International search for the @Glastofest song and dance man - do you know who this man is? Please let us know #Oxfam

Music at the Museum 2014

Prince comes to Leeds - The Hit and Run Tour Part II - May 2014

Guest Blog by @MoodyBill

Before the show, 3rdEyeGirl came onto one of the stage aprons and asked the audience not to film the show or photograph anything. This could have sounded Pharisaical but actually came across as winsome. Share in the energy was the creed; don’t dilute it by hiding behind a phone. Be here in the present. Prince may have been anxious about his intellectual property in the past with Warner Bros. and he may still be be anxious about the control he has over his charismata, but hell, what a sweet way to be asked.

This wasn’t one of the tiny shows like the ones he played in London earlier in 2014. Leeds' First Direct Arena is a wriggly tin shed, like an Asda distribution centre on the M62 crossed with a disco ball. It holds 13,000 plus and I was a teensy bit concerned about the acoustic. I shouldn’t have bothered. Even on Level 1, I could feel my trousers shaking when the opening blast of Let’s Go Crazy dropped.

He played all the classics. I wanted anything new. I’ve always thought When Doves Cry was a bit cheesy. It’s my new favourite Prince song. 

How do you review Prince? You don’t, I guess.

His energy and showmanship are flawless. If I went to church and reviewed the pastor that would be like heresy. Who the fuck am I to comment on someone blessed? Little moments of the man shone through, like rapping instructions to the sound technician mid vocal; saying ‘Oh something’s missing’ and getting his fedora from the keyboard; chucking his guitar for the roadie… and missing. 

3rdEyeGirl were perfect too. Smiles, happiness and love in abundance.

  Prince is 55 ffs. He makes a purple churidar look fantastic. I’m glad I was present.

 Full set List from Leeds - read it and weep ....

Let's Go Crazy includes Frankenstein 
Take Me With U 
Raspberry Beret
U Got The Look includes Eye Can't Stand Myself
Musicology includes Mama Feelgood 
Kiss
The Love We Make
Controversy 
1999
Little Red Corvette

Sampler Set

When Doves Cry
Sign O' The Times
Hot Thing
Eye Would Die 4 U
Pop Life
Alphabet St.
A Love Bizarre
17 Days
Love

Nothing Compares 2 U
Funknroll
Plectrumelectrum (short)
Dreamer
Purple Rain

(Piano)

Diamonds And Pearls
The Beautiful Ones
How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore

Cool
She's Always In My Hair
Play That Funky Music
Endorphinmachine
Guitar
Sometimes It Snows In April

Video - Let's go Crazy - from Manchester - copywright +3rdEyeGirl @3rdeyegirl

Blog by Bill Moody - Third Culture Kid; still learning but practising drums, writing and photography the hardest; @moodybill on twitter

Saturday Morning play list from @NileRodgers - this will make you happy and prepare you for the weekend - 100% Guaranteed

I woke up this morning thinkig about all of the wonderful things that happened in 2013 - ADE was one of them. You can read my blog series here on the Love Live Music Blog below. Meeting @NileRodgers and marvelling at his wonderful back catalogue of songs and collaborations can only make you happy and grateful. So whatever the weather, however your January is treating you, put this on, dance and remember the good stuff. Have a great Weekend Sally J Freeman

Katherine Ellis talks about singing the title music to the new motion picture Gravity

Here is part of a conversation I had with the talented Katherine Ellis about her experience of recording the title track to the new film "Gravity". Written by Steven Price, the composer was looking for the right sound to communicate the emotion in this new Hollywood blockbuster.

Getting a 5 star rating in the Sunday Times the reviewer said about the film "There isn't much of a script, there is no air, no sound, no gravity only the slowest and slightest of movements. Most of the emotional cues are left to the music." I couldn't agree more, Katherine gives an emotional performance that gives a fabulous finale to the film. Hear her observations and listen to the whole track here on the video below. Congratulations Katherine - I look forward to the film being awarded an Oscar or two.

Filmed at the Landmark Hotel, London

November 2013

I

NEWS! Hot off the Press - Steve Price won the Oscar last night for the Original Score for Gravity. Many congratulations to the British team who created this film and the score and a special congratulations go to Katherine Ellis who achieved this amazing vocal on the end title. This Oscar will be added to the BAFTA won a couple of weeks ago.

