SONG CONTEST BLOG

Chris Jackson

As Director of Music for the Comcast Entertainment Group, Chris is responsible for the “sound” of the E!, Style, G4 and Fearnet Networks. Chris oversees all aspects of music acquisition, placement, and production for the major cable network group. This includes catalog development and exploitation, rights administration, and strategic initiatives involving music and music-related programming. Chris also works closely with programming, talent, and promotion to leverage network assets in providing opportunities to both emerging and established artists seeking to take advantage of the network’s worldwide scope and reach. Prior to CEG, Chris was a partner in Beatscape, providing music supervision for Film, Television, Trailers and Videogames. He also co-founded MustVote, a groundbreaking voter registration campaign coupling viral and social media marketing with the passion of music fans. Chris also co-founded Rightspring, Inc. a pioneering marketplace for searching, licensing and digital delivery of creative assets to professional users. Chris has over 15 years experience in all facets of the music business including major and independent labels, event production and digital media.

Jolene Pellant

Jolene Pellant is a partner at Yes Dear Entertainment, a Los Angeles-based talent management, marketing and music publishing company. Prior, Jolene was the VP of National Marketing at Live Nation, overseeing national marketing efforts and working on tour marketing for artists such as Aerosmith, Fiona Apple, Journey, Def Leppard, Motley Crue, Damien Rice, Chicago, Backstreet Boys, Stevie Nicks, Don Henley and many others. She was promoted to this position when Avalon Attractions/Clear Channel Entertainment, a marketing and promotions firm where she held the post of Director of Marketing and oversaw entertainment events ranging from Blue’s Clues Live to the Rolling Stones, was restructured and branded as Live Nation. Jolene started her career in radio at the legendary Los Angeles rock radio station, KLOS, and as a video editor at Pop Art Film Factory.

Justin Levenson

Justin Levenson is SESAC’s Manager, Consultant Support, Writer/Publisher Relations. A seven year veteran of the performing rights organization, Justin is responsible for processing and signing unaffiliated songwriters. Hailing from Birmingham, AL, Justin attended Jacksonville State University before embarking on a career as a professional musician working with such superstars as Kenny Chesney and Donna Summer. He joined SESAC in 2001 in the Licensing Department as an Accounts Resolutions Specialist. He also contributes his time as an active member of S.O.L.I.D. (Society for Leaders in Development), a leadership organization for young executives in the music industry.

Daryl Berg

In the past six years, Daryl has licensed over 30,000 tracks for commercial use, booked over 350 artists for television performances, and executed numerous network-sized music marketing campaigns. A native of Long Island, NY, Daryl began his career as the minority founder and VP of Strategic Development at The Orchard, the world’s largest independent digital music distribution company. He left The Orchard to join EMI Recorded Music in LA as the Director of Business Development New Media. Daryl made the transition to music supervision and licensing by founding a company called Crusty Old Timer, Inc. that handled music supervision and music placement on behalf of its media clients. At Crusty, he helped launch FUEL TV, charged with the network’s music supervision duties. Currently, Daryl serves as FUEL TV’s Director of Music Supervision & Licensing, responsible for everything from music marketing, music supervision, licensing, and artist booking.

See entire Song Contest Panel.

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ArtistForce, the web-based relationship management platform and marketplace for live entertainment, has introduced a free version of its service.  The free edition provides artists with up to five different industry resources per month and will make it possible for them to receive messages, negotiate booking inquiries, and use the ArtistForce widget, without paying any fees.  Entertainment buyers will enjoy free and unlimited access to review talent, negotiate performance offers, manage event expenses, generate documents, and manage contacts.

ArtistForce is offering a cash prize of $10,000 to the artist who books the most paid shows using any free or paid version of ArtistForce between October 9, 2009 and February 14, 2010.  The cash prize will be presented in Austin during the company’s participation in SXSW 2010, where the winning artist will also be given the opportunity to perform live at an ArtistForce sponsored event.

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Pubic Enemy is the first established act to sign with SellaBand, the fan funding platform for music artists.  SellaBand will facilitate the fan funding process for Public Enemy’s new album with the band aiming to raise $250,000 in increments of $25.00.  Fans who invest in Public Enemy will receive an exclusive, numbered copy of the album and share in the revenues from sales of the record.

“SellaBand’s financial engine model goes about restructuring the music business in reverse,” says Public Enemy front man Chuck D.  “It starts with fans first, then the artists create from there.  The music business is built on searching for fans and this is a brand new way for acts to create a new album with fans first, already on board.”

The news follows an earlier press release from SellaBand announcing an improved and more accessible fan funding platform for independent artists, which I wrote about here.

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BBC Worldwide Music is broadcasting Robbie Williams’ anticipated Electric Proms performance into cinemas worldwide.

Robbie Williams will play Camden’s Roundhouse on October 20, as part of the BBC’s Electric Proms event and in advance of his new record, slated for release November 9.  The performance will be his first in three years.

