Since citizensound set up, we have been providing more and more help to artists: From old school A&R services to fanbase management, from songwriting help to brand sponsorship and revenue generation ideas. Which is why we set up our Artist Development division.

Then we met MIA ROSE, a talented singer/songwriter and a youtube phenomenon. Besides being the most subscribed to musician on youtube in the UK, she also features on the Top 5 all-time list globally on youtube. Since she started 3 years ago, she has had over 100 million views on the net, with each video she puts up gaining well over a 1m views. Her fanbase is 50% teenager, 50% adult. A brand’s dream.

And then we met around 7 weeks ago and hit it off.

So here we are representing her. Paul Martin worked with MIA ROSE in the studio alongside honorary citizen and producer Tyrell to record her Xmas single. The citizen Nick Watt meanwhile got moving on the management of the digital presence and online revenue strategy with the help of new citizen Martim. Our Lisbon based citizen, Mariana Duarte Silva, started handling things in MIA ROSE’s home country Portugal. Meanwhile, Simon and myself got working on the brand opportunities.

citizensound as A&R, executive producer, revenue generator, promotional agent, digital strategist, fanbase co-ordinator and a lot more. Yet critically, it is the energy and ideas of MIA ROSE herself that makes this really work.

Ideas flow from her as easy as popular songs and videos. Plus she is open to ideas fro mus and her fanbase too.

In the last six weeks we have organised:

• A competition for 5 London based fans to join her for a day out in London (Thanks to Visit London, The London Eye, The Original Tour open top bus company, Ripley’s London). A 6th fan turned up all the way from Poland!
• Live video chats, the first of which got 27 countries online (from U.S and Peru through Europe to India, Dubai and Malaysia) and 8,000 messages in 90 minutes.
• Fan competition to design the record sleeve for the Xmas Single.
• MIA ROSE being signed to Models 1, the most respected model agency in the UK under their celebrity division

But to promote the single, we needed a video. Thanks to friends out in Brazil, MIA ROSE headed off to Rio to shoot an atypical Xmas video.

Last night the video went up on MIA ROSE’s youtube channel.

Here is the video:

In the first 12 hours, this video has achieved these stunning stats:

8,372 views

1,513 ratings

In only the first 6 hours, this video achieved:

Number 2 - Top Rated Today - Music GLOBAL

Number 2 - Top Rated This Week - Music UK

Number 8 - Top Rated This Week - Music GLOBAL

Number 3 - Most Discussed (any topic) Today - UK

Top 50  - Most Viewed Today - GLOBAL, UK, Germany, Canada

Top 100 - Most Viewed Today - Brazil, Poland, Czech Republic, Sweden, Netherlands, Spain, Ireland

Now the trick is to convert online popularity into sales for this hugely popular youtube artist.

No marketing budget, no machine. Just MIA ROSE, us and her fans spreading the word.

Might not involve safety pins and shouting, but still VERY VERY DIY.

Robert Wolf, London musician and drumming teacher to my son, is finishing up his album right now. Getting noticed is a big challenge for every musician, but there was something he said to me today that really resonated.

He said is is going to make his music

sound irresistible

How many musicians aim for that?

In fact, how many brands aim to sound irresistible these days?

Well, we at citizensound are on a mission to help brands sound irresistible to their consumers and help musicians sound irresistible to their fans.

So I guess we want to sound irresistible too…

here is our sound by the way…

Citizen Dub by citizensound

This month we’ve got 18 tracks of fantastic summer tunes for you to listen to with our latest citizensound “It All Ads Up” podcast.

This is the first time we’ve used the rather excellent SoundCloud service to provide you with our regular podcast of our favourite tunes for all of you in advertising and brand land. If you want to download the podcast simply click on the downward facing arrow on the soundcloud player and your download  of “It All Ads Up” should start.  We hope you enjoy our little summer holiday soundtrack!

When we launched soundsearch, our bespoke music search and licensing facility, just over 12 months ago we wanted to deliver something different to the marketplace. We don’t have a fancy computerised system, but what we do have is over 40 years of music business experience and a huge collection and knowledge of music that can cover almost every base and genre imaginable.

We hope you enjoy this month’s podcast. If you want more information about soundsearch contact mariana@citizensound.net

My first boombox was called a Tensai Rhytm Machine. It looked like a standard boombox but it also allowed you to split the stereo into two recordable mono tracks and included five or six pre-set rhythms, which if you held two of the buttons down together allowed to ‘mix’ the rhythms. Prior to the invention of the first Tascam 4 track portastudio’s this was the first thing I owned that allowed me to record music with some basic overdubs and a rhythm track. Many happy hours were spent in my bedroom trying to be the next Durutti Column. Sadly my guitar playing never quite made the grade…

This video documentary created by National Public Radio in the US (who also produce some amazing free live concert podcasts avialable on iTunes), is a great 10 minute history of the boombox. It’s a shame that JVC never capitalised on the brand fame they aquired amongst the Hip-Hop community. How many brands since have tried to get rappers to positively namecheck them in a song?

