SONG CONTEST BLOG

We Are Listening is delighted to announce the successful completion of its first-ever World Music contest, the World of Music Awards. The winning entry was submitted by Ghalia Benali, a native of Tunisia currently residing in Brussels. Growing up in Tunisia, Ghalia was raised with a strong background in Arabic music and poetry, as well as external influences including French chansons Egyptian and Indian musicals, melodies from Syria and Iraq and the ‘tartil’, the sung lectures from the Koran.

Throughout her carer, Ghalia has performed with a variety of talented World Music artists including Shahnez (Arabo-Flamenco), Yoda (Ethnic), Alpalna (Arabo-Indian), Maak’s Spirit (Jazz), Hh Kaly (Electro, Arabo, Indian), Timnaa (Arabo, Spanish, Folk), and many more. Ghalia is currently touring with her most recent project “Romeo en Leila”, a musical spectacle where Arab music meets traditional western music and jazz. Besides a successful careet as a singer, Ghalia also performs as an actress and played the role of Meriem in “La Saison des hommes” in 1999, under the direction of Tunisian producer Mouffida Tiatli and danced in the film “Swing” from Tony Gatliff in 2001.

As the winner of the World of Music Awards, Ghalia will join World music expert, Dubi Lenz, and a host of other WOMEX delegates in Sevilla, Spain, for a weekend of networking, music promotion and career development. She and the nine other finalists will also receive a free one year subscription to Songlines, the leading World music publication. We Are Listening is proud to welcome Ghalia Benali to the team and looks forward to helping her achieve all of her musical dreams and aspirations.

ItsLiveMusic is a new search engine, currently in beta, for live music event listings throughout the US. The search engine sorts through and aggregates thousands of online sources to find all the live music events listed online at any given time. It also finds and displays basic information about the artists and the venues, and automatically creates a profile page for each.

It seems like eons ago that Madonna seeded file-sharing sites with MP3s of her voice scolding fans about the evils of music downloading. Well if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. In Early October, 2007, Madonna walked away from her 25 year relationship with Warner Music and signed a new 10-year contract worth $120 million with Live Nation, an LA-based concert promotion firm. In a released statement Madonna explained, “the paradigm in the music business has shifted and as an artist and a business woman, I have to move with that shift.”

So what does a concert promotion firm have that Warner Music doesn’t? Live Nation offers a complete marketing package for the Madonna label and recognizes, like Madonna now does, that music is the least of what she sells. The deal covers every aspect of the Madonna music brand including touring, merchandising, fan club, DVDs, website, music related TV and film, licensing and sponsorship agreements, and of course, record albums.

This mega-deal with the US’s largest concert promoter is the first step in which Live Nation aims to set itself up as a new breed of record company by appealing to mega-stars and offering them one-stop shopping benefits to market and sell their image, which, for an established artist, constitutes so much more than just their music. It combines two industry powerhouses into one efficient revenue stream that can more effectively promote the Madonna label and dramatically increase revenue for both parties.

Nashville is Music City in every sense of the term. One of the locals I met boasted that it’s the only place in the world where a bank will accept a record master as collateral for a loan.

In this town, folks in the music business are surprisingly approachable. At no point did I feel surrounded by moguls nor did the landscape suggest music empires. At Warner Chappell, I sat in an office bare of furniture and ornaments. The only desk in the room was pushed back to make room for a stage, lighting gear, a Wurlitzter and Orange amps. Very cool. Universal’s offices are a converted, two story house with a wooden porch. The infamous Music Row is a quite street of residential housing with lawn trimmings and picket fences. Walking through a major publisher’s door is no feat.

I’m told that you’re four times more likely to get a Country song cut than a song in any other genre and this rings true with Nashville’s consistent output of Country chart toppers in the US. The city offers an occupation in songwriting like no other place on the planet. Writers flock to the city in search of a publishing deal that will pay their monthly salary (advance against residuals), allowing them to write full time for a living. Quite literally, hundreds of writers wake up each morning, travel to work, write songs and check out at six. Publishing companies will often keep several ‘writing rooms’ vacant and songsmiths will get together to bond – probably over coffee at Fido’s on 21st Ave. – before attempting to collaborate on a future hit at any number of cosy locations arranged by their Creative Directors. Co-writes are common practice and often involve shipping writers out and importing them in. How is that for a day in the office?

The live scene is awesome and rich in variety. Deceptively Country, Nashville has a well-established and esteemed rock scene. Come to think of it, I didn’t see a single cowboy hat and pair of boots during my four day visit. I returned to London with a stack of CDs by fledgling indie, emo and garage acts. Did you know that Kings of Leon are Nashville natives? A far cry from Country music, I know, but they too started out as Country writers before renowned artist manager, Ken Levitan (Vector Management), suggested that the brothers form a rock group. So with that, a parting shot from the band that made it big almost everywhere but back home in N’ville:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltqZPy3rY2w

John Mellencamp

We Are Listening is proud to announce a new, great opportunity for independent artists to have their work exposed to the world of TV and Film. Freeplay Music – who has been successfully promoting the work of professional composers for the past 5 years – just recently added an indie artists section to their website! The artists joining their catalogue will have their work exposed to the most traffic of any web-based music production library in the world and to an impressive list of clients in the US broadcast industry.

To submit your music to Freeplay, please visit www.freeplaymusic.com/submit

Just about the hottest international song contest has kicked-off again for Round 3 and we welcome Paul Zamek to the distinguished panel of Judges.

Paul’s 37 year tenure in the music and entertainment industry includes serving as the US President/CEO of European Multimedia Group Inc. (EMG), Co-President of RPM Record Group, and a member of the Board of Directors of the South African based Gallo Group whose record label and music publishing representation includes Sony/BMG, Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group. Paul also served as VP/General Manager of Capitol/EMI Records, South Africa.

