We love sharing music, and as a special early Christmas gift we thought we’d give everyone access to our latest “It All Ad’s Up” podcast, which we put together on a regular basis for our friends who are responsible for music syncs in advertising agencies across the world. The aim of the podcast is to share with them some of the great new music that is tickling our fancies at the moment, but also some to highlight some of the musical treasures that make up our record collections.

We launched soundsearch our bespoke music search and licensing service back in March 2008, and it has been going great guns.

We’d like to think that a lot of our success is down to providing something that is bit different from a lot of the other music search companies out there. Our recommendation are based on over 40 years of hands-on experience in the music business and some truly fanatical record collecting, and not some fancy computerised system. And with our A&R hat on we are always on the look out for new and interesting that is under the radar or yet to be signed to a record label. So some of the tracks included on the podcast are receiving a premier here.

So we hope you enjoy listening to the music of… Fujiya & Miyagi, El Guincho, Jonquil, Dragons, 4 Hero, Lykke Li, She & Him, Richard Swift, Findlay Brown, Marla Hansen, Sia, Erin McKeown, Son Of Dave, V.V. Brown, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Quiet Village, Amon Tobin, Department of Eagles, Tom Middleton, Robert Logan, Buraka Som Sistema, Operator Please, The Mummers, Efterklang, Alison Statton & Spike, Allá, Bellaruche, DJ Day and Locust…

So without further ado here’s the music…

To listen now:

To download the podcast:

Over the last 12 months the wind has changed and managers, like record labels, are looking to develop new revenue streams around their artists to replace the declining revenues from CD sales.

Some of new mantras that you hear being bandied about in the music industry include 360 degree deals, a new DIY ethic, Venture Capital funding, and brand partnerships.

For the last 20 years much of the focus for brands has been on sports sponsorship. And big money has been made on both sides of the table. Global sports brands such as David Beckham or Tiger Woods have attracted vast sums of revenues from brands eager to attach themselves to their success! But sport is loosing its allure. It’s a very expensive game to play in, the audience for sport is getting older, and the majority of women just aren’t interested.

Music, however, offers a new and exciting challenge for brands. Unlike sport music appeals to everyone from 6 to 60 year olds, and is enjoyed by both sexes.

So why aren’t more brands supporting music? Brands have two big problems with dealing with the music business…

The record industry has always worked to tight release schedules. Yet one thing brands do fastidiously is plan ahead. A major brand’s sponsorship budget can be set in stone 12 months before the money gets spent. So it’s no surprise that brands find it hard to work with labels who may only have a slight inkling of what their release schedules will look like in a years time. In comparison the film industry will ensure that the majority of brand deals will have been done well in advance, often before the film has even begun shooting, giving all the brand partners plenty of time to gear up for its release.

The second big issue for brands is the knowledge that labels and managers can provide about artists and their fans, or more importantly the lack of it. The sort of research and insights that are commonplace in the brand world, are sorely lacking in the music world. And without that information brands and their agencies will continue to be tentative when it comes to supporting an individual act. Which goes some way to explaining why festivals are so popular with brands, as they allow them to spread their investment across a wide range of artists and music fans, minimising the risk of backing the wrong act.

citizensound says:

To stand any chance of success you need to start approaching brands well before the new record has even been recorded. And when it comes to providing information and insights about your artists and their fans you need to ensure that what you provide matches up to the brand’s needs and expectations.

Music and politics aren’t always the easiest of bedfellows. When artists get it right (be it Woody Guthrie or the Last Poets) it can be truly inspirational, but when done badly (do I really need to give examples?) it can do a lot more than just make you cringe. However, it doesn’t seem to stop political parties, especially in the US, from using music as a key part of their campaign message. Why? Because music is great communicator, it can say something about a candidate that other forms of communication can fail to deliver. Music has the ability inspire us, to communicate often complex messages and emotions in a really simple and poignant way that we can all understand.

So it’s no surprise that both Obama and McCain camps have been fighting over the right to use the music of John Mellencamp. Mellencamp like contemporaries Bruce Springsteen and Steve Earle, is unafraid to comment on what is going on in society. This is not floury florid poetry, this is heartfelt social commentary.

Mellencamp has found it hard to get arrested in the UK, metaphorically speaking. Maybe it stems back to the days when he was being sold to us as the new Springsteen, under the name John Cougar. I’m not sure how many acts that have been labelled the new Dylan have benefited from that particular badge, so it’s no surprise that Mellancamp hasn’t benefited from being pronounced as the new ‘Boss’, especially as we weren’t bored of the old one!  However, Mellencamp has made some very laudable blue collar rock and roll since his critical breakthrough (at least in the US) of his 1985 album, Scarecrow.

