SONG CONTEST BLOG

Breaking the Band from We Are Listening is every song contest, licensing, press, booking, touring and festival showcasing opportunity rolled into one. We’ve created an enormous independent artist campaign with a major label budget. This may be the single, largest investment in any emerging artist’s career by an independent music company.

You must present yourself as a sound investment. If you can show A&R Joe that you are a safe bet, financially, and that your music will make him more money than a conservative savings account, you are half way there.

The wife (and manager) of Swiss artist William White got in touch with me last week. She was charming on the phone, confident about her husband’s prospects and, above all, sincere.

They secured a record contract in Germany that did not do much for White’s career, she said. As a result, they went ahead and sold his music independently – an impressive 7000 copies last year!

Furthermore, instead of relying on their German contract, they approached every agent/promoter they could in other territories to see if they can expand their horizons. Of course, the label they are signed with will insist on a ‘first option’ but that is no reason not to try and bring other agents into their deal, right?

She asked nothing more of me than to spread the word and assured me that their success, thus far, is testament to her husband’s gift for converting a passive audience into a loyal fan base. I believe her.

To me, this is a healthy mix of good music and business savvy. Will A&R Joe listen? I don’t know but I did, intently.

www.williamwhite.ch

There are a handful of emerging artist (or unsigned artist) sites on the net that dominate the musician community. Dotcoms such as Garageband, Purevolume, Bandspace etc. have achieved great success founded on the artists’ desire to be in as many places on the web as possible and, in some cases, coupled with a technology driven product/service innovation such as Sonicbids’ EPK and Broadjam’s Promo Studio serving to aid the independent artist’s promotional endeavours.

There is a common goal amongst these sites which is to bridge the gap between the artist and promoter and audience/consumer. Is the success of these artist community services going to continue to grow or stabilise at a small number of large sites with all the trimmings? What does the future hold for, say, www.stayaround.com or www.imgifted.co.uk who are still trying to lift off?

What is your most valuable resource? (MySpace?)

Last week, Simon Osborne completed mixing Vivek Shraya’s “Logic Vs.” and Walter the Orange Ocean’s “Someone Who Loves You”.

Simon received a Grammy Award for Mixing and Engineering Sting’s “Brand New Day” (Best Pop Album 2000), an Emmy Nomination for Sting’s “All this Time” (2002) and an Emmy Award for ‘Outstanding Sound Mixing For Variety Or Music Series 2004′.

As well as Sting, his credits include U2, Les Paul, Jimmy Hendrix, Texas, Elton John and more…

The two tracks were mastered at Abbey Road Studios on Friday, 10th March. We hope to have them both online for your listening pleasure very soon.

More about Simon Osborne:

www.simonosborne.co.uk

Jamie Lynn Fletcher, a Runner Up in The 2005 Singer/Songwriter Awards, was awarded a place at The Berklee Songwriting Workshop for the song “Forever When We Kiss” and her incredible thirst for learning. She will be attending classes in August ‘06.

I would like to extend a heartfelt congratulations to We Are Listening for The Singer/Songwriter Awards. Not only were the winners, finalists, and runner-ups superb, but the judges and administration did a fantastic job with selection and care of the entrants.”

It was an honor, yet also very humbling, to be a part of the runner-ups. The talent was awesome!!!

Lior Shamir, the director, took a lot of time and consideration to answer my questions and concerns as a new writer. My material does not necessarily fit the ‘mainstream’ radio and I was full of hesitation when I entered my songs. But the submissions were not bound by the unspoken rules of what is ‘marketable’ by North American standards. I thank We Are Listening for accepting, understanding and considering all genres of music. YOU GUYS ROCK!

It was also a great honor to receive the Berklee Songwriting Workshop Scholarship. It’s difficult to be a musician, make a living, plan for the future, even just be accepted as what you are and want. Even though I am very new to writing and even playing, the care by staff gave me inspiration to keep trying and acknowledgment that our music can make a difference someday, no matter where you’re from or who you are.

Thanks again We Are Listening!!!!

- Jamie Lynn Fletcher

Katia Cadet (a.k.a. BabyKat) joins We Are Listening’s panel of Judges for The 2006 Singer/Songwriter Awards. Her credits include Stevie Wonder, Marc Anthony, Macy Gray, Eric Clapton, Steven Marley, Whitney Houston and a Grammy nomination for Best Song of the Year for Group or Duo 2001 for Wyclef Jean’s “911″.

Learn more about We Are Listening’s Judges:

www.wearelistening.org/judges.php

Both Vivek Shraya from Toronto and Walter the Orange Ocean from Boston arrived in London on the 19th February to record their winning song entry at Sphere Studios with producer Steve Williams (Sting, Seal, Eric Clapton, Britney Spears).

The songs are being mixed this week and will be mastered at Abbey Road Studios on the 8th March.

The entire experience has been captured on film and will be broadcast on wearelistening.org by the end of this month.