The Next Wave

The West Midlands music industry site set up specifically to choose material for inclusion on a DVD to accompany the Music Week West Midlands supplement scheduled for Autumn 07.

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Scott Matthews

The Next Wave is working with Music Week to compile a DVD of artists from the region who would most benefit from wide exposure to key players in the national music industry via Music Week.

So who chooses these artists to present to Music Week? Well actually you do if you are in the music industry in the West Midlands. This website has been set up with the fairest voting system we could devise to enable you - people in the region's music industry - to do just that.

And if you have a track that you'd like to be considered, upload it - all it will cost you is the time it takes to do it. If you're not sure how, download the tutorial on the Upload page.

To take part - either to upload a track or to vote - you'll need to Sign-up - just a simple online registration form.

If you would like to see quickly how the voting works just click the 'vote' button above for some samples then 'home' to come back to here.

SO SIGN-UP, UPLOAD YOUR TRACK AND VOTE.

If you don't know Music Week you should click here for more info: www.musicweek.com

What's this all about? For more detail read on:

We are currently in talks with the UK's leading music industry magazine Music Week and several bodies that support the creative sector in the West Midlands re a DVD being compiled that will be issued to several thousand UK music industry professionals with a view to highlighting emerging talent from the area. This will be included with a supplement on the West Midlands in the magazine.

Often when activities like this take place around the country the decision as to which artists are featured on the resulting item are made by a small number of people. We thought that it would be refreshing and fun to be a little different and let all of the music world in the West Mids be involved in the decision making. We don't want a bunch of saddos sat all day hyping themselves or their mates so we devised this system that we think will prevent that. Along the way you will get to hear a wide selection of music from the area - if you only like one type of music then you might not like this. If however you would like to hear a heap of new music from these parts then this might be a bit of a feast.

Only artists, producers, record companies, studio owners, record store staff, dj's - generally people in the music industry will be invited to show their preferences on the site. This is not open to the public at large.

So how does it work?

We are looking for the artists from the West Midlands who the music industry and associates feel show the most commercial promise across a wide range of genres:

Bhangra
Classical
Country
Dance
Devotional
Easy Listening
Electronica
Folk
Hip-Hop/Rap
Jazz
Pop
R&B
Reggae
Rock Light
Rock Heavy
Rural

If you think that is odd look at the artists who have emerged to national prominence from the area in the last few years:

Jim Moray - radio 2 folk album of the year 2004, Edgbaston
Panjabi MC - bhangra - world wide hit 2002, Coventry
Soweto Kinch - Jazz - BBC Radio Jazz Awards - Best Instrumentalist & Best Band 2004, Handsworth
Jamelia - r&b/pop - most played record on UK radio 2004, Handsworth
The Streets - hip-hop - top 5 album 2002 - West Heath, Birmingham
Touch and Go aka Dave Lowe - Pop - No 1 single in 98 with "Would You...?" Malvern
The Editors - Rock - top 20 single 2005 formed at Stafford Uni then moved to and broke out of Birmingham
Nizlopi - no 1 UK single December O5 - Leamington Spa

'The Independent' on Saturday Sept 24th had Misty's Big Adventure and Editors amongst the top five national gigs of the week. Casino and Envy and Other Sins have both just gone to play with the big boys. Hopefully more but you get the idea?

Who can be submitted?

Any artist who really will benefit from wider music industry exposure.

Who can't be submitted?

Any artist who already has support from one of the major record labels or publishers.

Will people be able to download my track?

Nope, we are streaming tracks only.

How does the ranking work?

Tracks appear two at a time and the voter listens then just chooses which of those they think should be on the DVD by clicking the vote button above that track. Then two more tracks come up and so on.

To calculate the rankings we are using an interpretation of the international chess ranking system devised by a chap called ELO. If you would like to know more about it (and him) go here.

What's the timing?

We are looking to you to choose the artists that appear on the DVD by July 31^st 2007. We will then film them during August and September and prepare the DVD for inclusion in Music Week in the West Midlands supplement in November. Artists will be filmed performing live in concert and the DVD of those performances will be delivered to several thousand serious music industry professionals in the UK.

Does it cost anything?

No, we are optimistic of support from the local bodies who support the creative sector that we are talking to.

Is there a quality threshold?

Sort of, if an uploaded track receives little support it will be painlessly removed from the site.

What's to lose?

The time it takes you to upload an mp3 and a photo.

What if the DVD doesn't get made and the deal with the magazine doesn't happen?

This hopefully won't happen, Music Week love the idea, we already have support from Screen West Midlands and their partners and now we just need to tie up support from some other local bodies whom we are most optimistic will recognise the value to artists and independents in the region of this approach, however in the unlikely event of funding not being secured then your track will still be heard on the site by record labels, promoters, dj's, managers, studios, artists, journalists etc. West Midlands wide.

O.K. I'll come and play what do I do now?

Go to the menu at the top of the page and good luck to everyone.

Any questions, comments, additions to our 'those who have recently list' please do mail us.

THE NEXT WAVE TEAM.