So come the latest presidential election it was no surprise that  Democratic candidates Hilary Clinton and John Edwards used his song “Our Country” at their rallies. When Clinton finally seceded to Obama she greeted her supporters to Mellencamp’s “Thank You”,  while Joe Biden, on being announced as Obama’s running mate the Democrat’s used another Mellencamp song, “Pink Houses”, to welcome him to the stage. And the power of Mellencamp’s music to communicate was not lost on the Republicans, with McCain using both “Pink Houses” and “Our Country” to communicate the Democrat party’s own values, till he was asked to cease and desist by Mellencamp’s camp.

Knowing Mellencamp’s own personal politics I’m sure he will do anything to ensure a Democratic president is inaugurated in the White House come the 20th January 2009 . However, I’m surely not the only one who is curious to find out what impact all this exposure has had on Mellencamp’s record sales in the US?

One of the big issues for all record companies at the moment, and one we spend a lot of time working on for our label clients, is helping them identify and effectively exploit all the potential revenue streams that are available to them via their artists and the package of rights that they control. The easiest things for any label to monetise is their existing catalogue. So the moral dilemma for any label is would they as far as trying to influence a political party on what music they use at the next election? Or is the simplest solution to never try and mix music and politics…

citizensound sound says:

Although the next UK general election is unlikely to happen until 2010, I was wondering which artists or songs would provide the perfect soundtrack for the UK’s three main political parties? So get voting, and let us know who you think should get the job for Labour, the Tory party and the Lib Dems…

Minimalist American artist Georgia O’Keeffe painted “Blue and Green Music” in 1919. We should have got her in to do our branding…

“Making your unknown known

is the important thing”

It seems that brands are literally all at it. It’s now Intel’s turn to go down the unsigned route with their ‘Intel studio‘ initiative. But unlike the myriad of other ‘battle of the bands’ competitions around at the minute does it offer anything new or different? Our intrepid citizen reports…

Intel is the latest brand tempted to follow down the well-worn route of the ‘battle of the bands’ style contest. And the starting point for each artist is another tried and tested facsimile of Myspace, with the bands having a place to post up their music and provide a bit of information about themselves. Then the sites users (hereafter known as the ‘fans’) get to vote on who gets through to the next round, but just in case ‘the fans’ don’t pick anyone who’s any good the judges also get to pick a ‘wild card’. The sites users (the fans) and the judges both get to pick artists who will go through to the preliminary finals.  If you are lucky you get to play the preliminaries in Camden (no regional heats for this competition, so don’t bother unless you are prepared to make your own way to the capital, and bring your fans along with you) alongside another 13 acts. However, you do get a ’signed’ act to play alongside, no-doubt ensuring that you at least have an audience to play to!

Currently over a thousand bands have entered the competition, although very few ‘fans’ seem to be interested enough to cast their vote widely (well that’s a surprise then). Winners of the first round Killing Cupid have amassed almost 500 votes, but they are in a distinct minority. Most of the artists on the site are lucky to have got one vote (no-doubt their mother’s love them), while a large number have received no votes at all (no-one loves them!). Let’s get this straight. Success has nothing to do with music ‘fans’ like you and me. I’m not sure that there will too how many music ‘fans’ visiting the site and checking out the talent. For most of us hardened music nuts there’s just too much signed music around to listen to. And with tens of thousands of unsigned acts already on Myspace, why make the effort? As our very own Paul Martin has pointed out previously, even the professionals tend to stay well away from these things. So who is doing the voting? Well I suspect this is about the power of marketing, and the ability of a few of the entrants to mobilise each and every last Myspace friend (Killing Cupid have almost 900), as well as getting everyone you know with a computer (including workmates and college buddies) to cast their votes for you. So maybe this should be an award for marketing prowess, but talent? Well let’s leave that to the judges shall we…

The grand finals will take place Proud Galleries in Camden in December, and each band will get to play for a total of six (yes 6) minutes. The judges on the night include:

• an NME scribe
• the Dirty Pretty Thing’s Carl Barat
• a one time producer of the Manic Street Preachers and Ocean Colour Scene
• a former NME scribe who used to manage Razorlight
• and the boss of the KIDS label (home to The Wombats, The Whip and iLiKETRAiNS), who will also have the delight of putting out the first single by the lucky winners.

