SellaBand partners with leading Social Network


Hyves is by far the biggest social network in the Netherlands. Last week they welcomed their 5,000,000th member! The people behind Hyves.nl also happen to be music lovers and supporters of SellaBand, so we are pleased to announce a special partnership with Hyves for 2008.

We always run into the guys from Hyves at web Award shows (sometimes we win, sometimes they win and sometimes we both win, like last week at the Accenture Award), so it was only a matter of time before the new innovating companies would sit together to work out an alliance.

Well,  here it is: as of January 2008, Hyves will feature artists from SellaBand on their homepage and on Hyvers profile pages in a special spotlight section. This means that potentially 5 million people (mainly Dutch, sorry about that…) will be introduced to the music and artists on SellaBand. As Chief Hyves Officer Raymond Spanjard puts it: “SellaBand is currently one of the most innovative movements in the music world, we’re very excited to team up with them and offer their artists a platform of 5 million people.”

Finding new ways to promote both our concept and music, has always been one of our main targets. With Hyves we welcome the first partnership of this kind and we are thrilled to meet with such enthusiasm for what we do on SellaBand. It is our intention to not only promote the SellaBand albums via Hyves, but also to offer bands on their way to 50K to earn a place in the Spotlight on Hyves. How we want to do this will be revealed in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime we encourage as many SellaBands (both Dutch and from abroad) to open up a profile on Hyves. Our own SellaHyve account will be revamped and updated as well, so we can use it as a starting point to buzz around on Hyves in 2008.

 

Start voting now!

Over 30 UK Acts sign up for

The Orchard Live


Just in case you missed it in the past couple editions of The Tribune (difficult, we admit!) our new digital distribution partner, The Orchard, is presenting its monthly night at Ginglik, central London, on 28th February as “An evening with Sellaband”. Of the four artists to perform live, both Second Person and Francis Rodino are confirmed to play, with the two other artists being voted for by the Believers and The Orchard.

At the beginning of last week, UK artists were asked to subscribe to the competition, which closed at midday today. 35 acts have signed up and are now in the running to fill the 2 empty spots on the bill. For the full list of contestants follow this link to Club .  We’ve fine tuned the voting process, so read on for an update, and it’s now officially over to the Believers:
1.Believers (with a minimum of 1 part, 1 gift part or money showing on their balance) can nominate a maximum of 3 artists from 18.00 CET, Tuesday 11th December.
 2. To nominate an artist, go to the Artist profile page, and click on the nomination button in the left hand column.
3. You can nominate Artists until 24.00 on Thursday 20th December.
4. The 10 most nominated artists will be announced in the Tribune on Tuesday 25th December.
5. The second round will commence at 18.00 on Tuesday 25th December, when Believers can vote once daily until 8th January (for a different Artist every day if you’re feeling fickle!) on their chosen artist’s profile page and on a page especially created in Club.
6. At midday on 8th January voting will cease, and we will contact the winning Artist.  The Orchard UK will then select their artist from the remaining 9 Acts, and the final bill for the Orchard Live will be announced in the Tribune that day.

 

Community Singing

Christmas Jukebox goes live today…

 

SellaBand to double prize money for competition!

Today we are launching a special version of the Jukebox. Dedicated entirely to the Holiday Season and ‘filled’ with songs from Sommersby’s special Christmas competition. Impressed with the quality of the over thirty entries, SellaBand HQ has decided to double the Prize-money currently available, leaving it at the disposal of Sommersby and his team to decide how to allocate what is now about $1,200 worth in Parts on SellaBand…

This is an exciting week for Sommersby's Christmas/Festive Season Song Competition as entries close on Sunday 16th December. So far of 52 proposed entrants, 36 songs have now been posted and with more songs expected this week the total could easily pass 40.

It was alway expected that the Video category wouldn't be as easy for artists given time and business constraints but if plans come to fruition there could easily be 10 or more to pick from.

"So, has this competition been a success?"

"Well, I would say so based on the enthusiasm in which artists have approached it and the excellence of the entries. There are contributors from North & South
America, Europe, Africa and Australasia - truly a global competition.

If you asked me to say what's been the catalyst for its success I would point straight away to four unsung heroins. Pacarina who built and has populated a web page to run concurrent with the updates in the Forum. Lu-li, Pamela from Laixa and Sofi from Bonnie have kept Polish, French and Spanish threads active in the forum. Lu-li has further promoted the competition amongst new Polish Artists hence the good sprinkling of entries from Poland.


When you look amongst the playlists on Believers profile pages it’s common to see a Christmas song such has been the quality of the entries. It’s also good to see the supportive comments passing from artist to artist.

Just over 24 hours ago I introduced a novelty Profile Picture category to the overall competition and within hours was regretting it! Casper from CAYA laid down a challenge! :) The gauntlet has been taken up :)

Details of the Prize Fund distribution will be published next week. So far $600 has been donated from Believers & Artists. With the Xmas Jukebox bringing another dimension to the compeition I feel a real buzz this week. Finally it may have gone unnoticed but a self-regulated embargo on spam messages has been a huge success. Makes you think that nothing is impossible! :)”

By Sommersby 

 

 

The Game is ON! 


