MusikPitch

Source: PRWeb

Melody of a different model

MusikPitch is a songwriting business with a difference. Launched in April 2010, the company is the brainchild of former Navy aviator Scott McIntosh – an entrepreneur with a love for the Web and the possibilities it offers.

Rather than employ songwriters, the Nashville-based company provides an online platform where writers and composers compete to win jingle contests. Any company or person looking for an original, branded or personalized piece of music can set up a contest, offer a prize amount, then sit back and listen as songwriters send their entries in from around the world.

Having set up the company and overseen the development of its website, McIntosh briefly hired a digital PR firm for MusikPitch’s launch before taking over the company’s marketing himself and implementing a strategy that included PRWeb.

“The PR agency had used a different press release service,” he says, “but after I quit using them, I went back to PRWeb, who I’d used in my first company – and I had a phenomenal result.”

When headlines sing about tacos

One month after launch, McIntosh wrote and released a story about how Nashville restaurant The Local Taco had found its very own jingle via MusikPitch in a $1000 competition that attracted 60 entries.

“I’d been reading a book called Made to Stick – it’s about what makes ideas stick in people’s heads,” says McIntosh. “I tried to apply some of its techniques when writing my release: tell a story with things people can imagine visually, like a taco restaurant; use names, use real figures. I kept it local, hometown, and something people could relate to. Then I submitted it and went out for the evening. And then, a couple of hours later, my Web developer called me.

Web traffic that rocks and rolls

“He usually emails me rather than calling,” recalls McIntosh. “I thought something was wrong. He told me that he didn’t know what was going on but our Web traffic was spiking. Then I got my Google alerts, and immediately realized that mainstream media services were picking up the PRWeb release. Forbes.com and others were covering my story.”

“MusikPitch started getting hundreds of Web hits. We’d been averaging 300 hits a day – after the news release, we were up to over 1,000. I was ecstatic. I had friends calling from all over saying they saw my company on Yahoo! News.”

“The coverage we got was nothing short of incredible. It made so many more people aware of our brand, and even today it helps immensely when I’m telling someone about MusikPitch. I can refer someone to mainstream media sources who talk about us. When I show people where we’ve been reviewed – that helps me get a lot of meetings. It’s got us a lot of interest. I’m immensely happy with the return on my investment.”

“The PRWeb process was extremely easy to use,” says McIntosh. “I could put it all together myself – it’s great for small businesses and startups. I think it’s the best service for all my PR needs. And the analytics are amazing: you can see exactly what site traffic your release led to, and whether it led to any conversions. It’s great feedback that tells you when you’re getting it right.”

By Luke Bettis

How’s this for an understatement: Technology has changed the way we do business.

Whether it be the fashion, music, or dog-grooming industry, the advancement of technology in the last ten years has left a profound effect and opened a Pandora’s Box of possibilities. What I find most interesting in the statement is the perception that the tools technology gives us instantly create change. Clay Shirky, an expert writer on all things web/tech related, explains it best as “a revolution doesn’t happen when the society adopts new tools. It happens when society adopts new behaviors.” With that sentiment, let’s breakdown the technological advancements of the past decade that have lead to present day behavior in music consumption.

Going to the well so to speak, access to high speed Internet is where it began. Faster downloads enabled peer-to-peer sharing and a sense of instant gratification for users. People began to amass large volumes of music. The need for greater organization of these curated libraries lead to iTunes. User libraries were so big they didn’t want to limit themselves to what could be put on a CD–cue the iPod. The playlists created on iTunes were transported to the iPod, creating the expectation of portability and further enhanced the behavior wanting specificity in listening habits.

This behavior was then implemented into smartphones. Today, wireless Internet and 3G signals further enhance the portability expected in the acquisition of not only music, but content as well. Our society’s expectations are that of:

*Specificity
*Whenever
*Wherever
*Quickly

So these are the behaviors of today’s listener and the new frontier is in the cloud. The cloud model utilizes the expected behaviors of today’s listener and takes portability a step further. The cloud stores data on a server rather than a hard drive allowing listeners to no longer be tied to a particular device, as their music can be accessed across their computer and phone.