All of which suggest that unless you are a ‘generic’ indie guitar band, your chances of winning could be somewhat limited, even though a few brave Hip Hop, RnB and Pop acts have entered.

And for the lucky overall winner, the prize is…

• A six-month record contract i.e. one single release (long-term commitment then!)
• The chance to work with a top industry producer and manager for ONE day each (that’s generous!)
• The promotion to give you a real shot at making it - full club promotion, radio promotion and PR for your first single (well you are hardly going to put out a record and not promote it, heavens above you might lose money…oh I forgot singles don’t make money these day, oh well).

citizensound says:

So as ever what’s the likelihood of brand, artists and fans getting something out of this? I’m not if Intel will engender itself to too many young artists who once again get nothing of any real value to show for taking part. While these sort of competitions seem to have little impact on the music-buying public (or should that be music file-sharing public?) for the brand to see any real return on investment. When it comes to the artists, well at least one band will get their chance to win 30 seconds of fame and have a single to show for it (shame that Woolies don’t sell them anymore)…and as always with these sort of Battle Of The Bands events, music fans will no-doubt left feeling a bit nonplussed by the whole event…

Last week while on the London Tube I picked up a copy of free morning newspaper The Metro to find out that it is the latest brand to launch its own unsigned band competition, called On-line & On-Tour 2008, under the strap-line – create, listen, be discovered. Yet another offering that gives us, the humble music fan, a chance to choose the next big thing! Oh, spare me please.

I’ve almost lost count of number of branded unsigned music initiatives in the music space over the last few years. With the majority of brands offering variation on one of two basic themes - MySpace and the ‘Battle Of The Bands’ contest. Or if we are really lucky, a bit of both!

While most brands have learned that they can gain real competitive advantage and standout by ziging when their competitors zag, it seems that when it comes to music that an awful lot of brands are happy to play follow the leader.

So why am I so cynical? The record industry’s success rates is at best roughly 1 in 10 artists managing to recoup the investment put into them. But how many of us could name a artist that has had any level of success from one of these sort of initiatives? Um, I’m struggling too.

However, what I’m not suggesting is that brands stop playing in the unsigned space. If anything this sort of grass routes community-based marketing activity should be encouraged. But maybe part of the problem is that too many brands and their agencies seem to be using MySpace as the yardstick. Although in reality it is may not offer unsigned bands much more than the often much-maligned Battle Of The Bands contest.

I spotted a really insightful response on how effective MySpace is for unsigned artists on a post to an article about the new MySpace music store, by dotcom industry commentator, Om Malik.

Ampbuzz said “People are getting tired of logging in and out of services (such as MySpace) setting up friends, inviting people to join them and what not, so as a band (I have 2 band pages on MySpace) what I find is that the “friends” that you amass are usually just other bands.”

So as I’ve always suspected the majority of people who check out unsigned bands, be it online or at unsigned competitions, are more often than not, other unsigned artists. And not the people they really want to attract, music fans.

citizensound says:

Brands are in many ways are very similar to record companies in that they can offer artists the three things the most need - investment, marketing and distribution,  but on a scale that record companies could only dream of. Now is the time for brave brands to enter into the unsigned space and really make a difference.

In my time at the NME we cover-mounted loads of different freebies, including some now very collectable 7” singles, and a pack of playing cards featuring images of some of the readers favourite artists. I even managed to get David Bowie to sign his card one year at the Glastonbury Festival (a story for another day, dear readers)!

But one thing we never got around to was giving away sheet music. However, the Arts Council Of England have decided to use some of the taxpayers’ money to give away free sheet music with this week’s copy of the magazine (Sept 17). Now if we haven’t got enough budding musicians and artists in the UK already, thanks to the likes of X Factor, the Arts Council has decided to encourage the Guitar Hero generation to pick up a real instrument and learn how to play it. Oh lordy.

And just to make sure it’s nothing too complicated for the land’s budding guitarists they have teamed up with Oasis to give away the sheet music to three tracks from the Gallagher’s new album ‘Dig Out Your Soul’. And not content with keeping those budding musicians in their bedroom’s till they have mastered their licks, the readers are being encouraged to film themselves playing one of the songs and to upload it onto Oasis’ website. I can’t wait to watch the results, although I’m not sure if I’ll be tempted to get my guitar out of the loft!

I wonder if any of these hopefuls will be used in the band’s latest marketing campaign for their new album, as this week the band’s record company employed 50 buskers to play tracks from the new record around the parks and public spaces of Manhattan, including Grand Central Station and Times Square. And with Noel bedridden after being assaulted by a so called fan at the V festival in Toronto the other week it looks like he could be looking to recruit a stand in for himself to play the rest of the dates on their current US tour. He’ll certainly have a ready supply of standbys on tap!