Music these days is seen as highly personal, focused on the individual: my iPod, my selection, my taste, my choice in my time.

Yet, at it’s best, music is a communal experience - the live show, sharing favourite songs, artist and fan getting closer together.

In my view, there is a clear return to the communal experience of music.

From iCulture to communalCulture.

A friend of citizensound, Steve Lawson, aka solobasssteve, plays gigs around the UK in people’s living rooms. With the extortionate prices demanded to see the big names at cavernous venues, people who wish to enjoy the intimacy of the live music experience are finding an increased number of alternatives.

This isn’t unique to the UK. Music around the world plays a role in communalCulture, be it a punjabi wedding, a Maasai Eunoto ceremony or singlong in a local pub in County Wexford, Ireland.

And it is definitely not anything new. Folk singers in smoky bars in the 1950s. My son’s great-great-grandfather travelled the Auvergne region with his sons entertaining the villages with banjo, mandolin and violin. Minstrels entertained the European courts in the middle-ages.

Thanks to my wife’s inspired idea, we enjoyed the vocal talents of Rebecca Rudge, accompanied by excellent pianist Charles Economou. Along with 23 guests, we enjoyed an operatic evening in our living room. People entered into the whole spirit of the evening and came wonderfully dressed. Rebecca and Charles chatted with everyone after and also explained the story behind each piece.

A number of people at our little evening had not experienced Opera live. This is not unusual. Opera is stunning storytelling. Yet, all too often, Opera is promoted by those who wish to keep it elitist and accessible for only a few. Rebecca and Charles play at concert halls and old people homes, ensuring that Opera reaches everyone. Just like Steve Lawson, they should be congratulated and championed as standard bearers for communalCulture

On my way back from a meeting in town, I dropped into the wonderful Supertone Records on Acre Lane for a bit of ‘business research’. Ended up swapping cash for some righteous tunes from Jah Shaka, Scientist plus a little bit of Lone Ranger.

But I also came away with this.

An old classic that I defy anyone to keep still to.

Have a listen below, turn up the volume and start the week-end NOW!

When we launched soundsearch, our bespoke music search and licensing facility, just over 12 months ago we wanted to deliver something different to the marketplace. We don’t have a fancy computerised system, but what we do have is over 40 years of music business experience and a huge collection and knowledge of music that can cover almost every base and genre imaginable. And to prove it, over the last year we’ve had to track down a wide range of music - from a collection of Arabic and Indian music for a series of compilation albums for a client in the Middle East, to finding and licensing an obscure 1920’s recording about Watermelons!

Our latest sampler in the “It All Ads Up”  series will give you an idea of range of music we can deliver - highlighting some of the great new music that is tickling our fancies at the moment, that also brings together of those musical treasures that are hidden at the back of our collective record collections!

This latest podcast includes music from the Superimposers, Fanfarlo, St. Vincent, School Of Seven Bells, Faunts, Fever Ray, Trost, S-Tone Inc, Speech Debelle, Mulatu Astatke and the Heliocentrics, El Michels Affair, DJ Sheepdog v The Gossip, The Soaked Lamb, Yael Naïm and the Orchestre National de Jazz, Notty Culture, Quantic Presents and O Yuki Conjugate.

We hope you like the music. If you want more information about soundsearch contact mariana@citizensound.net

To listen now:

To download the podcast:

Be it Dubai or Mumbai, London or Lisbon, citizensound is excited to find that more and more brands are investing in the power of the senses as part of the consumer experience. The old one dimensional approach to sensory marketing is moving out of the mainstream into the background, being replaced by strategies that consider a multitude of senses.

For most musicians it is their SOUND that is the core of their communication, though for a few ‘musicians’ it might be more about how they look rather than how they sound!

The VISUAL has always gone hand in hand with sound. From the astonishing performances of Mozart to the Sgt Peppers album cover, from MTV to recent mashups.

An example of this came to me at our NOTWORK night last week. I met Rob, otherwise known as O Yuki Conjugate. He shared this with me…

This was beautiful to look at. But it didn’t stop there.

When you TOUCH the CD, you realise that this is art, not a CD. The tiled front cover is a wonderful tactile experience.

The album is called The Euphoria of Disobedience.

I showed it to people at NOTWORK and in Lisbon last week, and after the initial positive comments, the inevitable question got asked…

Great, but how does it sound?

This is where TASTE comes in. I leave it to you to listen to and decide for yourselves. However, I think it lives up to the rest of the experience. Wonderful.

Why do I share this with you?

Three things for Brands and musicians to consider:

1. If you want people to sample your wares, then work hard to draw people in - Don’t expect people to come to you.
2. Get noticed by exploring ALL of the senses, not just one.
3. Make sure you deliver on the promise.

citizensound went to see Jerry Dammers Spatial AKA at the Barbican this week.

Three reasons to go:

First a chance to listen to Sun Ra and Alice Coltrane tunes

Second, these pieces of music played by some of the best jazz musicians in the UK

Third to see Jerry Dammers do what he does best…be a band leader.

