THANKS TO ALL THE ARTISTS WHO ENTERED OUR CONTEST – WE WILL NO LONGER BE CONSIDERING CONTEST SUBMISSIONS. BEST OF LUCK TO THE 2 LUCKY MUSICIANS. WE WILL BE POSTING OUR DECISION DECEMBER 1ST!

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Receive 6 months of professional management and promotion to take your career to the next level!
Services and support selected artists will receive include:

• professional phone consultation and education with CEO of Pro Soul Alliance on the artists development *and career
• a professional blog based website they can edit and update, complete with hosting by Rackspace, one of the best in the world, with artistsname.com
• Professional bio and press copy writing, blog development and updating
• Search engine optimization for effective search ranking
• Graphic design, photography and image assistance for promo materials
• Social networking configuration and integration, connecting with fans (ReverbNation, Facebook, MySpace, Blip.fm, Twitter, Youtube, Ourstage etc)
• Offline & online marketing assistance, radio airplay, follow up, and tracking
• Product development, design, CD production and digital distribution through major online retailers worldwide including ringtones and mobile phone
• Licensing and song placement; electronic licensing options online
• Scheduling of show dates for live performances
• Video Production; Youtube promo viral marketing videos

To narrow down the 2 winners, Pro Soul Alliance will be choosing the artist that is the most marketable, and has already shown commitment, and dedication to their career.

Contest ends October 30th. Details, entry information and music submission can be accessed here: http://www.prosoul.com/contest

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“Moldover’s new CD, over 3 years in the making, not only delivers gorgeously diverse music with meaning and musical mastery, it completely redefines what it means to “play an album”… Moldover’s CD packaging itself IS a new musical instrument! The CD is mounted on a custom designed circuit board, intricately patterned and powering a “light-Theremin”. Yes! You play the artwork and it makes sound! Only the musical supervillain genius of Moldover could develop something so stunningly innovative.”

Moldover got a little grumble over at Hypebot though – When Marketing Overshadows the Music – the author states: “This YouTube video shows just how innovative and fun the packaging is, but fails to do almost anything to showcase the music that Moldover says took three years to record.” Hypebot readers’ comments didn’t quite agree with the author’s opinion: “Look, it’s totally awesome what he did and if you think it “doesn’t focus on the music” enough… I would ask you, has the conventional major label delivery system been focused on “the music” at any point in the last 25 years?” Another reader thought the album’s circuit board and video an “awesome tech artifact, a good viral video” – and two readers exchanged digs between themselves (virtually, of course).

Whether the “Marketing Overshadows the Music” or not – one reader summed it up “they pulled a viral stunt that will get people talking about them.” Indeed they did! These days, artists have to get people’s attention amidst countless other distractions however they can. When marketing is fun, it’s a win win situation – and fun is what Moldover appears to have had marketing his music.

About two weeks ago, Facebook introduced a new terms of service. These new terms were quite severe. Many consumers were furious with the creators of Facebook for this slap in the face.
The terms of service stated once you have closed your account with their network, any rights they had claimed to your original uploaded content would expire. However, they pulled a switch on the general public. Two weeks ago they made their terms of service to state that anything and everything you uploaded that was originally your own would be owned by Facebook! They claimed:

“You hereby grant Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to (a) use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute (through multiple tiers), any User Content you (i) Post on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof subject only to your privacy settings or (ii) enable a user to Post, including by offering a Share Link on your website and (b) to use your name, likeness and image for any purpose, including commercial or advertising, each of (a) and (b) on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof.”

Basically what this says is “We own whatever you put on facebook, sorry.” Naturally, people already using Facebook for years were furious! Livid even, and there they went on a rampage. Facebook received hundreds, upon thousands of complaints from user saying how poorly they were being treated.
Within a few days, the Facebook personnel recanted their new Terms of Service and replaced it with the old version due to complaints.

Facebook representatives are still in the process of making the site more user friendly, and making the consumer pleased with what they are using so they continue to use it.

About 250-300 people attended the MIDEM seminar on Sunday. The stressed topic was Social Media. In previous years, MIDEM conferences focused on any hot topic affecting the music industry, and this year it was the artist-fan relationship. Social media is more and more being proven to be an effective means to market music and other media to a young and tech-savvy audience.

About 35% of those attending the seminar have not started using social networks as a way to promote themselves, 30% started last year and 35 % started two or more years ago. But a big question brought up in the conference was, are social networks effective in a means to make a profit?  83% of the audience said yes, 17% said no. So what is the most effective way to market oneself on a social network? 43% said artist-branded channels or sites, such as MySpace.

Fans want to be acquainted with an artist, so the artist-branded channels or sites work extremely well, and have worked very well for numerous artists. It was discussed that artists should link up and share with their own friends. This can also deliver good results.

At the end of the conference, the audience was asked if they were more or less likely to use networks for marketing in 2009; 69% said more, 19% said less and 11% said the same.

The basic consensus from the event is that social networking is:

1) cost effective,

2) user friendly,

3) an excellent means to be in touch with the young part of one’s audience, and

4) increasingly becoming more and more of an effective means to get one’s music out there in general.

As for how Pro Soul would answer the questions: we already help our artists effectively utilize many avenues for social networking, and we’ll continue to do so – and more – in 2009.  It is absolutely a vital part in building an audience and effectively monetizing the artist’s music.

At Pro Soul, we’ve always got our feelers out for what’s happening in the music industry.

One of the best ways to do this is by keeping tabs on the happenings at MIDEM, “the world’s music market, where nearly 9,000 international music (labels, publishers, artist managers and many more), digital and mobile professionals gather to do business.)

The 2009 MIDEM conference began yesterday in Cannes, France, and features distinguished speakers sharing their thoughts on key issues affecting the music industry today.  MidemNet, the weekend-long precursor to MIDEM, focused on a topic important to Pro Soul and its artists: monetizing music in the digital age.  Over 1,400 Industry experts discussed new and exciting ideas to address the opportunities and challenges surrounding the development of the artist-fan relationship, particularly on the Internet.

We’ll be bringing you the latest news out of MIDEM, so stay tuned!

2009’s going to be a big year for Pro Soul, so we thought we’d kick it off with a bang – and how better to do this than to have a party…

You’re invited to our official Pro Soul Launch Party!

Here are the details:

WHO: Artists, fans, music industry pros, media, friends of Pro Soul… Everyone’s welcome!

WHAT: Our official launch party!  In support of the MusicBC Charitable Foundation.

WHEN: Sunday, January 25, 2009 at 8 pm to 12pm

WHERE: Backstage Lounge, Vancouver - 1585 Johnston (Granville Island)

WHY: To celebrate the official launch of Pro Soul Alliance.

HOW: Just come to the Backstage Lounge; you can enjoy the company of awesome music lovers in the community, take in the entertainment provided by our fantastic Pro Soul artists, and support a worthy cause.  Cover is by donation to the MusicBC Charitable Foundation.  We’ll even have info about the charity on hand so you know where your money is going.

We know, you’re wondering why a “record label” is donating its cover to charity.  ”What are they thinking?!” you ask.  Well, we care about artists and their rights, we care about musicians in the community, we care about sharing good music with others.  We’re not your ordinary record label.

You don’t need to RSVP, but we’d love to hear if you’re planning to come!  You can either comment here or become a fan of Pro Soul Music on Facebook, where you’ll see our event info and a list of others attending the event.

Don’t miss it!  This is history in the making.