Tennents have been a big supporter of live music for some time. Their T In The Park festival has been around since 1994, and has been a massive success for bands, fans and the brand alike. But with so many big branded festivals around (V, O2 Wireless, Carling…) how do you stand out in a crowded marketplace?

How about you giving the power over to the fans and the music community and enable them to create their own gigs.

Tennents is putting it’s money where its mouth is by investing £150,000 into the Tennents Mutual, with Scottish music fans having the say in how that money is spent. Members get to select the artists and venues and get to set the ticket prices by interacting as a community and voting for their preferences online. To become a full member and gain full voting rights all you have to do is to buy a ticket to one of the gigs.

The programme, which kicks off in Edinburgh on the 21st of September, aims to transform Scotland’s live music landscape “by switching influence from the hands of the industry, into the heart of the music community”. Anyone who lives outside of the likes of Edinburgh or Glasgow will know that how hard it is to see your favourite band in you home town, so it’s nice to see that the first round of gigs will see the likes of Teenage Fanclub, Glasvegas, King Creosote and Hot Chip take the stage in Fort William, Ayr, Inverness and Dumfries. Not your average tour stops for many artists!

All the ticket income generated from 2008 shows will be reinvested to increase the 2009 live music fund. This ensuing sum will be further fortified by a donation from Tennent’s Lager’s music budget.

The brand has also added an unsigned area to the comprehensive website, allowing local bands the chance to support some of the bigger name acts that are part of the programme, giving then valuable exposure and a bit of experience playing to a big crowd.

citizensound says:

It’s great to see a brand come up with a project that really enables and empowers a community of music fans, especially in a part of the UK that is so often underserved by live music. As the project develops it will be interesting to see how many non-local artists and bigger acts can be persuaded to hit the lesser known highways and byway’s (LCD Soundsytem are the only international act taking part in the first round of gigs), but this is a really interesting start for a brand that seems to be prepared to put its money where its mouth is.

The McDonald’s ‘I’m Loving It’ chant is up there with the Intel Inside sonic logo as probably one of the most recognised pieces of sonic marketing. But how do you keep your sonic logo sounding fresh? How do you stop consumers from going “not that again”?

Well how about you get your consumers to reinvent it! McDonalds ran a competition in the US to soundtrack their new ad, and the winner was Jason Harper, a singer from Palm Beach, who apparently received nearly half of the 12,279 votes cast at myspace.com/BigMacChant, where folks voted online in celebration of the Big Mac’s 40th birthday. Here’s the original advert…

…and here’s Jason Harper’s winning entry

Not content to sit back after signing up Madonna, Noel Gallagher’s fave rapper Jay-Z, and rockin’ dudes Nickleback to 360 degree deals, Live Nation have now decided to have a crack at the Latin music sector and signed up Columbian megastar Shakira. The story event merited a full page article on the “upstart company that is changing the face of music” in this weekend’s Observer newspaper, which claims that the US-based company have now spent over $400 million on signings, since their first deal last October.

So what are these major artists jumping ship? With so much turmoil in the record industry at the moment, it’s hardly a surprise that some artists are keen to look at any opportunity that might offer them long term financial security. And with record sales continuing to shrink it seems that the major labels are at best unwilling, and at worst financially powerless to compete, even though all of them are turning themselves into 360 degree companies.

However, at a time when the artists are probably in a more powerful position than ever, it seems odd that some of them are prepared to sign away ALL their rights to one company. Artists have long complained that record company contracts were too restrictive, with rights ownership often being the biggest big bone of contention. So what’s changed? Or is the Live Nation signing-on fee just too big to ignore?

It seems then that music and football have more things in common than we’d ever thought! The value of the top players/artists is going through the roof, contracts seem to be there to be broken, and nobody seems to know who’s job it will be to develop the stars of the future?

And to cap it all Christiano Ronaldo and Prince both think they are slaves! It’s good to know that it’s not just art and commerce that can occasionally make uneasy bedfellows!

So who will sign to Live Nation next? We reckon the odds could look something like this:

Robbie Williams 2-1 odds on favourite
Mariah Carey 7-2
Coldplay 9-1
Oasis 14-1
U2 35-2
Status Quo 49-1
Elvis Presley, John Lennon, Sun Ra and Jimi Hendrix are all 1,000,000-1 outsiders!