New Partnership: SEGA Games will power SellaBand Affiliate Program

We proudly announce the recent collaboration between SellaBand and SEGA, which kicks off with an extensive affiliate program to attract new believers. Every believer who brings in five new believers will get a fancy SEGA-game for free. In a couple of weeks time,  we'll detail the exact ins and outs of ‘The Big Five’ incentive campaign. 

Some guys have all the luck : a stunning office-building, great product to work with, and the recent collaboration with SAB, of course. Jurgen Post, Managing Director of SEGA Benelux is very happy with the new relationship : "I think SellaBand is a revolutionairy marketing concept that fits excellently with the innovative values of the SEGA brand. The buzzword is user-generated content. " In his view,  a community-driven company like SAB and the game-giant go together like a horse and carriage.And there's more in the pipeline.....  

It's not only the six month long campaign he's keeping his eye on : "I share a similar vision with some entertainment gurus,  that games are the new radio.

The importance of music in games is getting more important every day, and obviously that impacts on the consumer. In this area I see great possibilities for Sellaband artists to be involved in our product. Together with SAB we are working on finding a  common project as soon as possible."

Of course this isn't a one sided love affair. SAB is very proud to have SEGA as an affiliate-partner. According to Dolly,  Sellaband’s marketing and advertising manager: "Being in a brand building process ourselves, you have to be very careful in choosing your mate. Apart from the games-affinity within our audience, SEGA is a sexy, innovative and dynamic brand we  like to be associated with. It’s a natural fit."    

     




Jurgen Post and Dolly: A high five on The Big Five

 

AT Publishing comes on board

Advance allocated to all 50K Artists…

In our search to optimise the results for our Publishing Division we have decided to partner with an existing Publishing House. After countless talks and conversations with companies across the globe we finally settled for AT Publishing, a small but independent and fully equipped Publishing company who will exploit and administer our catalogue.

As Dagmar Heijmans, Sellaband’s Music Director, concludes: 'After speaking to several publishing companies, big and small, we've chosen to work with AT Publishing as they had most pro-active approach and some very refreshing ideas. Two things that are rather rare in music publishing."

With AT publishing’s expertise and global reach, we’re confident Artists’ music will get the attention and play it deserves. The deal in no way compromises the Artists publishing income, but rather increases potential earnings, with the shared objective of getting Artists’ music “out there” as much as possible. As Stefan Blonk of AT Publishing says, “We love the idea of SellaBand and the fact that it produces talented and inspired artists with fans from all corners of the world. We will use our network of ad agencies, movie companies and music companies to get the most out of the music for the artists, their believers and SellaBand.”

 

  “It’s where it’s AT"

Furthermore, whilst AT publishing can help with the less exciting aspects of publishing (the finer administrative details), the relationship also means Sellaband can offer Artists a €5,000.00 advance, which will contribute towards promotion of the album. 50% of this advance is recoupable against publishing income, but Sellaband is matching this with a €2,500.00 non recoupable investment.


 

Community Singing

Radius & Fan making music together.

There is a collaboration coming up. Radius and their number 1 /believer Steff will sing a song together.

 

By Johan Faber & Steff

 

“It’s a song called “the Sea” and Steff will sing this Radius song. We are almost finished recording the instrumental version, it’s a ballad and we are looking forward to record Steff’s voice and of course….to meet her again! Steff will be in Groningen (the Netherlands) 2,3 and 4 December. Meeting Radius, recording “The Sea”  and to do some rehearsal. Rehearsal? Yes, there will also be a live performance: January 25 we will play at Ono in Bern and Steff will share the stage with us to perform “The Sea” live.
Steff from France and Radius from The Netherlands performing together in Switzerland. It will be very special for us, for Steff and the audience (maybe YOU???)
A Radius interview (talking about SellaBand and this collaboration) and also an acoustic set on Radio Westerkwartier Sunday Nov. 25, from 20.00 till 21.00.


Some words from Steff: “It still sounds incredible to me but hey, yes in two weeks I'll be in Groningen to record my very first song with RADIUS. This is the result of a wonderful and unforgettable meeting between Johan and me during a gig of Radius in Amsterdam last Summer.... I was totally amazed by their performance at Winston Club because this band not only knows how to rock, but also really LIVE on stage. I decided to become a more active Believer. One day, as a sort of gift, Johan sent me the Mp3 of the song "The Sea"... I totally fell in love with this song and only to joke, I placed my voice on it... Johan seemed to be touched and liked what I did with his song. This was the birth of a wonderful collaboration. Indeed, immediately, Johan asked me if I would agree to really record this song with him and the rest of the band. You can guess what my answer was ;-) I am totally excited to record this song, and most of all to spend some time with Johan, Danny, Henko (maybe) and their new guitarist Kees. Johan is very professional, and working with him is a real pleasure. I will do my best to honor this so beautiful love song... See you on my SellaBand Profile in 3 weeks to discover my first feelings...”

