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Mediaguide Supports Nimbit Services and Powderfinger Promotions For DIY Radio Promotion Package
 Nimbit Services and Powderfinger Promotions have created an affordable and powerful radio promotion tool that gives independent artists a great way to get their music on the radio. DIY Radio includes hundreds of hand-picked, "Indie Friendly" stations which suit artists' needs. By providing fully verified, up-to-date Program Director contacts, request line info, 24 hour radio tracking through Mediaguide and easy-to-use online software, artists have a complete system to create, organize and track radio promotion.
With DIY Radio, artists receive materials to create a successful promotional kit, including the contact information of handpicked College and Community radio stations that are receptive to new and independent artists. DIY Radio also includes a Nimbit Retail account, which gives artists the ability to promote and sell their CDs and other merchandise online through CDFreedom.com, a well-known retail site for independent music. Even more, what is truly innovative is the fact that, with Mediaguide data, DIY Radio aritsts will be able to know when and where their music was played with online 24-Hour real time airplay tracking, a feature never before offered in a radio promotion kit for individual artists.
Nimbit uses the Mediaguide airplay data, giving the artist an online account where they can analyze and organize their tracking in an easy to use format. Not only does this give them a clear view of their airplay and its impact, but also provides a way to rally their fans with request phone numbers and other useful information that can be dynamically displayed on the artist's website and pushed out to their mailing list.
According to Patrick Faucher, "Mediaguide really was essential in bringing this service to indie artists. It's no use spending all the time, money and effort on getting airplay if you can't know immediately where it's happening and react to it. Mediaguide made that possible by working with us to integrate their data into our system so that the artists could have a complete, affordable and powerful promotion tool that works with their website and email lists. It's a beautiful thing."
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Mediaguide And PLAYiNDIES Announce ArtistMonitor™ Partnership
PLAYiNDIES will work together with Mediaguide to provide its artist members with direct access to Mediaguide's ArtistMonitorTM service designed and priced to let independent and DIY artists know when, where and how often broadcast radio stations are playing their music. In addition, as an ArtistMonitor subscriber, PLAYiNDIES artists will be eligible to appear in an charts and reports throughout the Mediaguide system, including those that focus exclusively on self-released titles for the benefit of A&R executives and music supervisors.
PLAYiNDIES is in the business of digitally delivering independent film and music to a niche market worldwide while also serving as a launching pad for emerging and established artists with an edgy pop-culture twist. Together with their partners PLAYiNDIES offers artist direct access to sales, distribution promotional and marketing tools that can and will work in the marketplace today. They also offer additional streaming media products and services designed to create, protect, manage, and/or distribute digital media for independent labels and distributors to broaden their reach for artist discovery, development and to generate revenues.
"We are so very excited about partnering with Mediaguide because we have similar interests at heart," stated Jayne Courtney, President of PLAYiNDIES. We both recognize the obstacles that artists face and we feel strongly that our community services along with Artist Monitor will have a significant impact on our emerging and established independent artists, resulting in new avenues of opportunity to promote their music and effectively manage their independent business."
"At Mediaguide, our goal is to combine our core airplay data with the services of partners like PLAYiNDIES to provide independent/DIY performers, songwriters and managers with access to the right tools to be a successful working artist," says Paul E. Wright, Vice President of Music Business Development for Mediaguide. "Our ArtistMonitorTM and other information services can support the entire lifecycle of music promotion, artist discovery and development, and helps to empower a new breed of artist that is looking for new to approach the growing marketplace and to effectively manage their own career. "
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 Broadjam is all about "Driving the Music." We build web-enabled technologies to globally service musicians and professionals in the music industry. We are committed to providing easy-to-use and affordable web services to help independent musicians promote themselves and get their music heard. Our world-class web site has attracted musicians from all 50 states and over 100 countries around the world.
In addition, Broadjam provides music industry executives with the tools to search, catalog, find, and place music in a variety of channels. They also build mechanisms to conduct song contests and operate online voting systems. If it's promotion you're looking for, Broadjam offers co-sponsorship opportunities to a highly targeted and responsive audience. The biggest names in this industry trust Broadjam with their music, so should you.
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Each issue Mediaguide will present an artist whose self-released song or album has placed in the top 10 of its Artist & Self-Released charts by genre, format or specialty program. To learn more about Mediaguide's airplay information on self-released or artist-imprint songs and releases, A&R/Music Discovery section of Mediaguide.com.