Subscription services utilizing the principles of the cloud have been present in the last couple of years, but have not yet become ubiquitous. Once again–behavior, not tools. And behavior takes time. Heavy hitters like Google and Apple are now developing models for the cloud which as recent history has shown us, could help expedite the adoption of the cloud and take the behavior of the current digital music lover to another level.

I had a chance to meet and chat with Tim Smith, the founder of MyWerx, the other day at a gathering in Nashville.  If you haven’t heard of MyWerx yet, I think you should take a look. In Tim’s words, MyWerx is a software company providing Life Cycle Copyright Management solutions. In other words, it makes it simple for creators to manage their life’s work in one location for free, while at the same time taking a better approach to copyright protection. It also offers business owners a powerful ownership validation process and chain of title documentation solution for minimal cost. MyWerx has the capability to keep all interested parties in a song up-to-date in real time on copyright ownership (which is especially important when the checks start going out).

MyWerx is also based in Nashville, Tennessee, where Tim has spent 25 years focused on copyright management and software development. Co-founder Tim DuBois, industry executive and clinical professor at Vanderbilt University,  said “MyWerx could create the single largest pay raise for Writers and Publishers.”  Early believer, investor and and current board president of National Songwriters Association (NSAI) Steve Bogard said “MyWerx is brilliantly simple copyright management. It solves many of the problems we have been fighting for in Washington for the last 10 years.”

MyWerx has been approved by NSAI and the Songwriters Guild of America (SGA). SGA president, Rick Carnes said “The bucks start here!  This is the best way I know to get accurate copyright information at the start of the process.”  Bart Herbison of NSAI said “We want to make MyWerx a benefit to all our members.”

To read their NSAI endorsement (and get 600MB of free storage) click here.

I was really impressed with the concept and look forward working with Tim in the future to give the MusikPitch songwriter community better options for their music copyright management!

By: Jonathan Parrish

A contest was held by Dominion Lending Centres Key Financial franchise owner Mike M. of Canada.  A mortgage broker for a national brokerage house, Mike wanted a jingle that would be used as a theme or advertisement; “something fun, catchy and memorable,” he described.

Wanting to target people interested in buying or refinancing homes, Mike wanted the jingle to include his website: www.ownhome.ca

The songwriter who provided the winning entry for this Mortgage Jingle contest is Kim Williams, or guitarkim, of Dallas, Texas. Kim’s entry was a classic pop jingle including a melodic hook for Dominion Lending Centres Key Financial’s web address.  Kim has participated in several contests to date and had this to say, “Hey, Kim Williams here.. just wanted to throw some kudos out to Scott with Musikpitch.. I found out about the site and checked it out.  This is a great way for songwriters to keep their chops up and make a little money on the side.  It’s a challenge to see what kind of music people need for their business or personal use and come up with something that really fits! I’ll stay involved and hope that many more songwriters find it..( I love a challenge!)”

Thanks Kim!

To view all the entries for the advertising jingle contest click here.

By: Jonathan Parrish

Jennie Chen of Austin, Texas, started a contest with us called “A Song for a Nerdy Blogger.”  Wanting a custom song that could be used for her many blogs and as part of a video application submission, Chen provided a list of over 20 keywords and an example of the sound she was looking for in the form of a YouTube video.

Chen also provided links to her blogs to allow the songwriters a chance to get to know her personality and interests.  One of her blogs can be found here: chenergyconsulting.

Quite an eclectic individual, Chen’s song had to encompass a variety of topics including culinary arts, dogs, and Darwin.  Winning songwriter Alyssa Gibson of New York covered these topics with a fun and witty hip-hop song in the vein of M.I.A. This isn’t the first time Alyssa has competed in a MusikPitch contest and has a top rated song from her entry to the Phases of the Moon Contest. You can hear all of Alyssa’s top songs on MusikPitch by visiting her songwriter profile here.