ADE13: Special Report III - Reflections from @NileRodgers

One of the highlights of ADE 2013 was meeting some of the world's best song writers, artists and DJ's. ADE ran a series of "Game Changers" keynote panels.
These artists have used innovation, imagination, instinct and through shere hard work and application have created bodies of works that 30 years later still sound as fresh as when they were first written. Specifically inspiring to me were Nile Rodgers and Giorgio Moroder. 
Here Nile and Giorgio share some of their stories. Giorgio has worked with everyone from Donna Summer to Phil Oakey and written epic film title music including Top Gun and Electric Dreams, but his biggest project of recent years has been Daft Punk's "Random Access Memories". A prolific studio producer, Giorgio never went to the clubs but spent hours creating these hits. Now a great lover of Digital, Giorgio has loved working with Daft Punk integrating old and new styles to create something new for the dance world.

Sally and Giorgio

Nile Rodgers and Giorgio Moroder shared some of their stories about what they did it and what separates them from the rest of their peers. Nile has worked with the best from Diana Ross, Chic, Sister Sledge on to David Bowie with Let's Dance and Duran Duran's Notorious.

"I could have retired financially after Good Times" says Niles, however his creativity has driven him to create a fresh body of work. In the past couple of years his huge hit "Get Lucky" with Daft Punk and his recent world wide number one with Avicii and new work with Disclosure have opened up a whole new audience to the talent that is Nile Rodgers. Nile commented  "Despite my battle with cancer in the past, I have written more in the past two years than ever before, I am 61 and I am writing with Disclosure & Avicii. The truth is, I feel like I am 19. I haven't been this happy in a long time"

Nile sees the need to be able to write hits and tells a story of his personal music hero - Miles Davis. "Even Miles, whose Jazz influence is far reaching needed a hit or as Miles put it to me - "Nile write me a f@cking hit like Good Times"....".

Here is Nile talking about Miles. It reminds me that all artists need a great hit, a number one hit, the holy grail, even Jazz legends.

"Write me a million seller Nile" said Miles, but Nile found it difficult to hear that from his Jazz hero. Nile reflects that Miles Davis wanted what we all want, to communictate to the masses and to do that, you need to learn how to think about the consumers and the fans and what they want. Nile Rodgers is on fire right now, he knows his audience and he is giving them what they want by the spade load. What a privilege to hear Nile's story and I can't help but feel the story has only just begun again.

Sally Jackson Freeman

Report from Amsterdam Dance Event 2013

Special Report from #ADE13 Part II - The Future is Here Already - Fabulous Music Tech from @spdijkstra & @SydLawrence

A Special Report from Amsterdam Dance Event 2013 - Part II 

Fabulous Music Technology Applications from @spdijkstra & @SydLawrence and 
Is Social Media Marketing overrated?

Outside Felix Meritis, Amsterdam October 2013

Sally J Freeman & Felicity Pilsworth at Felix

I always enjoy ADE for a chance to discover the best new electronic music, get up to date on the latest developments and trends in music technology and to be inspired by creative thinkers. This year at ADE didn't disappoint. I love the new tech that makes the global electronic music scene go around and this year the conference included many inspirational and influential speakers such as Nile Rodgers (USA), Duncan Stutterheim (ID&T, NL), Giorgio Moroder (USA), Bob Lefsetz (USA), Armin van Buuren (NL), Richie Hawtin (CA), Kyle Hopkins (Microsoft/Xbox, USA), Tiësto (NL), Nate Auerbach (Tumblr, USA) and a few techies that stood out from the crowd.

Nile Rodgers, Giorgio Moroder and Tommy Sunshine

Those that inspired me most were Siebrand Dijsktra with his seminar on "Future trends" showcasing his new software +AppMachine, Syd Lawrence & team from "We make Awesome Sh.it", and the techies & digital managers from the panel "Is Social Media marketing overrated?" Here are a few of my observations and thoughts.

                     Siebrand Dijskra 

1. The Future is Here - Developing your own Apps

Compared to even 5 years ago we truly live in a Star Trek world with multi platform communication devices. Siebrand and his team have developed what I think is one of the best easy to build D.I.Y DJ Apps with his software called AppMachine. You don't need any coding skills to create an App with AppMachine. You can get something that is all singing and dancing for under $1000 - a very competitive price in the market place. The ADE app was built with AppMachine and even Armin Van Buuren has used this technology for his million dollar music empire. I can see Indie Artists finding this very useful indeed.  Siebrand's big take away is  - "Don't sell your App - use it as a landing platform to direct people to itunes/amazon, merchandise pages and other product sales, people are not paying for Apps these days - so sell the content not the App". Wise words indeed Siebrand. 

