Nightnews.net: Nightnews Artist and Repertoire (A&R) page

What type of music is peoplesound looking for? Everything!

Are the brochures and sign up forms available by email? Yes, email us and we will send you copies, file sizes are 871kb and 95kb - they are easier to read and complete on your PC

Can we submit our old material? Yes!

Can we submit Vinyl or tape? No, it has to be digital media i.e., CD, Jazz, Zip or MP3, max track length is 10 mins.

What about new material? No problem ...you can always send a new cd in as an update, with a covering letter of explanation.

Jewel Case Artwork: What type of format should any artwork files be in (jpeg, tiff, gif, etc) for the jewel case cover? .tiff at Mac or IBM format is OK, at a normal album cover size. Hi resolution .jpeg is also accepted. PC format is preferable. A high resolution is best for print, I usually work at 300ppi for the original graphic and resize and convert the file formats from that, as its easier to go down than up when you are resampling unless you have the hard copy at photo quality glossy quality. This can be submitted on a data CD with some hard copy print outs for insurance.

And the free promotional web pages? gif or jpeg is typical, hard copy can be submitted and will be scanned in.

What sizes? Please can all images be supplied SQUARE, the pixel sizes we use are as follows but we are happier if they supplier it larger and we can optimise the image using state of the art software...

Web artist pic
102 x 102 Web CD pic 65 x 65 with 1 pixel black keyline

CD Sticker artwork
71mm x 71mm

What if we do not have jewel case artwork etc ? Peoplesound have said '- the finished disc is a digi-pack base with generic peoplesound.com address details on the back, and plain white cover. A wrap around sticker featuring the artists artwork (if supplied) is then placed on the front cover, wrapping over onto the inside front cover, this part of the sticker contains track listing details.

What price should we pick? Its YOUR choice but remember you also have to add UK postage and packing to this. Overseas artists outside the EC should consider exchange rates and any customs duty levied by their government on sales to customers as it will make the product more expensive.

Where should we send our completed application? Make sure you comply with customs regulations in your country, marking the pack i.e., commercial samples of no direct value - except the paper and CD-ROM audio and data disks value of a few bucks, make sure the pack is sturdy and properly sealed. Mail to:

Peoplesound.com Ltd
A&R material
20 Orange Street,
WC2H 7NN
United Kingdom

What happens on receipt? Your material will be logged in by customer service and can be tracked through the pplsound system as you require. You can contact them directly via the customer services contact specified in the application documents.

What about mechanical copyright? "Peoplesound rely on the warranties provided by our artists or labels that they are in position to grant licences to us to manufacture and/or distribute product on their behalf. For this reason, mechanical copyright is not really an issue as we bundle mechanical and artist royalties into the payments we make to them."

What about online marketing? "The online marketing activity which we (peoplesound.com) carry out is primarily aimed at gaining maximum exposure for our products / services i.e. the Studio, Music Alert, Digital Village etc etc. When we enter into a deal with a label, we will have banners and tenancy buttons i.e Helicopter Girl and the artists we are promoting at the moment. We very rarely, if ever, run online campaigns for P/S artists. We buy online ad space for the site as a whole. Essentially we market site and services as a whole." Artists who are net savvy can do a lot more for themselves.

How do peoplesound.com make money? "Record company promotions pay our wages as well as advertising from other companies who spend about 90k a month, as we have a lot of traffic. We also make revenue from cd sales and licensing peoplesound artists songs for adverts (with their permission of course.) The business model is not to become a record company and to set up a site for everyone to be able to sell their music without a binding contract. We have just opened a publishing company administrated by EMI Music and will be offering publishing deals to artists who are very popular with fans."

Do they get technical hitches? Sometimes, this happened in October 2000 "...there are 1000 new artists in a queue waiting to be uploaded to the web as we have just changed servers here in London and it will take another 2 weeks before we can use the new system.." ....which is all part of the process of electronic commerce.

Does peoplesound.com have mirror sites in the USA? "We are caching our content locally (US) with a partner called Akamai, so we have no need for them. We are looking into improving the streaming capability too with them..." for North American surfers.

Other Questions? Please send them in, all the above come from questions artists have asked us. If your question is pertinent and interesting it will be added to this page. How great is that, kewl huh?