Artist: Say Hi To Your Mom
Album: Ferocious Mopes
Genre: Rock
Release Date: June 7, 2005
Website: http://www.sayhittoyourmom.com
Ferocious Mopes has received airplay from across the country, garnering nearly 200 plays across over 30 stations in the past 3 weeks. The top 5 stations that have been supporting Say Hi To Your Mom in the past week include:
| WDBM |
Lansing - East Lansing, MI |
| WRAS |
Atlanta, GA |
| KXUA |
Fayetteville, AR (Northwest Arkansas) |
| WXYC |
Raleigh - Durham, NC |
| WKNC |
Raleigh - Durham, NC |
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The Midwest Music Summit is the premier music festival and conference for the central US. For the first time, the MMS will be held in conjunction with the NAMM Summer Session. This July 21-23 over 300 emerging artists will perform on 30 stages in Indianapolis, IN. Hundreds of interesting, like-minded individuals will participate in thought-provoking panel discussions featuring some of the industry's brightest executives. Deadline for artists to submit music for showcase consideration is May 13. Past performers have included: KRS-One, Ambulance Ltd, Robbers On High St., Juliana Hatfield, Marc Farina, Still Remains, Rhymefest, Burning Brides, Rachel Yamagata, Cat Power, Ice Nine and more.
For more information visit www.midwestmusicsummit.com.
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Each issue Mediaguide will bring additional attention to one of the stations in its monitored network. In some weeks, we will be fortunate enough to have one of the monitored stations share their thoughts on an album that has captured their staff and listeners. In other weeks, we will highlight a playlist that has captured our attention for its diversity and combination of local, regional and national artists.
This issue, KXUA from University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in the Fayetteville, AR (Northwest Arkansas) market is our featured station. KXUA is a college radio station broadcasting 24 hours a day, 365 days a year on 88.3 FM.
The KXUA broadcast signal covers a 17 mile radius with approximately 500 watts in the Northwest Arkansas region. KXUA is one of the supportive stations of Say Hi To Your Mom above and, as the playlist shows below, plays a variety of musical styles ranging from independent rock, hip-hop and electronica.
| Artist |
Release |
Genre |
| Aqua Teen Hunger Force |
Aqua Teen Hunger Force |
Rock |
| Caribou |
The Milk Of Human Kindness |
Electronica / Rock |
| Belle And Sebastian |
Push Barman To Open Old Wounds |
Pop |
| Diverse |
One A.M. |
Hip-Hop |
| Say Hi To Your Mom |
Ferocious Mopes |
Rock |
| Boom Bip |
Corymb |
Hip-Hop |
| Ratatat |
Ratatat |
Rock |
| Natacha Atlas |
The Best Of Natacha Atlas |
Electronica / World |
| Magnetic Fields |
i |
Rock |
| 7L & Esoteric |
DC2: Bars Of Death |
Hip-Hop |
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Mediaguide will serve as a sponsor for the South Park Music Festival and Industry Retreat that will take place September 8-10, 2005 in South Park, CO. As such, Mediaguide is giving tracking for one song to every group who performs at the festival via Artsitmonitor, the only electronic airplay reporting system dedicated to independent artists and full access to its MusicMonitor system for the conference organizers as they research artists for the various showcases.
Other sponsors for this event already include XM Radio, E! Entertainment Television, Village Voice, Interscope-Geffen Records, C|Net, spinART, Performing Songwriter Magazine, TapeOp Magazine, Rhapsody, FORTUNE, PopMatters, MIX Magazine, Guitar Player Magazine, Denver Post, ASCAP, Midwest Music Summit, REAL Networks, REMIX Magazine, TinderBox Music and many others.
Over 12,000 independent music fans, artists, executives and select industry are expected to retreat to the charming and scenic town (population only 500!) for the 3-day event featuring 100+ of the very best independent bands from across the USA.
For more information visit www.southparkmusic.com. Artists may submit to the South Park Festival through Sonicbids here.
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Excerpt reprinted from David Byrne's Journal
Written by David Byrne
June 05, 2005
Read an article in The New Yorker about how recording has transformed music over the last 100 years. It's written by a classical music guy (Alex Ross) so it comes from that POV, but he does widen his discussion to include John Cage and Chuck D.
Record collectors and consumers often view music as something that is inseparable from the object on which it resides. But if the digital world has taught us anything, it is that the musical information on CDs is anything but inseparable. The two things come apart quite easily, making the value of the delivery object fairly questionable.
