-proclaimed “rap reggae rock indie punk funk blues” band from Wythenshawe.
They have been given a support slot with The Stone Roses, after being championed by drummer Reni.
Dirty North were namechecked by Stone Roses drummer Reni in their reunion press conference
Dirty North frontman Johnny Gregory is clearly grateful for the platform, saying gig promoters and record labels are normally reluctant to take a chance on new bands.
“If you’re not established, if you haven’t got proof that you can sell out a venue, then, as far as they’re concerned, they wouldn’t risk losing the money,” he says.
“But if you did give that band a chance to play, it might be a chance for them to get established. We’re so lucky to be supporting the Stone Roses, and what’s to say this won’t show us to the UK for the band we are? We wouldn’t have had that if it wasn’t for the Stone Roses liking us. We wouldn’t get that from the biggest music promoters or the biggest venues.”
So does all the attention going on high-profile reunions overshadow the current scene?
“It does and it doesn’t,” Gregory replies, diplomatically. “If all these bands are reforming, then the attention will be on them and there will be less attention on the small indie night that’s full of unsigned bands.
“No-one’s going to write about that when they can write about the Happy Mondays reforming.
“However, the Stone Roses reforming has given us the biggest gig we’ve ever had. So I can’t say that it’s a bad thing.”
Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17906259
Microsoft & Muzu challenge unsigned acts to go social
With just over six weeks until the winner is announced the competition for Microsoft Ireland’s and Muzu TV’s undiscovered music talent is getting fierce.
Which is to be expected, when you consider that the winner of the 2012 Unsigned and Online (@UnsignedOnline | Facebook) competition will walk away with over €10,000’s worth of online promotional backing to help kick start their professional music career, as well as a filmed studio performance and a live slot in Dublin’s The Academy Venue.
The competition challenges musicians and bands to gain as many votes as they can on the Unsigned and Online Muzu page by creating and promoting a music video for one of their tracks. The musician or band with the greatest number of votes on Muzu (@muzutv | Facebook | Google+) will take home the prize.
To see how things are going, and what’s involved, we caught up with Microsoft Ireland’s Paul Shanahan.
Why did Microsoft decide to set up Unsigned and Online?
When we first started this initiative we felt that a lot of Irish acts were still only scratching the surface of what they can achieve with the technology available today. I’m a musician myself and I know how difficult it is for bands to build a fan base that doesn’t just consist of their friends and family. So we wanted to create an initiative that offered a real difference to Unsigned Irish bands and musicians.
The Unsigned and Online competition is a platform that facilitates and rewards bands who wish to promote themselves using digital channels – a key ingredient today to any music act’s success. Clever promotion will help their music find its way to an audience that appreciates it.
More and more independent acts are breaking through via online channels. Some are creating clever viral videos, others just have incredible music, and some offer both. Either way, the online era has meant more and more bands are waiting less and less for the record exec to come knocking on the door and instead are going at it hard themselves. Having a presence online opens the door to a global audience instantly! This is why the main focus of the prize is on online promotion.
Both Microsoft and Muzu TV have come together to offer the winner €10,000 worth of online promotion via MSN.ie, Hotmail and Muzu.TV. That’s the sort of package that can provide serious hit rates for any band online and potentially become the game changer for an unknown act.
Many great groups have come to prominence through social media, how can Microsoft help?
I think what Microsoft brings to the table here is access to our software tools, which are free, which enables bands and musicians create more freely than before with just a few clicks. Tools like Movie Maker and Sky Drive enable bands to collaborate and share in a way that allows them to be far more productive in a shorter space of time.
In addition, our partnership with Muzu TV adds real substance and reach to the social aspect of the competition. The team there have created a great platform for bands to promote their online content very easily and they’re rewarded duly for doing so. Muzu TV work a shared revenue model with bands so that they get rewarded financially based on hits to their channel. It’s an incentive for the bands to get socially active and unleash their music beyond the realms of local gigs and into new geographies and fan bases online. Combining what both of these offerings can add real value to artists when trying to build a fanbase.
You mention gigs, and of course one of the main prizes in the competition is a filmed studio performance and a slot in The Academy, tell us more about these.
I think this is straight away part of the prize that bands instantly relate to – performance!
As well as €10,000 worth of online promotion the winners will get the opportunity to perform a song acoustically in the Muzu TV studios, where they will be filmed and uploaded straight to the Muzu TV site. Again it’s all about driving that online promotion. To top it off then we’ve arranged that the band will play at Dublin’s Academy venue, which we’re hoping the attendance will be high given their new found fan base!
What advice would you give to musicians and bands that want to promote themselves online?
I need to wear my musician hat when answering this one too! I think bands need to be smarter about how they promote themselves online. Think like a business. Targeting people online, if done right, can be more effective than any other form of marketing. Do your research and make sure you have selected the right sites to promote yourself on. As well as that make sure you have selected the right people to market yourself to!
Strong content is absolutely key. This does not mean you need to be John Landis of Thriller fame – you just need to capture your music in a way that people will remember and respond to. Create videos people will want to share and you begin to realise just how far your music may actually travel – remember, you are not geographically bound online. Why not target an audience in another country to generate more momentum behind your campaign?
Do your research and find out what music is popular in the download charts – if your genre is all the rage right now in Germany then that’s your market! Your music and music video is your band’s product to sell – treat it that way.
Research, target and promote
What has the reaction been like so far from the public?
The response has been great to date – we have 15 bands entered into the competition already with over 15,000 views totted up after just two weeks . We’re expecting a few more entries and the views to really add up running up to the close of competition on the 13th of July.
We’ve had nothing but positive responses to the Facebook site, on affiliate sites and direct to Microsoft and Muzu TV. People seem genuine in their praise in the format of the competition and the prize offered to an Unsigned act!
What has the reaction been like so far from the participants?
We have received great feedback from the bands to date that this is a competition well worth taking part in. In some cases it’s actually prompted the bands to get out of the rehearsal studio and actually start working on the music video for that song they recorded ages ago.
3000 views later and they are delighted they entered! This is what the competition is about.
Unsigned and Online is running until June 13; you can see the musicians and groups participating so far over on Muzu’s Unsigned and Online page.
Article source: http://sociable.co/entertainment/microsoft-muzu-challenge-musicians-to-get-social/
