In 2007, Alexandria Maillot submitted a co-write between her sister, Amanda Maillot, and producer, Joby Baker, titled “Revolution” into We Are Listening’s The Singer/Songwriter Awards.
Though the song did not win, it made a considerable impact on our judges, Thomas Scherer in particular, and was awarded as one of only four finalists for the song contest. Thomas, Managing Director of Parasongs in Germany at the time, and a valued We Are Listening panelist to date, secured the publishing rights for “Revolution” after I facilitated an introduction to Alexandria. Thomas pitched the song to Universal Europe for the Swedish artist, Stefanie Heinzmann, and it was released as the third single from her Platinum certified debut, “Masterplan”, in 2008.
The song reached 47 on the German music charts and included in a number of compilations released in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The video for “Revolution” has been viewed more than 900,000 times to date and featured on Perez Hilton’s blog.
This year, Alexandria tried her luck again with We Are Listening and was selected as the winner of The Singer/Songwriter Awards with “All We Need”.
In response to an email alert that automatically goes out to our members seven days before a song contest deadline, I received this email this morning. It made me chuckle. Is that bad?
I am pleased to see that there are only 7 days remaining before this farce comes to a blissful end. Every day this “opportunity” has been before us it has seemed like a miserable exercise in futility. Please inform me when you have completely closed your doors to any additional submissions so I can rest in peace. It’s been a nightmare.
Most contests are a scam. But the reason musicians come to this conclusion is because they pay some big fee to enter a “contest” and they never hear anything back except an email telling them they didn’t win. Kind of like what I got from your contest. Sure it had a chart that said I got 3 stars, but why? Can’t even get a review included with my $30? Oh well, live and learn.
Hi. My name is XXXXXXX. I was wondering if we could maybe strike a deal. You see, I have no money because I am not famous yet. If you can help me become famous, then instead of giving you 30 dollars, I will give you 500 dollars!
Anyone who enters a song contest should get feedback.
As of next month, anyone who enters our song contests will.
We’re in the final stages of launching our Song Contest Score Card, which will allow the judges to rate six elements of your song or lyric from a scale of 1 to 5. The Score Card will be delivered to you via email and saved in your We Are Listening account.
Whether you’re a winner, finalist, runner-up or not selected, you can be sure that at the end of each song contest that you participate in, a Score Card will be emailed to you – free of charge.
from: Mark Towne
to: Lior Shamir
date: Wed, Jun 23, 2010 at 5:50 AM
subject: We Are Listening / Tinderbox Updates
Lior,
I just wanted to drop you a quick line to let you know how much the Breaking the Band contest has helped us out.
Tinderbox has been very very helpful and has exposed our music to a much larger audience than we could have hoped for. Our disc has been getting airplay at CMJ charted stations across the country since April. We even charted in the top 10 slots at several stations! Our web traffic and album sales have definitely increased since we started working with Tinderbox and we’ve connected with many people we wouldn’t have reached if not for Breaking the Band and Tinderbox Music.
Jon has found 8 shows on networks like MTV, E! and even Oxygen that are interested in using our work in their series. That’s still a work in progress but chances are pretty good we’ll land some television placements, reach more potential fans and maybe even make some dough for our next album.
I’ve been very impressed with the staff at Tinderbox and their results. I can’t thank We Are Listening enough for providing us the opportunity!
I hope all is well and you are enjoying the summer thus far!
Due to the Memorial Day weekend, some status notifications have been delayed and may not have reached your inbox or updated in your account by the date we originally published. If this applies to you, please be patient while we work diligently to notify you as soon as possible.
Also, participants in Round 3 of The Singer/Songwriter Awards and Round 3 of The Lyric Writer Awards may have received a confirmation email from me stating that the notification deadline is May 31st or June 1st, respectively. This was a typo on my part and inconsistent with the information published on our website and in your account, which is correct.
I would like to apologize for the inconvenience that this may have inevitably caused you and take this opportunity to welcome you to our international song contest series once again.
Thank you in advance for your patience and understanding.
With best regards,
Lior Shamir
Managing Director
We Are Listening
P.S. If you’re not yet accustomed to using your We Are Listening account, please read this post for useful information. If you do not yet have a free account, please click here to review the benefits.
“Lior, I couldn’t be more grateful for the connections you made for me with Beth and Jon. I signed a contract with Imaginary Friends this week, and also talked to Jon. I was nervous to work with both of them at the same time, but Jon called Beth yesterday.. and everything will be working out fine. Jon will be pitching my music to MTV and ETV! and Beth will be licensing for other TV networks. Jon says there are new shows opening for June, and placements will happen really quickly. I will let you know if I have more good news! Thank you so so much.”
Seth Godin, best selling author and popular blogger, writes:
Sometimes (and too often) marketers work to manipulate people. I define manipulation as working to spread an idea or generate an action that is not in a person’s long-term best interest.
How should We Are Listening ensure the long-term best interests of our song contest participants?
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