To hear all the custom music entries created for Chen’s blog click here.

By: Jonathan Parrish

On Friday, July 27, 2010, we announced the winner of the “Reach for Your College Dreams” contest being held by Steve G., an educational consultant. Steve wanted a song that would inspire students to be creative and encourage them to go to college. Planning on using the song at college fairs and on his website, Steve wanted a song one to two minutes in length that encompassed the following phrases: “Do what you like,” “Study a lot,” “Talk to Steve G.,” and “Be Creative.”

The contest received sixteen entries. The diversity of entries is always an interesting aspect of these contests and the “Reach for Your College Dreams” contest exemplifies the cross section of talent contributing to MusikPitch’s contests. Entry #6 composed by cb33 was a Hip-Hop styled track, Entry #9 was a high energy power-pop interpretation composed by wheeler smith, and the winning entry was Entry#16 composed by ADH Music.

ADH Music composed a song that gallops in a folk rock style. This contest is not ADH Music’s first composition for MusikPitch’s contests. Competing with high praise in several contests, five of ADH Music’s entries have been top rated based on MusikPitch’s song rating system.

Contest holder Steve G. commented, “There were many excellent songs to choose from – and I am extremely pleased with the winning song (by ADH Music).” For winning the contest, ADH Music received Steve G.’s predetermined prize amount, and Steve G. now has a custom song that he can use for years to come.

On July 20, 2010, BigChampagne Media Measurement unveiled its Ultimate Chart, a music monitoring system similar to Billboard.  The difference between the Ultimate Chart and Billboard, the industry standard in traditional means of music charting, is the acknowledgement of modern media sources.  Found at www.ultimatechart.com, the Ultimate Chart takes into consideration the same factors that SoundScan or Billboard do such as retail sales and FM radio airplay; but it also factors in new media such as YouTube, Pandora, and Twitter, just to name a few.

In its explanation on how data is collected, the Ultimate Chart’s website proclaims, “We collect billions of points of data, online and off. Our machines are very clever but our analysts are too. Real people grade the computers’ work….”  These machines and analysts are constantly monitoring the web.  So the next time you watch your favorite artists’ music videos on VEVO for example, your views will be counted, whereas before your interests in the selected media were ignored.  This democratic method can be encouraging to artists and fans who would never have had a chance to break into any of Billboard’s lists.  Though not yet launched, an Ultimate Chart for independent and DIY artists is in development.  In a statement about the planned charts, BigChampagne CEO Eric Garland noted, “Every artist can be counted, and every artist will be counted.”

Tamara Conniff, former editor-in-chief of Billboard said of The Ultimate Chart, “This chart is long overdue, and represents, for the first time, an 
accurate view of where popular music is today.”  Conniff is now Founder/Curator of The Comet, which can be found at www.thecomet.com.  This publication is a concise and organic music platform.  According to the Comet’s website, Conniff was the youngest person and first woman to ever hold the editor-in-chief position at Billboard where she raised profitability by 30%.

Seemingly, the Ultimate Chart will benefit commercial music by gathering data from a wide spectrum of frequently used media outlets, thus producing charts about music consumption more accurately than its predecessors.

Congrats to Colin Ward for winning the Radio Show Background Music Contest! There were 50 entries for the contest which ran the standard 14 days. Colin won with entry #6. There were two top songs for this contest, one being Colin’s song and the other being a song composed by Duane Schwingel. Both songs can be heard on the Radio Show Background Music Contest Page.

This is Colin’s first win on MusikPitch bringing him up to spot number 7 in the Songwriters List.

Duane has actually won a previous contest on MusikPitch and sits at spot number 4 in the Songwriters List.

Congrats to both great writers for their recent wins and we wish them many more in the future!

MusikPitch starts at 13min 20 seconds