As President/CEO of his own Zamek World Marketing, Paul has performed a wide range of services for clients, including artist management, entertainment marketing, licensing consulting, publishing and master catalogue representation and procurement, branding strategy and sponsorship procurement.

Among the corporate sponsorships and licenses that Paul has acquired are Remy Martin Cognac, Jim Beam, Coca Cola, Pepsi Co., Proctor & Gamble, Campbell Soup Company, Jack Daniels, American Airlines, Tommy Hilfiger Apparel, Miller Beer and South West Airlines.

Paul has also worked in various capacities for a long list of dignitaries and recording artists from around the world. Among others, the list includes Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the late Frank Sinatra, Elton John, Conway Twitty, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, and Tina Turner.

His current clients and business relationships include Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and guitar legend, Duane Eddy, Naomi Judd, Laura Turner, The Beach Boys, BB King, George Jones, Kenny Rogers, and the estates of Elvis Presley, John Denver and Roy Orbison.

In addition to performing artists, Paul’s corporate client list continues with Apple Corporation UK, Yahoo Music, Mobile Entertainment Forum, AARP (American Assoc. of Retired Persons), REED MIDEM Organization, Warner Brothers Consumer Products, Warner/ Chappell Music, Warner Music Group, Wal-Mart Stores, DreamCatcher Entertainment, Capitol/EMI, SONY/BMG (SBMG) Music, Curb Records, Curb Entertainment, Jive Records, Sanctuary Records Group, Koch Entertainment LLC, Eagle Rock Entertainment, Barbara Orbison Productions, Atlantic Records, BMG Europe, Universal Music Publishing, Universal Music Enterprises, Navarre Distribution, Virgin Records, CAA, ICM and the William Morris Agency.

I had the pleasure of mingling with friends at an LGi Lab and AOL sponsored social event last week, aptly dubbed “iDrink”. Some of the most successful – and richest – IT professionals and venture capitalists in the world attended to talk shop and storm the free bar.

Pictured to my right is Maor Ezer, Co-Founder and CEO of YouLicense. The online destination allows artists to license their music to A&R in a legally water-tight and user-friendly environment. Maor is a good friend and a fan of We Are Listening. As the YouLicense site is open by invitation only, he suggested that members of the We Are Listening community – that’s YOU! – contact him directly and he will personally set you up with a free account. Simply send an email attentioned to Maor at admin@YouLicense.com with the subject heading “We Are Listening” and include a link to your website, MySpace page or EPK.

Pictured to my left is Dana Reich, Business Development at Spotback. The maverick team at Spotback developed a revolutionary ‘widget’ allowing users to rate content on the web and receive personalised recommendations and top rated content in seconds. You will find this widget at the bottom of each post on our blog. Give it a try. It’s amazing!

www.YouLicense.com
www.Spotback.com

In a press release dated the 24th April 2007, social music discovery service, iLike, announced one million registered users, twice the figure reported less than 30 days prior. Boasting 200 million track plays a month, iLike, at barely six months of age, proves that third time’s a charm…

Funded by Ticketmaster (IAC), Khosla Ventures, Bob Pittman, and other private investors, the Seattle based company that failed to make a splash with their almost decade old indie music community, Garageband.com, and its relatively new and unheard of podcasting off-shoot, Gcast.com, seems to have struck it lucky with iLike, offering a number of friendly features through a crisp and steadfast interface – appealing to a much larger audience.

iLike is an obvious shift in business strategy. Both Garagband and Gcast cater to the musician community, providing the tools and forums for artists to self-promote and integrate. iLike, however, caters to the all-encompassing music listening population and seamlessly links into one of the safest bets on the net: iTunes.

Although iLike bridges between the other two sites, featuring hot unsigned acts and newcomers, the “unsigned” ethos seems to be lending itself to popular demand – popular music – rather than the core of truly discovering new music (which MySpace holds the undisputed title for).

As most new music is questionable, signed or not, why not reach for the stars? It’s great SEO and attracts the majority of music lovers who want to hear what they grew up on, made love to for the first time, saw on David Letterman etc. – not Henry’s home demo.

Showcasing unheard-of talent is a tricky business – not a business at all really – so mixing it up with brand names and no-names, as iLike seems to be doing, is certainly a nice gesture for all.

Pandora’s founder, Tim Westergren, appealed for public support this week in response to the US Copyright Royalty Board’s decision for a whopping 140% escalation in internet radio royalty fees over the next four years, denouncing the decision in a letter that has rapidly snow balled on the web.

“The survival of Pandora and all of Internet radio is in jeopardy..”, Westergren starts. “The new royalty rates are irrationally high, more than four times what satellite radio pays, and broadcast radio doesn’t pay these at all. Left unchanged, these new royalties will kill every internet radio site, including Pandora.”

Such news brings back a bitter taste from the days of ubiquitous filesharing and the mixed signals aired by a struggling record industry. Ironically, this sharp increase in rent may drive the small timers to operate illegally and the leaders, such as Pandora, to charge for something most of us won’t pay for anyway after having it so good for so long. Who wants another dose of the majors going after pirate radio? Boring.

I don’t believe the Copyright Royalty Board is asking whether [most] artists are being compensated fairly for their work nor do I believe that this decision addresses a gray area in tracking and reporting streaming media. I do believe, however, that the musician community at large would opt for coverage before higher royalty rates and the leverage college radio receives (as opposed to Top 40) should be considered for individuals and parties with certain services online. After all, if we don’t protect the little people – those who start a blog, host a podcast and generate content – we will be ‘surfing’ the dial from one Clear Channel to another.

Daily updates from Pandora:
http://blog.pandora.com/pandora