We often write about the importance of musicians having to engage and involve casual listeners in order to build deep and lasting connections with them, and to convert them to loyal fans. These connections are what drive sales of the concert tickets, band merchandise and music artists need to pay the rent and put gas in the van.
While just getting your music discovered is no longer enough, it is extremely important that you get as many people to hear your music as possible. Obviously. The more people that hear your music, the more potential fans you have to convert into loyal fans. And while not every person who hears your music will like it (sorry), it’s a numbers game and maximizing exposure is critical in order to succeed.
Enter Jango Airplay. Jango Airplay gives you access to millions of active music fans that listen to their favorite artists on Jango.com, a vibrant social music service that lets fans create and share custom radio stations. Your music is guaranteed to play right alongside the artists that you choose in Jango’s custom radio stations, from Jay Z to Arcade Fire to Bella Fleck. Jango Airplay plays your music to their fans, who are likely to dig it. Based on what we’ve heard from many artists, this is a very cheap and effective way for you to get your music heard!
Jango is offering Evolving Music readers a special deal, where you can set up a Jango Airplay account (if you don’t already have one) and receive 100 guaranteed spins on Jango.com for FREE. Then, you can choose how much more you want to be played (packages start at as little as $10 for 250 plays) and where with basic geo-targeting. You’ll also get detailed actionable reports and data about your new fan base so that you can find out who likes you, where they live, how old they are and what other types of music they like. You got nothing to lose, so give this a try! Click here to get started.
Moogfest – the annual event honoring the remarkable vision of Robert Moog and his amazing musical inventions that changed the course of music – has teamed up with URB.com and MixMatchMusic to host the official Moogfest remix contest! The contest features two different artists and songs to remix: “We Have Love” by Hot Chip (from the band’s album One Life Stand, courtesy of Astralwerks) and “I Count the Ways” by Nortec Collective (from their new album Bulevar 2000, courtesy of Nacional Records). Sounds pretty good, eh?
Prizing One finalist for each song will get 2 weekend passes to the festival. Among those finalists, one grand-prize winner will be awarded a DJ set at this year’s Moogfest (plus $250 for travel expenses), as well as a custom MobBase iPhone app and lifetime subscription from MixMatchMusic.
How to participate? 1) Choose a song to remix.
2) Download the song stems, it’s free and easy!
3) Create your remix using the stems and any additional music or beats that either you have created or have a creative commons license for. You can also make your mix online by clicking on the MixMaker button of the widget.
4) Upload an MP3 of your remix via the same widget you used to download the stems. Enter as many remixes as you like!
5) Share the track with your friends and ask them to comment, rate, playlist your mix and share it with their friends on twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and their blogs, etc.
6) Once you have finished and uploaded your remix, judges will select a winner for each track and one grand-prize winner!
7) Contest ends at 11:59pm on October 14th, 2010. Winners will be notified by October 18th, 2010.
Remix Hot Chip:
Remix Nortec Collective:
About Moogfest Moogfest takes place the weekend of October 29 -31, 2010. Artists include DEVO, MGMT, Massive Attack, Cee-Lo Green, Big Boi, Thievery Corporation, Hot Chip, Caribou, Four Tet and more! In addition to fantastic concerts, Moogfest 2010 will also offer opportunities to engage with the artists in panel discussions, question and answer sessions, and workshops. There will also be interactive experiences for the audience to explore their own musical creativity with a variety of Moog instruments. The festival will also offer visual art exhibitions, installations, and film screenings throughout the weekend.
Are you the Ultimate Social Artist of 2010? TheIndie.biz wants to know and to find out, they just launched a contest for musicians that has up to $25,000 in prizes! Their Ultimate Social Artist Contest invites bands and musicians from all over the world to take part and bring their fans along for the ride, who can also win up to $3,500 in prizes. The band that signs up the most fans to their TheIndie.biz profiles, while selling the most songs through the site and receiving the highest ratings from the contest’s panel of judges, wins. Contest sponsors include YouLicense, Media2Radio, and MobBase, who has also partnered with The Indie to create iPhone apps for its artists.
“Social media has changed the music landscape,” says Damon Cleveland, CEO of TheIndie.biz. “With millions of people online, updating their profiles, chatting, giving status updates, the biggest audience in the world, at any given time, is online. TheIndie.biz gives independent musicians the opportunity to tap into that audience and introduce them to their music, while music fans from all over the world can discover new bands. The rules have changed and we want to help indie bands take advantage of the new opportunities.”
How to Participate
To participate in the contest, bands must be registered artists on The Indie, which is free. There are two phases to the contest: first, bands must have/sign up 100 fans on The Indie, after which they will be eligible to submit a song and a brief note on how they acquired their TheIndie.biz fan base. The contest winners will be judged based on:
The content of the song submitted (production, composition, and lyrics)
Number of TheIndie.biz fans
Artist development, marketability, and overall readiness
Ability of the artist to socialize their music on The Indie
Creativity of their social media campaign
The contest ends on October 31, 2010. Registration and participation for fans and bands is free, and all genres are welcome, so why not enter the contest here?
