MUSIC STARS JOIN NEW TALENT TO BEAT COVID

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Helping the next generation of talent to build a global fanbase

MUSIC STARS JOIN NEW TALENT TO BEAT COVID

On April 10th seventeen acts from around the world will beat the pandemic restrictions and join together to perform in a virtual festival called JAM, and they guarantee complete unknowns will get equal billing with world-famous headliners.

Grammy Award nominee Barrington Levy contributes from Jamaica, in defiance of the Covid virus. Spanish youngster BlueVein will multi-track his own backing from his bedroom. Number One Billboard Dance Chart star Zeeteah Massiah will appear in her own spectacular James Bond movie sequence. Indie rocker How Mean will perform from his grandmother's house in California. Daisy Chute, the lead singer with platinum-selling supergroup All Angels, performs live from her home in London with newcomers on the other side of the world in Australia. Grammy-Award winner Skyler Jett, whose Record Of The Year with Celine Dion for Titanic is the highest-grossing movie theme of all time, will perform his latest track with complete unknowns dancing in lockdown on every continent in the world. And more artists will beam in their contributions from Detroit to Brighton, from Northern Ireland to Rhode Island.

The producer of JAM is Mel Croucher, veteran founder of the UK video-games industry, and creator of the world's first million-user viral marketing campaign. Mel says, "Members of my team have made it to the top. We've been responsible for over 500 million record sales over the years, we've pioneered the online music revolution, and now we're giving something back to help unsigned independents and new talent in an industry that all but collapsed in the face of Covid. We've got Paul McCartney's Wings Over Europe double-decker bus ready to roll out as a mobile live venue, and we can't even think about using it until the crisis eases. So we've gone online. This is our third online festival, and by far the biggest. And it's absolutely free."

Mel goes on to explain why it's called JAM. "The Festival is a collaboration between three organisations. The J is for my own company Jeeni, where performers showcase their talent and keep 100% of everything they make. The A is for AmplifyX, based in Los Angeles, where you invest in artists you believe in. And the M is for MultiView Media, an amazing streaming platform where fans get to be the director and control the action."

The JAM Festival is at 12 noon Los Angeles time, 8pm London time on Saturday April 10th 2021,
free to live stream on: https://mvm.multiviewmedia.co.uk/jamfestival

For further information etc...

jeeni.com

amlifyx.com

multiviewmedia.co.uk

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13
Dec

Artist Focus: Baby Panna

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10
Jun

Facing the Broken Music Industry.

By Adam Cowherd @ AmplifyX.com Did you know that artists take home only 12% of the $43 billion spent on music annually, according to Citigroup? [1] The hip-hop artist Russ put it perfectly when he said, “The music business isn’t set up for the artists to get rich. It’s set up for everyone else to get rich off the artists.” [2] If you start looking deeper into the music industry, one of the first things you’ll discover is how broken it is. Artists are the nucleus of the business, but somehow they’re the individuals left with no ownership of their Intellectual Property (IP), inhibited creative freedom, and only a sliver of the earnings. There are so many entities involved in the value chain of music that it has created a convoluted industry structure that lacks equality and transparency. When we break down the mechanics of the music industry, we see just how many hands are in the pot: record labels, managers, producers, booking agents, and streaming platforms. A report by Ernst & Young highlighted the post-tax payouts of streaming revenue and identified that record labels are taking nearly 75% of the payout. [3] Why are artists today signing with record labels? Signed artists have fans. They do not have a majority of royalties, ownership of their masters, or creative freedom. Artists have historically been enticed to join record labels as a way to grow their popularity, because major labels can provide global brand recognition. But the music industry is in the business of making a profit — not in the business of freebies. The artist’s growth may be guaranteed, but not their wealth. Take Thirty Seconds to Mars for instance: after multiple platinum records, they were still millions of dollars in debt to their label. [4] This is a result of the artist being forced to pay the label back for cash advances. Although advances may seem extremely alluring, many don’t realize how hard these loans will be to recoup from their small slice of royalties. Artists thriving off of their album sales are the exception, not the rule. This recognizable gap in income has inspired a large number of artists to start challenging the status quo of record label contracts. Artists today have more tools and resources to build their career — and wealth — independently. Traditional services formerly tied to record labels, like recording, distribution, and promotion, are becoming commodified. Also, modern artists have a wide range of social media platforms to engage listeners on, from Instagram to TikTok to Triller. Artists can grow their fame and find new fans on their own terms—retaining their rights and independence. Evaluating the industry today, music spending is at an all-time high. Goldman Sachs predicts we will have over 1.1 billion people on paid streaming platforms by 2030, generating over $130 billion in music industry revenue. [5] By pursuing alternative ways to release music, artists can take a larger cut of the profits while retaining ownership of their IP and a majority of royalties. The industry is projected to experience massive growth over the next decade. Artists should reap the rewards.