So when music as a product, as a consumable object, is subverted and undermined by technology and by its own success, then maybe we have come full circle. Maybe if music is no longer seen as an object, but as pure information, data, sound waves, then the object becomes at best a mere delivery device, and we're back to viewing music as an experience, albeit still one that other people produce.
What then becomes valuable in many cases is what music means to people - beyond the actual recording. Part of this meaning is in the song (or whatever) - and not necessarily in the specific recording of it. What it expresses, how it moves people, the worldview and ethos it embodies. Many of these qualities can be in the composition and exist apart from the recording and interpretation of that composition. People like "The Rite Of Spring" but are not everyone is super fussy about which recording they are hearing. Well, some are, but you get my point.
The other part of what music means is embodied in the singer, the band or the composer. It's not even in the music and can't be recorded, at some of it can't. For some of this music the actual musical and lyrical content is almost irrelevant. For some pieces of music what it's about is the relationship, the connection to, the singer, with their style, attitude, behavior, beliefs and looks more so than with the music, which is more or less relegated in this case to being the soundtrack to the lifestyle and philosophy. At best the music and everything else surrounding it - the videos, the gossip, the reputation, present a common front, a gesamtkunstwerk type piece that embodies what matters to a person.
Both of these meanings and identities are pretty had to brand and to market, though companies try. Marketing a band or a singer as a brand is common, but it's time consuming, labor intensive, expensive and risky. If the talent betrays their fans the deal is off and the music becomes worthless. People get older, they change, they die. The talent and the audience. So the star system can simplifies things, making branding and marketing easy, but the available resources are limited - until cloning, that is.
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…from Paul E. Wright, Vice President, Music Business Development, Mediaguide
MUSIC DISCOVERY - THE CLASH OF COMMUNITY AND PERSONALIZATION
In the most recent Sunday edition of the New York Time (June 5, 2005), Randall Stross lauded, and deservingly so, the online classified powerhouse Craigslist. The series of websites draws over 10 million unique visitors each month, grew by 130% in April 2005 alone and has reached fourth place among general interest portals without spending on marketing or relying on public or private equity markets.
So what's the secret? According to both Stross and Craigslist founder, Craig Newmark, the success is based in the fact that the service "thinks and acts locally". As a result, its users are passionate and loyal, relying on Craigslist to meet friends, buy and sell real estate, find jobs and apartments; even love. In short, it is the strength of community that has driven its power as an essential discovery tool for millions of people.
Music is the same. In one of his June 7, 2005 email newsletters, music industry historian and visionary Bob Lefsetz wrote that "the future [of music] is all about niche. And getting more people into more music." I could not agree more.
With the introduction of more sophisticated technology and more expansive music libraries from the subscription-based services to legal download services and P2P aggregators, the consumers are faced with much more music at their fingertips. Now the issue for the fans, and therefore for the businesses behind the music and distribution, is where to begin.
Of course all of us have our favorite artists and will hear from our friends about their own. A night out at a club or bar could bring some new sounds to your ears and both online and offline radio will bring a set of new songs to your attention. But when faced with over a million tracks right at the keyboard and you want to find something that you can not only download, but also eventually experience live to connect with the artist, the question remains…where to begin?
And here is where we can apply the power of local community upon which Craigslist has built its success. Provide music consumers with information to both discover and, most importantly, support emerging artists that are making an impact in their local markets.
For example, Mediaguide can present top songs or albums by category, geographic area and genre to help digital community and online music store customers discover new music from the top college and non-commercial stations and specialty shows in and around their area. With a diverse group of monitored formats and the ability to separate self-released songs from those released under a label, we have the unique ability to provide music communities and stores with information and direction for their visitors as they search for music both outside of the mainstream and inside their local market.
With millions of tracks available through various services and online stores stocked with a wider variety of CDs, additional filters to help present new options to customers would help them find new music to buy and new artists to support when they actually come through town. By giving a snapshot of station playlists and market, regional and national charts focused on self-released or small label artists, there is at least a starting point for discussion with friends and searches for CDs, downloads or streams.
As David Byrne wrote in his journal entry about the digital realm, "What becomes valuable in many cases is what music means to people… part of this meaning is in the song…[and] the other part of what music means is embodied in the singer, the band or the composer."
The fact is that modern music fans like myself and millions others want it all - niche specialty and broad connected networks. These combine the two natural forms of music community; style (or genre) and location, both of which can drive the passion that will lead more people to more music with which they can connect.
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