The event will be broadcast live across 200 cinemas in more than 23 countries in Europe, followed by screenings in Australia on November 6 and South Africa on November 13.

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Audiolife, an innovator in direct-to-fan eCommerce, has entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with LA-based Hopeless Records, renowned for acts such as All Time Low, Avenged Sevenfold, and Thrice.  Audiolife’s comprehensive “on demand” digital and physical eCommerce solution will provide Hopeless Records with a robust merchant facility for its artists’ music and merchandise sales as well as all-encompassing and real-time analytics and sales trends.

From a press release published on the 1st Oct 2009:

“Working with Audiolife was an easy choice. Our fans are interested in digital content and sharing that content with their friends,” remarked Ian Harrison, Director of Marketing, Hopeless Records. “The Audiolife technology makes this possible very quickly. Within a day, we can post an artist’s branded store on their website, blog, and all social networks, and can deliver all of their merchandise, digital albums, and ringtones directly to the fans. We are looking forward to the many amazing opportunities that Audiolife has created with their eCommerce solutions, and are excited about the future.”

Added Brandon Hance, Founder & CEO of Audiolife: “Hopeless Records is the first among many indie labels who will integrate our technology into their artist marketing and promotions initiatives. We are confident that their leadership in the Direct-to-Fan space will give others the proof needed to launch their own eCommerce solutions for the thousands upon thousands of indie artists looking for alternative ways to monetize their careers.”

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Duncan Freeman, Founder and CEO of Band Metrics, announced today on his blog that his company raised an undisclosed amount from the Georgia Tech Edison Fund, an early-stage technology fund managed by the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC).

“We’re thrilled about the investment as it will assist us in completing our initial product offering for our public beta release later this year, and continued development in 2010.  We could not have asked for a better investment partner, as the ATDC, one of the nation’s leading university-based technology accelerators is committed to Atlanta’s thriving technology community, and helping startups become successful companies.”

Band Metrics is a data analytics and decision support system for the music industry, helping its users define and learn about their target audiences.  The system gathers pertinent data about artists and displays manageable statistics and assumptions for its users’ insight, application and marketing advantage.  For instance, Band Metrics will provide feedback about an artist’s presence on a variety of social networks which, in turn, can be applied to target promotional campaigns and isolate the areas where the artist may more effectively invest his resources.

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Yesterday, ReverbNation announced their partnership with Audiolife and the soft launch of the Reverb Store, a robust and fully-integrated e-commerce solution for artists and agents to sell directly to their fanbase.  From do-it-yourself T-shirt designs to comprehensive earning reports, the Reverb Store is as turn-key as the ReverbNation ethos.  Best of all, it includes all the social media promotional widgets and collateral you would expect as well as seamless integration with ReverbNation’s existing marketing features.  Anyone can open a store, create as many custom items as they want, and operate the store for free.  No monthly minimums, no monthly fees.

“The Reverb Store allows artists to layer a purchasing opportunity into every fan interaction they have online, whether it’s at Facebook, MySpace, a blog, or the band’s own website.”
– Michael Doernberg, CEO of ReverbNation

“Artists need solutions that can help them grow their fan base and convert those fans into customers.  The Reverb Store is the total package, combining the best of ReverbNation and Audiolife.”
– Brandon Hance, Founder and CEO of Audiolife

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MySpace disabled its auto-play feature last month in a bid to save $10m/month in streaming fees.  Next Big Sound reported on the impact this move has had on the number of overall plays on the site and, interestingly, how “the number of streams MySpace reports is no longer inflated by auto-play and is more directly impacted by true fans listening to their favorite songs.”

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In an interview with The Believer, Thom Yorke stated that Radiohead would not follow up on In Rainbows, the infamous pay-what-you-want release, with another full-length album, opting instead for single and EP releases, All Things D reported.

“None of us want to go into that creative hoo-ha of a long-play record again. Not straight off.. I mean, it’s just become a real drag. It worked with In Rainbows because we had a real fixed idea about where we were going. But we’ve all said that we can’t possibly dive into that again. It’ll kill us.”

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Next Big Sound have changed their tune.

I first heard about the startup through a New York Times article a colleague forwarded to me back in December last year.  At the time, Next Big Sound had developed an interesting role-play model where fans could take the A&R hot seat and pick “the next big sound” from a music discovery platform of independent all-sorts.  I wrote about it here.

Last week, Techcrunch published a post about the company revealing a brand new look and approach.  Next Big Sound overhauled every aspect of its website to deliver a sterling business intelligence platform for fans and music pros.

Anyone who reads this blog knows that I am a stout supporter of business intelligence solutions for music ? there is no shortage of marketing services for musicians yet very few accessible tools for artists to perform their due diligence before attempting to promote their message.

This move brings Next Big Sound to the starting line with two other players I’ve been following, BandMetrics and RockDex.  All three have developed similar products but Next Big Sound stands out with a super clean interface and clear call-to-action: free weekly email digests with statistics on any artist/band you wish to track.

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