11
Mar

A Legend, A Bus, A Fan and A New Chapter

A Legend, A Bus, A Fan and A New Chapter. In 2018, our chosen charity ‘Arms Around the Child’ reached out for Jeeni’s help. In their efforts to help their cause, the charity had acquired a vehicle with history, was completely unique and of significance to its previous owner and his fans. However, at this stage it needed serious help. That help sadly, became a burden to the charity and its finances, so the vehicle had to be sold. Here the story unfolds............... A Legend Back in 1970, Sir Paul McCartney had a life-changing moment. We’ve all had them. Life takes a turn and you find yourself going in a slightly, or very different direction. For legend Sir Paul, it was one door closing and another opening. A year later, he formed a band called Wings, with Denny Seiwell and Denny Laine, plus his wife, Linda. After an initial album release and some university gigging, McCartney was enjoying his simpler life away from the fast lane. He decided to take the band on the road for the summer, touring Europe. Sir Paul McCartney - A Legend Wings on their Tour Bus A Bus In 1972 the ‘Wings Over Europe’ tour took place – 25 dates over two months and 7,500 miles. All fairly standard stuff for any band, apart from the mode of transport. McCartney decided the band would be travelling in style, in the form of a vintage 1953 Bristol Double Decker ‘Open Topped’ bus, registration WNO 481. Carnaby Street boutique owner, Tom Slater was charged with fitting out the bus, giving it a bright paint job and livery announcing the tour and band had arrived. The band ate, slept and practiced on the bus, lying in the sun on the top deck writing their next album ‘Red Rose Speedway’ and even the track ‘Live and Let Die’ for the first James Bond movie for Roger Moore. WNO 481 - Wings Tour Bus A Fan(s) After the successful tour, a handful of other worldly adventures and a 2017 tweet from Sir Paul asking if anyone knew where the bus might be, WNO 481 (as it’s affectionately known) ended up being rescued and returned to the UK by ‘Arms Around the Child’ trustee Justin James. It was his difficult decision in 2018, to have to sell the bus and relieve the charity of the financial burden it had become. However, for Super-Fan Tom Jennings and his wife Rose, it was a dream come true and a life ambition fulfilled. Tom has since set about completing the restoration of the bus, bringing in fans from all over the world and setting up a fabulous site www.1972wingstourbus.com giving regular updates on progress of WNO 481, as well as the bus’s colourful history. It’s a fabulous read! A New Chapter On the back of this new connection, Jeeni are very pleased to have created a working partnership with Tom and Rose, and their merry band of ‘Busketeers’. We hope to work with them, their amazing bus, Sir Paul and our hefty music connections to create new and positive adventures for WNO 481. Jeeni have been granted access to the bus for a certain number of weeks per year and our intention is to use these weeks to create events and gigs for our Jeeni artists to perform. For Jeeni SuperFans there will be the chance to secure early tickets and memorabilia for the events and the bands performing. As with the emergence of Wings, the band and their music, we would like the bus to play a part in the launch of new music talent, giving performers the chance to thank supportive fans, share the experience and excitement of live performing, as well as creating new fanbases. Jeeni as a platform, has a large, growing audience of music lovers, as well as performers. The instant opportunities offered with their engaged social media, allows for followers to be ‘teased’ with where upcoming venues may be, before official announcements and tickets are released, creating a buzz and anticipating excitement. This cool, utterly unique piece of British rock and roll and engineering history has much to look forward to, as do the generations of music fans past and present, who will have the opportunity to be entertained by the Jeeni and ‘Wings Over Europe’ bus and events. www.jeeni.com www.1972wingstourbus.com www.armsaroundthechild.org

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