Syd Lawrence from Awesome Sh.It

2. "The Future is Already Here" Syd Lawrence from "We make Awesome Sh.it" talks about developement for record labels and tech giants.  

Syd Lawrence's seminar reminded me of the basic truth that the most successful content is always playful, entertaining, fun and not always about the sell, sell, sell approach. Syd and his team at recently helped Calvin Harris develop his latest App.  
Syd said " We were asked to promote the upcoming Calvin Harris album "18 months" when over half the album had already been released as singles which many of his fans had already bought. We decided to give the album away for free, but with a twist. You had to be dancing to listen to the music.  Using our Calvin powered “dance-o-meter”, as long as

you were moving the phone, the songs would keep playing. You could listen to any track from the new album for free and unlock extra content such as exclusive remixes if you went on to buy. And throughout, a clear call to action to buy the album from the app persuaded users to do just that".  Syd reported that there was a 25% click through rate to buy the album which is unheard of from most apps. It was delight to listen to Syd's innovative creative thought on developement and his great sense of humour.  With Swedish House Mafia, Deezer, Pro Green, JLS, Kylie, Ajuna Beats to mention a few, these guys have got it going on. I love their creative thought and their fun way of doing things.

"We do it because we enjoy it. Making clients look awesome makes us feel awesome" says Syd. Couldn't agree more Syd, a return to fun and laughter - I love what I saw of your work and can see why you are very successful, I will watch with a smile on my face to see what you develop next.

The Third Seminar "Social Media Marketing - is it overrated?"  had a stellar panel.
The Moderator was Nick DeCosemo (Mixmag, GB) the panel - Justin Golshir (Just Go Music, GB)
Junior Goris (Team Pitbull, USA) Lawrence Lui (Astralwerks, USA), Liz Miller (Big Beat, USA), Eveline van der Steen (Armada Music, NL), New Media Manager/Head Of Social Media at Armada Music and Stephen Titmus (Shazam, GB) Music Manager at Shazam.


The consensus was that Social Media Marketing was essential to all digital strategies for the Artists and Labels involved. It wasn't overrated and actually social media gives the fans what they want, most of the time. Eveline Van der Steen talked about her client Armin Van Buuren of Armada music and how Social Media has been an integral part of his strategy to get his music to his fans. A great user of twitter with 1 million followers but more interestingly Armin uses Google + to great effect. Armin has an incredible 2 million Google + fans on his page - Armin's Google + site . I am not sure how many other Artists use Google + to this great degree but it seems to work for Armin. Google + hang outs and fabulous on message content seems to keep fans very happy indeed. Armada Music's model is a successful one and I get the feeling they will emulate this success with other Artists on the label.


The overall theme saw Artists and labels giving no agendered, authentic communication, with little emphasis on sales but with a heavy entertainment emphasis, media rich with lots of direct to fan communication. The most successful Artists cited were the likes of Dead Mau5 and Pit Bull who go for the "stream of conciousness approach" on social media with Twitter as the prefered social media weapon of choice. The car ride with DeadMau5 and Pharrell going to get coffee illustrates the new way artists are sharing their lives with fans - nothing more intimate than being in a car with two mega superstar DJ's as they go and get a coffee and hearing their banter between each other. 

 In our virtual social media world, real time experiences/stunts are valued and seemed to work for artists e.g. meet and greets, stunts, special visits to fans in remote locations etc etc. Red Bull was mentioned as a brand who really know how to do the extreme real life experience. We won't easily forget that brand. We might not all have the Red Bull Budget but creative thought with new media will help us to connect with our fans. There is a lot of social noise right from many channels so the challenge to cut through that and think of original ways of communicating that meets the needs of the fan for music and product.

Red Bull and Stratos, a fabulous PR stunt that we will all remember

The panel also looked at what doesn't work in terms of social, Armada Music have found no value in Pinterest for example and don't use it in their digital strategy. Other thought included the ascendency and descendency of social media platforms, MySpace is over, potentially Facebook heading that way too so don't neglect your cash cow - look after your own website. Continue to collect data and emails, update it and imagine a world where social media platforms don't exist, you need your fans and you need to be able to contact them easily so take lots of care of them and give them what they need in a way that is pallatable. 



Sally Jackson Freeman is MD of Love Live Music and specialies in Digital PR Strategies for Artists, loves EDM and cycling through the streets of Amsterdam.

Come and say hello on Twitter at @LoveLiveMusicUK - Sally's prefered social media weapon of choice.

Stats and some of the images from ADE - http://www.amsterdam-dance-event.nl/live/ other images copywrighted to Love Live Music 2013.