Peoplesound.com A&R Referral Agency Latest News as supplied to the Agent Network, is that referrals are temporarily suspended Thu, 3 May 2001 17:02:45 +0100 Dear Agents Due to a massive surge of submissions from you guys and because we have also recently completed a couple of deals to acquire a large volume of music we are now inundated with new artists. Unfortunately, this means that our customer service, A&R and production teams are at full stretch and we have reluctantly decided to close the peoplesound referral agent network for a short period. We would be very grateful if you would submit no further bands to us until further notice. The whole of the staff at peoplesound would like to thank you for the efforts you have made to bring us the best new music in your area. We value greatly the work you have done for us and hope that you will be able to continue to participate in the agent network when it is reactivated. The agent network has introduced thousands of great artists to peoplesound from all over the World within the last 2 years. Hopefully many of you have benefit from the financial rewards of finding artists for us over that period. You will be paid for those bands, which have been submitted to us and accepted up to today's date in our next monthly payment (which should be made during the third week of May, the last set of payments having been made on 22nd April). Unfortunately, any submissions that have not been accepted by the A&R Dept prior to today ( 3rd May 2001 ) will be returned to you in the next couple of weeks . If you would prefer us to hang on to your submissions until the agent network is reactivated, then please let us know by 15th May. Questions with regard to this message should be directed to Matthew Joy On behalf of all staff here at Peoplesound.com. Thankyou very much for all your hard work. Regards Customer Services Peoplesound.com 20 Orange St London WC2H 7NN Phone: 0207 766 4000 Agents@peoplesound.co About On-Line Music Distribution (Originally a Peoplesound case-study, but the information is generally applicable.) If you are a new or existing artist, here are 11 good reasons why you may wish to see your work on i.e., peoplesound.com etc Peoplesound.com is the internet's biggest showcase for new and / or unsigned music talent Peoplesound.com offer you this service free Artists and bands submit some of their best original music to peoplesound.com on a non-exclusive basis Artists and bands maintain copyright as this is a distribution deal Peoplesound.com will build custom promotional web pages for them and sell their CD's online Artists receive 50% of the revenue from all sales of their material and wider exposure to the industry and public; the peoplesound.com website gets 750,000.00 visits plus per month Peoplesound.com websites are adapted for France and Germany where artists music will also be available and more sites adapted for other countries will follow Musical genre lovers get the freshest new music on the internet Record labels can search the peoplesound database of artists direct, rather than sifting through thousands of demos, cutting down on time and overheads for unsigned artists and labels Peoplesound.com will also offer you comprehensive artist support to facilitate your membership application and make best use of your online resources Promotional downloads remain free, artists and purchasers will always know how much of the CD purchase price is going to the label, the artist and the musicians
FAQ Digital Quality?: Though ideally it only takes three to six weeks to process a satisfactory application; it may take you a while to assemble it and we do advise you to have a sound engineer check your proposed CD for digital sound quality. Sound Engineers?: Here are some guys in Glasgow and Edinburgh who may be able to assist you.
Storm Studios Glasgow Bela's Productions Edinburgh Contact Details url: http://www.belasproductions.co.uk email Bob belasprod@cableinet.co.uk picwitch connerton12@cableinet.co.uk phone contact 0774 7073278
What type of music is peoplesound looking for? Everything! Are the brochures and sign up forms available by email? Yes, email us and we will send you copies, file sizes are 871kb and 95kb - they are easier to read and complete on your PC Can we submit our old material? Yes! Can we submit Vinyl or tape? No, it has to be digital media i.e., CD, Jazz, Zip or MP3, max track length is 10 mins. What about new material? No problem ...you can always send a new cd in as an update, with a covering letter of explanation. Jewel Case Artwork: What type of format should any artwork files be in (jpeg, tiff, gif, etc) for the jewel case cover? .tiff at Mac or IBM format is OK, at a normal album cover size. Hi resolution .jpeg is also accepted. PC format is preferable. A high resolution is best for print, I usually work at 300ppi for the original graphic and resize and convert the file formats from that, as its easier to go down than up when you are resampling unless you have the hard copy at photo quality glossy quality. This can be submitted on a data CD with some hard copy print outs for insurance. And the free promotional web pages? gif or jpeg is typical, hard copy can be submitted and will be scanned in. What sizes? Please can all images be supplied SQUARE, the pixel sizes we use are as follows but we are happier if they supplier it larger and we can optimise the image using state of the art software... Web artist pic 102 x 102 Web CD pic 65 x 65 with 1 pixel black keyline CD Sticker artwork 71mm x 71mm What if we do not have jewel case artwork etc ? Peoplesound have said '- the finished disc is a digi-pack base with generic peoplesound.com address details on the back, and plain white cover. A wrap around sticker featuring the artists artwork (if supplied) is then placed on the front cover, wrapping over onto the inside front cover, this part of the sticker contains track listing details. What price should we pick? Its YOUR choice but remember you also have to add UK postage and packing to this. Overseas artists outside the EC should consider exchange rates and any customs duty levied by their government on sales to customers as it will make the product more expensive. Where should we send our completed application? Make sure you comply with customs regulations in your