I read a recent article in Word magazine, covering Jerry Dammers point of view of the Specials reunion gigs which will not involve him.What was most interesting was his keenness to create fresh music (led by him of course) rather than just trot out the hits.

There are so many bands reforming to play their back catalogue live and earn a bit of cash from promoters and brands keen to tap into music lovers who want a trip down memory lane. All this makes complete sense. Everyone is happy.

Yet what I witnessed earlier this week at The Barbican was none of this. It was not merely a band doing covers of Sun Ra. This was not just a homage to inspiring figures in music either. This was a night that challenged, befuddled and uplifted many present. Visually and musically it was a spectacle. Sometimes the sound was terrible, sometimes it was perfect. Arguments ensued after about the night. People debated. People hung around and mingled with the musicians. It was a night of achievement for the artists to have been able to play such challenging pieces.

All of this, plus what was a truly magnificent version of Ghost Town that was part other world in its execution. After hearing this, the Specials on tour will just be a disappointment.

Whilst the Brand sponsors might not be wanting to queue up to get behind the Spatial AKA, I know where I will be. Roll on the next one Jerry.

Those in the know have been waiting for new music service Spotify, which went live to a small group of invitees in early December, to finally became freely available to everyone. And yesterday the shout went out to UK web users “come and get it”.

Spotify is an ad-supported streaming music service that lets you listen to as much music as you want, for absolutely no cost as long as you don’t mind hearing the occasional advert. Or, if you’d rather, you can pay a small subscription fee (£9.99 per month) and get the whole service ad-free.

And people are getting very excited about Spotify. I attended Marketing Week’s Interactive Summit two weeks ago, and not only was Rob Wells Universal Music’s Head Of Digital raving about it, so were a good number of the delegates who had already managed to get an invite to use the service. And the plaudits keep on coming…

Top technology site cnet claims that “Spotify is quite simply, in our opinion, the best thing to happen to music since MP3s. All we need now is a mobile phone app for it, and we’re golden.”

While Flo Heiss, Creative Partner at top digital agency Dare was excited enough to claim Amazing. This is where it’s going to go with music. Music will just be there. Whenever, wherever, whatever. No downloading necessary. Just listen.

So why is Spotify so good, after all we’ve seen both subscription services (Napster) and Ad-Funded music services before (WE7)?

Well it may be something to do with the simplicity of use, the quality of the streaming, and the seemingly bottomless collection of music to chose from (all the major labels are on-board, and many of the indies, with the catalogue growing at a fast rate). And as yet I’ve only heard the very occasional advert.

So why would you want to stop using the excellent iTunes service, or get rid of your emusic subscription, and possibly even pay for Spotify? Well I don’t think for real music heads that time is quite here yet. After all the music is not portable, so I can’t use it on the move. However, with ubiquitious mobile internet just around the corner and data charges decreasing, I’d expect to have Spotify on my mobile device in the very near future.

However as blogger Henrik Ahlen points out this sort of service has some real advantages over what is currently available. He gives four reasons why he thinks services like Spotify are the future:

1. I don’t want to own files or CDs, I want to listen to my favorite music and find new music easily.
2. I don’t want to fill up my hard drive with Gigabytes of media files that can vanish in a hard drive crash.
3. I want to listen to my music library on multiple computers and on my iPhone mobile.
4. I want to be able to share my music easily with friends and family.

And Spotify is either delivering all these services now, or will be in the very near future. For someone like me who has been buying and collecting music for nearly 40 years, this seems a rather odd service to get excited about, as after all you own nothing. But actually all I’ve ever wanted is access to all the great music that I can listen to. And it gets over the problem of having a sudden desire to hear an old song again, without having to hunt around for it or buy it anew, to find you only wanted to listen to it a few times for memory’s sake. Only a handful of the 9,500 tracks on my hard drive have been listened to more than a 10 times, I listen to lots of different music, not the same handful records all the time. I still want to hear lots of old music, new music, and even blue music. What I want is to borrow lots of music at a reasonable price, and a service like Spotify offers all that!

And before you go on about it not being perfect (the home page looks awful, not sure about the recommendations, no user generated reviews, no info on individual releases) Spotify is still pretty new out of the box, so I’d be prepared to give it some time to develop. Anyone who used last.fm back in the day will testify that it wasn’t perfect. This is a really neat service that lots and lots of music fans will love. It may not convince all the nerds, but it’s already proved a great way to listen to the stuff I can’t get on emusic.

The business advantage for the music industry of this sort of service is that it could help kill off file sharing (why would you want to use dodgy file-sharing services when you can have this?) and provide a legitimate revenue stream for both artists and record labels. Rob Wells was bullish enough to say he thinks in the next 5 years ‘access’ based services like Spotify will ensure that record labels will be more profitable than they have ever been. You can expect to see a lot more services like this appearing this year, with many of the broadband suppliers, including the likes of Sky come into the market.

As you can probably tell I’m sold on Spotify, if you want to find out what all the fuss is about click here.