 

Believer-Brings-Believer Program starts today! 

 

You don’t have to shoot a lion, tiger, buffalo, elephant or hippo to hit the big five! As mentioned before in the Tribune, Sega and SellaBand have started a co-operation, kicking off with a so called ‘Believer-gets-Believer’ program. So, what’s the deal?

During a campaign running for six months, starting today (Tuesday 11/12/2007) we’ll offer a fancy SEGA-game for free. You only have to hunt down five new Believers, follow the guidelines here.

Difficult? Well, as a staunch musiclover yourself, you probably have a lot of friends with the same interest. Maybe you never told them about SellaBand, maybe a little, or maybe a lot, but somehow they didn’t take the step to become a believer. Now is the time to convince them to do so! And of course we’ll reward you for that effort.

When five new Believers are introduced within a month, you can choose the Sega game of your liking. (See the Big Five list below) Be aware though, that it is a first come, first serve-principle. After the 50 available games per month have been given away, the doors of the SAB-toyshop are closed. No problem, the new month will bring new chances, and the Believers already recruited will roll over. Enjoy watching the trailers by clicking on the graphics in The Big 5- hitlist and shoot to play!!!  

And the Big 5 are: 

Virtual tennis 3: Now you can take on the world's greatest tennis stars on any court surface worldwide.

Sega Rally: Fancy some breathless wheel-to-wheel off-road racing with next-gen muscle? SEGA Rally is reborn!

Medieval 2: Total war: Reign over some of the greatest medieval nations of the Western and Middle Eastern world

Football Manager 2008: Take on the greatest job on earth: Manager of your favorite football club!

The Golden Compass: Immerse yourself in the excitement and adventure of the official videogame of the movie, "The Golden Compass".

 

Q+A

Rokhsan Heydari

 

This Sunday (December 16) the second edition of ZWOEL takes place in Amsterdam. This hot and happening event is quickly becoming a platform for up- and coming SellaBand talent. A great occasion to feature one of the performing artists in the Q + A today, it is ‘Office Powerplay’ favorite Rokshan Heydari. 

 

Who is Rokhsan Heydari?
“I am a 22-year-old musician with aspirations to reach the world through my music. I have just moved to London Town and hope to seek my fortune by gigging loads and loads and writing loads and loads and recording everything!!!!”  

 


What made you sign up with SellaBand?
“Well, to be honest, I had another page with my band 84steps, but completely forgot about it! Then it was my mother who re-alerted me of SellaBand’s existence, I then had a look and realized it did work! So, thought I’d give it another go. I am constantly amazed by the continuous support and faith people have in Artists, I think it’s brilliant.” 


What are your ambitions?
“I dream to one day have my music reach people world wide and for it to help them in some way, whether it be inspire them to become musical or to get them through a problematic time, like so much music has done for me. I also would absolutely love to hear my music on Radio 1, coz I love it!” 


Do you have any special tactics to reach 50K?
“Well, I’m a bit unorganized, so once I pull my socks up, I shall create an incentive scheme for Believers, for example, ‘buy x parts and get x and x’…..oooh!!! That’ll do it!” 


How did your involvement with ZWOEL come about?
“Well, Giles had seen my band 84steps on SellaBand, but I no longer used the page, so he contacted me through Myspace. It was then I had set up another page and he visited me there and liked my music and simply asked me if I would like to play at Zwoel in Amsterdam….who am I to say no to that!!??”


What can people expect from your performance on the 16th?
“Well, there will be my two friends and I performing a range of old songs and new songs. All the ones SellaBand has seen, plus ones it hasn’t! We will be swapping around the instruments, as I shall be playing both keys and guitar, I shall have my friend Naomi on keys and backing vocals and my friend Will on drums or bass. Most of the time there will be three vocals all harmonizing beautifully…I hope!!” 


Why should people Believe in Rokhsan Heydari?
“Well, firstly because I have all good and pure intentions, I have never had any other thought in my mind other than to help people through my music. Ask anyone and they will tell you I was put on this earth to help. My only way of doing this is through music, so I am trying really hard to make it happen. I want to inspire and strengthen, to build and assist the world’s desperate and obvious needs. There is not enough aid through music and so I want to encourage the world to see where the real problems lie. Through the money I intend to make on SellaBand, all this will be possible.”


 

 

One more vote please

Lily can win $10.000 for promotion with your help

by Lily  

After passing 4 stages in the Famecast.com competition I finally performed with the finalists in Austin Texas.  Such performance will be aired Tuesday at 9PM (Eastern Time) or 3AM Wednesday (European time).  There is a 3 hour window to vote the first day which is from 9PM and 12AM (eastern time).  After that fans will be able to vote the remaining 6 days from 12 to 12AM everyday.  This is a huge opportunity not only for my music but for all of us who will gain lots of exposure and of course $10,000!! this money will pay for a well known publicist who will give this project the promotion it needs to become a success.  I'm asking the entire sellaband community to please vote for me at famecast.com (stage 9).  You only need to register once and then you can log in and vote once a day for a week.  We can do this together! I can foresee this opening up many more opportunities for myself and of course other Sellaband artists.
Cast your vote here