 

Vote for the Top2000


Each year leading Dutch Radio station Radio 2 initiates a campaign called the Top2000. It is basically a week long show featuring the all time best 2,000 songs as voted by the listeners. Millions of people tune in, in between Christmas and New Year to listen to the nominations.

A number of Believers have started an initiative to try and get enough votes for a SellaBand related song to enter the Top2000. Around 200 votes should get ‘us’ in the Charts. After some debate people have settled for Wise Words by Cubworld (Wise decision, if we may say so…)
In this thread you can find details of the discussion, as well as a translation of how to vote.

And here is a direct link to the Top2000 site.

 

 


Q + A
Thomas Boissy

 

French artists on SellaBand have been fairly successful. Look at Clemence and T-ka, for example. But we’ve also had a few issues, like with The Fakes and Jonatan Cerrado. And now we have Thomas Boissy, who certainly looks like "the real deal". But, for those who think this highly talented young man is still somewhat shrouded in mystery, here is a tell all Q + A with SellaBand’s new rising star…

 

Who is Thomas Boissy ?

“I’m from Paris – France. When I was 4, I told my teacher that when I'm grown up I want to be a singer, since then I never changed my mind. After I got my degree in Mathematics I decided to quit the University to give free reign to my passion.”

 

You seem to be a very experienced artist. Tell us about your career so far, please...

“When I was 20, I auditioned in Paris, for a well known company. Two weeks later they asked me to join their TV show on Channel 1 (TF1 : the most popular French national channel) It was a red-letter day in my life. Later on, I sang in Musicals at the Folies Bergère in Paris, and I was the lead singer of a show named "Improsession". It was an improv: the audience gave you a style of music (reggae, hard rock, opera…), the name of a famous singer, and a theme. Then you had 30 seconds to sing a song of this artist as you adapted the style, the theme, and the lyrics (for example Robbie Williams, reggae, E.T. is back on earth.)It forced me to sing in many styles, improved my experience on stage (with an audience between 300 and 6000 people) and gave me the feeling of what music I really liked the most. »  

 

What made you join SellaBand ?

“In June 2007 I self-produced my first gig with my own songs. Then late October, a friend told me about SellaBand, I found it very exciting and I went into more thoroughly. After having visited different artists and after having explored the contracts, I thought it was a fair and exhilarating opportunity for me… my dreams were 50K away over there.”


10K in less than a month. What's your secret?

“I spent a lot of time getting in touch with people from both my ‘tribe’ and my professional network. I sent more than 5000 e-mails and 500 SMS and called many people to explain them how SellaBand worked.  I was confident in having my family and my friends backing me up (my ‘army’ as you said in the club last week), but I would never have expected that unknown people from the Netherlands, Sweden, United Kingdom, Germany, United States and France too, would have joined us so fast. I’m so touched to experience what’s happening here on SellaBand.”

 

What kind of album do you want to make with us?

“I know what kind of Music I really want to play. It will be great to talk with experts about my music, finding out the best way to realize an album in coherency with my objective and presenting a cohesive sound through my different pieces of work. And last but not least, I would like to adapt some of my songs into English.”

 

Some people have suggested you are connected with Clémence and/or Jonatan Cerrada. Not that we see this as a bad thing, but does such a connection exist?

“There is no connection between me and Jonathan Cerrada or Clémence. I had the opportunity to briefly meet Jonathan at concerts but I'm not intimate with him, and I discovered Clemence here on SellaBand. When I saw that she had reached the 50k it encouraged me to sign up on this site, thinking that language was not a problem.”


What are your ambitions ?

“I want to reach 50k as soon as possible and to produce my album. Then I would like to promote it in the French medias using the fact that, thanks to Believers, I shall be one of the very first French singers to record an album on SAB and that I have reached these 50k very fast. But first and foremost, I want to sing the pieces of my album on stage. My true passion, even if I enjoy each step of the creation, is to defend my songs on stage.”

 

In the recent past we've had some issues with artists who couldn't use their songs on their SellaBand album, because they didn't write them themselves. Is there a chance you might end up in the same situation ?

“Don't worry ! I have personally written all my songs, musics and lyrics.”

 

Why should people Believe in Thomas Boissy?

“Because I know what I want to achieve from both an artistic and a commercial point of view. With the help from current and pending believers, I know that I'll be able to record a high quality album, and to promote it efficiently. I hope many people will join me in this great experience.”