Vox Rocks: Partnering with RCA & Columbia UK
SonyBMG Music Entertainment UK has just announced that starting April 2nd 2007 it will no longer accept demos from new artists on physical formats such as CDs for consideration by the company’s Columbia Records or RCA Records labels.
In fact, the only way RCA and Columbia Records UK will accept new music or demo submissions is via Vox! How cool is that?
We think it’s very cool to see entertainment companies embracing the multimedia aspect of blogs, and the way that Columbia and RCA UK are embracing Vox is exceptional. They explained it like this:
“We don't want demo CD's anymore, that's what part of this is about. It takes ages for you to do, they get lost and it's a waste of plastic. Register your blog and be part of our on-line community. You will be directly connected to us and everyone else who's in the community. That's the other reason for this, the artist community being closer to the labels they want to be involved with.”
Here's how it works: Anyone who signs up for Vox through this Columbia landing page will automatically be added to the Columbia Demos blog’s neighborhood. New Voxers will be added to the RCA Demos blog's neighborhood when signing up via the RCA landing page. If you’re already on Vox, you can add either or both blogs to your neighborhood.
The A&R staffers will peruse RCA's and Columbia's neighborhoods to check out new stuff, keeping an eye out for songs and videos that get a lot of comments and [this is good]s. You don’t have to be from the UK to be signed, but they are going to focus primarily on finding UK-based acts.
If you’re in a band, sign up for a Vox blog and get heard. If you have friends in a band, now’s the time to tell them about Vox. If you’re interested in the music industry or music in general, surf around the neighborhoods of Columbia and RCA to hear what’s brewing.
Check out the RCA Demos blog and the Columbia Demos blog for lots more information!
- Krissy
Comments
Good on you! Let's all leave the planet better than we found it!
Peace and Love
Lugo
Hey Vox,
Great partnership with Columbia and RCA!!!
Phil MC
Way to go VOX!
I am a Rising Artist from Birmingham UK and even with a top Birmingham Manager, its still not easy to reach some top Record Company A & R. At least here they can check out my profile, listen to my songs and see my press reviews.
Kind Regards
Stine Richard
"How can you Rage Against The Machine, when you're paid by Sony?"
I can understand why you'd feel like that to be honest. Before working for a major I was an unsigned artist did the usual like everyone else. Including mass mailouts with zero return. Which is why I'm quite passionate about this.
Majors haven't been very approachable for some time. Plus not communicating with the unsigned community and not being very transparent has left a complete lack of trust. This is one reason why we're doing this.
It isn't some machine that is scanning the music within our community, it's me and others like me within the company who enjoy listening to the new music and connecting with the artists.
I listen to as much as I can all the time and reply to every email and comment I can aswell. As for the non-employment of A&R guys, quite the opposite (I wouldn't have got the job if they weren't hiring :-)). Because of the way the music works now, more focus than ever has to be on effective A&R. Our online process is one supporting element of this, not a replacement.
Swing by RCA's, Columbia's or my blog and have a look. I'll be happy to show you around as to what we're doing and I'm always after feedback on how to do it better.
IB