Prizes and Judging
The Ultimate Social Artist will be selected through a 25/25/50 weighted formula, with 25% of the weight going to the number of fans registered, 25% going to the number of songs sold on TheIndie.biz, and the remaining 50% toward the subjective portion including the song submitted along with the other elements of the band’s portfolio. The Grand Prize includes $25,00 in prizes:
Full publicity campaign (releases, industry media blitz, etc)
30 day full ad campaign (Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, etc)
Social media marketing campaign – up to 50,000+ subscribers
A MobBase iPhone App with one year of free service
Global marketing of winning song – up to 1,100 radio stations
Global marketing of winning artist – up to 1,350 DJs
One week feature placement on iTunes, Napster, Amazon, and others
A professional, personalized band management plan
A professional, personalized band marketing plan
Regional tour marketing & booking
Song/Voice licensing for The Music Producer
Six Month private label song licensing account, and more…
About The Indie
The Indie is a premier social music promotion and distribution platform that encourages the discovery, and consumption of music created by unsigned artists, independent artists and indie labels. They strive to meet these goals by creating simplified, highly effective, social solutions that enable artists to exponentially promote their music and dramatically grow their fan base; providing artists with emerging channels where their music, performances and videos can be discovered and consumed; and creating a marketplace the attracts and encourages music fans to explore, discover, share, and consume music socially.
Fans of many genres will be pleased to hear about the Black Seeds Remix Competition. The Black Seeds are among the many good things that come from New Zealand, other than Flight of the Conchords. (Actually Bret McKenzie is a former member of The Black Seeds.) The Black Seeds have teamed up with MixMatchMusic to host this competition, in which fans have the opportunity to remix two sick songs from the 2008 album Solid Ground: “Rotten Apple,” which “has all the thump of a vintage Parliament-Funkadelic jam” and “Strugglers,” a solid reggae tune that reminds us to help those less fortunate and not become complacent.
Prizing The winning remix will be featured on The Black Seed’s upcoming ‘Specials’ LP and the winner will receive 40% of profits from the use of the track!
How to participate? 1) Choose a song to remix
2) Download the song stems, its free and easy!
3) Create your remix using the stems and any additional music or beats that either you have created or have a creative commons license for. You can also make your mix online by clicking on the MixMaker button of the widget. 4) Upload an MP3 of your remix via the same widget you used to download the stems. Enter as many remixes as you like!
5) Share the track with your friends and ask them to comment, rate, playlist your mix and share it with their friends on twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and their blogs, etc.
6) Once you have finished and uploaded your remix, judges will select a winner for each track and one grand-prize winner!
7) Contest ends at 5pm Monday August 30th, 2010. More on the rules here.
The Black Seeds The Black Seeds, who hail from Wellington, New Zealand, have a dubbed out reggae sound with hints of afrobeat and soul. Renowned for their powerful 8-piece live shows, the band has gained a following outside of their homeland, both in Europe and North America. Their particular brand of vintage roots reggae fused together seamlessly with big beat funk, dub, soul and other grooves vibes well with many audiences. Perhaps lead singer, Barnaby Weir (vocals/guitar), put it best when he said, “We sound like a sizzling BBQ, beside a vintage car, next to the beach on a summers day after a few beers pressed to vinyl.”
How to participate? 1) Choose a song to remix
2) Download the song stems, its free and easy!
3) Create your remix using the stems and any additional music or beats that either you have created or have a creative commons license for. You can also make your mix online by clicking on the MixMaker button of the widget. 4) Upload an MP3 of your remix via the same widget you used to download the stems. Enter as many remixes as you like!
5) Share the track with your friends and ask them to comment, rate, playlist your mix and share it with their friends on twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and their blogs, etc.
6) Once you have finished and uploaded your remix, judges will select a winner for each track and one grand-prize winner!
7) Contest ends at 11:59pm on August 5th, 2010. Winners will be notified on August 6th, 2010.
Prizing Each song will have one winner who will receive two general admission passes to the festival and a prize pack of CDs from the artist they remix. Each of these winners will go on to compete for the grand prize, which includes two passes to the festival with artist credentials, a custom MobBase iPhone app and lifetime subscription from MixMatchMusic, $500 for travel expenses, and a one-hour set in front of thousands of festival goers at Outside Lands!
About the bands Gogol Bordello’s Trans-Continental Hustle, the group’s American Recordings debut, is perhaps the most ambitious undertaking in the group’s already remarkable decade-long gypsy punk career and it’s the result of an inspired, year-length collaboration with famed producer Rick Rubin. Gogol Bordello is arguably the hardest working — and hardest rocking — group of our discordant new century, maintaining a touring schedule and an onstage energy level that would send the average combo running for the emergency room.
Kentucky-born My Morning Jacket formed in 1998 and has been going strong ever since. Their fifth full-length studio album, “Evil Urges” is the most far-ranging, surprising, and satisfying record of the band’s career. Have a go at remixing the freak-funk electro-slam of “Highly Suspicious” for your chance to win.
Rebirth Brass Band, a New Orleans institution, evolved from playing the streets of the French Quarter to playing festivals and stages all over the world. Committed to upholding the tradition of brass bands, while at the same time incorporating modern music into their show, their signature brand of heavy funk has been winning over hearts for almost three decades.
Beats Antique is an Oakland, CA based group forging a curious alliance between middle eastern traditions and potent west coast circus, underground hip hop, breakbeat brass band, downtempo, glitch and dubstep. Their paradoxical brand of electro-acoustic music is perfect fodder for the savvy remixer.
About Outside Lands The 3rd annual Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival takes place in beautiful Golden Gate Park in San Francisco on August 14 and 15, 2010. The two day festival is a celebration of music, food, wine and art that benefits the San Francisco Recreation & Park Department. It features over 40 bands, including Kings of Leon, The Strokes, Phoenix, My Morning Jacket, Further featuring Phil Lesh and Bob Weir, Wolfmother, Gogol Bordello, Al Green, Nas and Damien Marley, Tokyo Police Club and more! For complete, up-to-date information about Outside Lands click here. To start remixing, click here.