country, marking the pack i.e., commercial samples of no direct value - except the paper and CD-ROM audio and data disks value of a few bucks, make sure the pack is sturdy and properly sealed. Mail to: Peoplesound.com Ltd A&R material 20 Orange Street, WC2H 7NN United Kingdom What happens on receipt? Your material will be logged in by customer service and can be tracked through the pplsound system as you require. You can contact them directly via the customer services contact specified in the application documents. What about mechanical copyright? "Peoplesound rely on the warranties provided by our artists or labels that they are in position to grant licences to us to manufacture and/or distribute product on their behalf. For this reason, mechanical copyright is not really an issue as we bundle mechanical and artist royalties into the payments we make to them." What about online marketing? "The online marketing activity which we (peoplesound.com) carry out is primarily aimed at gaining maximum exposure for our products / services i.e. the Studio, Music Alert, Digital Village etc etc. When we enter into a deal with a label, we will have banners and tenancy buttons i.e Helicopter Girl and the artists we are promoting at the moment. We very rarely, if ever, run online campaigns for P/S artists. We buy online ad space for the site as a whole. Essentially we market site and services as a whole." Artists who are net savvy can do a lot more for themselves. How do peoplesound.com make money? "Record company promotions pay our wages as well as advertising from other companies who spend about 90k a month, as we have a lot of traffic. We also make revenue from cd sales and licensing peoplesound artists songs for adverts (with their permission of course.) The business model is not to become a record company and to set up a site for everyone to be able to sell their music without a binding contract. We have just opened a publishing company administrated by EMI Music and will be offering publishing deals to artists who are very popular with fans." Do they get technical hitches? Sometimes, this happened in October 2000 "...there are 1000 new artists in a queue waiting to be uploaded to the web as we have just changed servers here in London and it will take another 2 weeks before we can use the new system.." ....which is all part of the process of electronic commerce. Does peoplesound.com have mirror sites in the USA? "We are caching our content locally (US) with a partner called Akamai, so we have no need for them. We are looking into improving the streaming capability too with them..." for North American surfers. Other Questions? Please send them in, all the above come from questions artists have asked us. If your question is pertinent and interesting it will be added to this page. How great is that, kewl huh?
Online Marketing We have submitted our application and have been accepted by peoplesound.com, now how do we make some sales and get noticed? Well you need a marketing strategy and a plan. You need to consider the normal media possibilities and then the web aspects. Normal media - Research and make a media list for the USA/UK or your country - Write a press release about yourself - e.g., 1 sheet US/UK letter is ok - Fax it out off your desktop - Design and produce hard copy A6 flyers [from basic black and white photocopy to full colour both sides, both are ok.] - Decide on where and who to distribute them to in your genre fan field, music schools etc - Distribute them - Advertising is probably too expensive but if you can get any free go for it, seek opportunities for free ads - fanzines etc Industry - Make sure your media plan includes radio stations - Make sure your media plan includes big labels - TV news and music reporters - Anyone else of interest - Send them the press release too Cross reference the press release with a web site if and when available (its a great way to have a digital online info pack with no size limit..) Web Well you need a website... - Get hold of some assets and make it yourself (Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Fireworks) - Find a friendly web designer, sit down and work something out - This should include your ability to edit it at least when its up - Trade links with other sites - Join banner exchanges - Submit to search engines - See lists and online Groups and Usenet in your field to make announcements where they are on topic. - Find a freshly graduated IT web/multimedia student who needs to have a few pro sites and maybe could do it - Use a freshly graduated illustrator and designer to storyboard the site and provide original and unique artwork - This does not have to include the interface though preferred artwork for it as well as buttons and bars can be specified - Such a site should include sound (I have seen music sites that were silent as the grave and oddly so it seems to me..) - Look at some genre sites and see if there are any you like, pick the best features and functionality - Try colleges that teach media skills, maybe propose it as a class project for a group or individual. Use all of the above techniques to publicise yourselves, your CD's and your gigs; be systematic, methodical and thorough. Constantly review and improve what you are doing.
Which Artists have been Signed through Nightnews A & R referral? CD Powerplay by Beth Mehocic, Walt Blanton and Gwendolyn Watson. Las Vegas, Nevada USA Bethart45@aol.com "My music fits into the 'classical' genre in that it's contemporary concert / electronic music much of which is written for dance.." Beths work was '...performed at both the "Dancescapes" and "Joe-a one man show" dance concerts at the Garage, Venue 81' August 6-28th 2000 at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Dr. Beth Mehocic is a UNLV dance faculty member and music director. More artist applications are in progress...
Contact Agent AGT 1388 ~ NightNews A & R Referral Agency For a brochure containing full details and an application form, or to have any questions answered please contact us. There are no strings or obligations and the artists that we have signed asked us scores of questions as part of the sign-up process. Nightnews A&R Referral Agency Contact us to take part in the future of global digital and hard copy music promotion and distribution