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We Are Listening Singer/Songwriter awards goes digital

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By: Rustycat | in: Music, Technology |

Here at The Plugg we always like to keep an eye out for interesting services that can benefit musicians. Today we dig into We Are Listening.

We Are Listening
I’ve been personally following www.wearelistening.org for the past year. ‘We Are Listening’ is a singer/songwriter competition that takes place twice a year.  Artists submit their music for a $30 fee through Sonic Bids, and in exchange gain a chance to win a flight to London to record a spanking new single with a top producer at Sphere Studios.
This month We Are Listening took a major step towards the artists by making a few important changes.  First off, Instead of twice a year, starting January 2007, the competition will take place every two months, in an effort to make the competition cycle shorter. 
The second improvement is the introduction of the ‘New Music Video Awards’.  We all know video content has become the trend of the decade and ‘We Are Listening‘ promise that the artist with the best video will enter a vast digital distribution arena and be submitted to leading sites like iTunes, Napster, eMusic, Music Net and many others as well as winning a $500 advance.
One may argue that if you get your music video featured on YouTube, you’d reach a wide enough audience without having to shell out 30 bucks. On the other hand, when it comes to unknown talent, YouTube pretty much caters for cheap thrills. So unless your video features a sword wielding fatso, or a PR company has you running on treadmills, most chances are it won’t be as easy as you think. We Are Listening, on the other hand will have its prestigious panel of judges review your video and send you some professional advice.  And if you win, there’s always the digital distribution and $500.
Is it worth it? As opposed to running a popularity contest on MySpace or YouTube, this competition will actually judge you on virtue, so if you have quality stuff, this just might be the thing for you. On the other hand, getting a lot of screaming internet fans also has its merits.
You can check out We Are Listening’s previous winners here, or go straight to their ‘New Music Awards Video’.


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Posted on November 29, 2006

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