SONG CONTEST BLOG

Battle-of-the-bands site, OurStage, signed a deal with concert giant, Live Nation, last month to offer its members the opportunity to fill high-profile opening slots.  Through the OurStage Marketplace, participating artists can create a free electronic press kit for venue promoter’s consideration.  The model is strikingly similar to Sonicbids, the leader in the artist-to-promoter submission business.  OurStage has raised a staggering $20m since its launch in 2007 and, although the site’s traffic volume has dropped since its high profile inauguration, it appears that it is gaining renewed traction, boasting a healthy advertising model and strong reputation among the independent community.

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Songness, launched last summer, provides a platform for songwriters and performing artists to receive feedback from prospective fans.  Much like the SoundOut concept, Songness is geared toward populating relevant marketing reports through “virtual focus groups” that will help its music-making users identify potential fans and improve their craft through constructive criticism.  Songness has taken a unique approach to artist-to-fan interaction by focusing on the relationship between the artist and fan as the music is being created, rewritten and improved, rather than engaging the fan with the finished musical product, a strategy which OurStage and Sellaband have deployed with lots of financing and reasonable traction (see The Next Big Sound also).  With Songness, the idea is to test your songs before you go to market.  There is also the promise of turning new fans into paying customers but here, I think, Songness may be getting carried away.  I haven’t signed-up yet but the site looks good and the concept relevant.

Recommended online artist development platforms:

ReverbNation provides marketing and artist development solutions for up and coming musicians that need to “compete, cooperate, and differentiate in an increasingly noisy online environment”.   With a 360-degree approach, ReverbNation offers every tool in the shed for fledgling artists plus social and professional networking solutions in a single hub.

Music Nation, an artist-fan-promoter community, provides an array of music marketing features, as well as song contest and songwriting opportunities.  Perhaps more fan-centric than ReverbNation, Music Nation has also adopted the 360-degree approach to artist development.

OurStage, an artist and fan community that revolves around a “democratic” songwriting contest, has been making a splash as a pull-marketing platform for songwriters and recording artists to receive objective feedback from potential fans.

SellaBand, a vision of the music industry to come, has harnessed the power of niches and created an artist development platform that allows fans to, literally, put their money where their mouth is.  With a low risk and easy to digest financial investment program for music lovers, artists enjoy recording and A&R opportunities if they manage to attract enough “believers”.

YouLicense, the first independent music licensing platform, is where artists and music buyers engage one another and cut out the middle man.  With a host of music licensing opportunities in every imaginable musical genre, YouLicense is an artist development favorite.

MyDrifts is more than just a MySpace music marketing system, it’s an entire suite of music marketing tools for the artist or artist manager that wishes to better target his marketing efforts and learn about his audience.

Sonicbids is an artist development veteran, helping bands get gigs, and promoters book the right bands.  Their community consists of bands, singers, songwriters, and performers of all kinds, and music buyers of all kinds, including singer songwriter competition promoters, music licensors, festival programmers, and more.

Next Big Sound, a site developed by four students at Northwestern University and described as a cross between MySpace and American Idol by The New York Times, has come to fruition last August as yet another platform for independent artists and fans to come together in a digital environment of discovery and competition.  Better described as another player in the realm of Sellaband and OurStage, The Next Big Sound looks great and promises adventure in role-play A&R for music fans and, with any luck, an opportunity for independent artists to raise their profile.

The site boasts 2000 “moguls” that have “signed” 9000 acts to date.  The business model surrounding the idea is not yet clear but, if it takes off, I imagine that there will be plenty of opportunities for the company, participating artists and, of course, moguls (music fans) to monetize a piece of the proverbial action.