Mutek 2011 – Montreal’s electronic Mecca

It’s time once again for all the wireheads of the world to plug into MUTEK! You only have until June 2 (that is, tomorrow) to get it in gear. If you’re still undecided, there are at least two good reasons to buy your tickets for the 2011 fest: Plastikman and Amon Tobin

For over a decade, MUTEK has made Montreal a mecca for fans of electronic music. In contrast to the club version of electronic that pervades the mainstream, MUTEK prides itself on its appeal to hardcore fans of IDM, glitch, minimalist house and much more.

One of the largest electronic music events in Canada, MUTEK is billed as an International Festival of Digital Creativity and Electronic Music. The primary focus since the debut fest in 2000 has been Canadian acts, but its international status means MUTEK isn’t limited to the local – it’s a showcase for electronic artists from across the world, and that means some of the top names in the scene (previous MUTEK guests have included the ubiquitous Kid Koala, Pitchfork darling Fennesz and avant-garde industrial gods Coil). It’s a venue for both the most famous as well as the underground, and this wild mix is one of MUTEK’s chief appeals.

This year’s MUTEK Festival will include appearances by world-renowned electronic artists Amon Tobin as well as Richie Hawtin, alias Plastikman. Over the course of more than a decade, Tobin has redefined IDM with his layered, jazz-influenced style, while Hawtin has been a pillar of the techno community for nearly twenty years. These are perhaps the largest acts to have ever graced MUTEK, and, as if that weren’t enough, they’re also brushing shoulders with the likes of Four Tet and Modeselektor.

If all this sounds like shameless promotion, it totally is. Hell, you can’t blame us for being enthusiastic with a lineup like that. One thing’s for sure: BandMark will allocate some hardcore work and play hours to this sonic smash. See you there!

Social media & Japan’s music industry

Hey there! Sorry about the delay in Cool wave vids… our January was a lot to handle! A lot of new business and some interesting old business too. BandMark really feels good about 2010 and is in the process of signing some interesting partnership agreements and testing out some new social media services.

While we were not working on our client’s campaigns and hitting the winter music fests we had a peak into some of the things that are really making Japan’s music industry a fruitful avenue for North American bands trying to get a slice of the Yen. In particular, their trendy mobile technology is starting to pick up elsewhere in the world and as the worldwide web brings foreign industries closer and closer together, we think 2010 will be the year that getting distribution deals, bookings and press from our Japanese friends will be easier than you can imagine…

How to get BIG IN JAPAN? I think we’ve cracked it here:

With websites like TOPMUSICJAPAN allowing one to quickly get a .jp music page and promo package, bands can try their luck at selling both music and merch to the Japanese music fan market place.

Japan is enormous, with over 127,704,000 people living there, and a huge entertainment industry, you can imagine how many music fans there are.  It seems like they have really mastered interactive advertising as well and if you think Facebook is the web’s biggest playground think again! In Japan – MIXI is their virtual hang-out and home to over 25 million users and if their steady growth continues we’ll have reached 31 million users by 2011.

Music magazines! This is a great way to get your band out there. In Japan, they are genre obsessed and instead of having a few magazine that cover mostly pop music, they have hundreds of magazines for many many genres of music and styles. The easiest way to find some reliable agencies is asking the new media buyer of a popular major like SONY JAPAN. If you are are fluent in Japanese, go ahead and call the magazines yourself!  Some genres do particularely well in Japan like :Metal, Visual Kei and electronica.  If you have a glam-rock style band SHOXX would be a good mag to advertise in.

Poster downloads and concert promo! if you are touring in Japan you will not be able to resist this service. It enables the mobile population to literally get free downloads and concert info off of a poster via bar codes, augmented reality symbols and what is known as air tagging! (visuals that are linked to your GPS allowing users to seek wireless hot spots, cool new restos, clothing specials and of course concerts!

Before creating your plan of action, study the country and the culture, read some blogs, Google is your friend! Below are some of my favorite Japanese videos that will hopefully help you get a feel for this bustling stylish & entertaining Metropolis and how bands can make it BIG IN JAPAN!

“Japan” from Felix Urbauer on Vimeo.

Splashes from the Cool(Google)Wave

As some of you may know I joined  GoogleWave recently and while in there, created many interesting waves. One of the most interesting is the one where me and some friends/workmates can add the cool stuff we find on the web in all sorts of categories. This week, the web gems are all Andre and mine cause the other surfers in our wave are not participating -and it’s prob cause the submissions in our cool wave are so awesome that they are worried they will not be able to find such extraordinary web truffles ;)

I compiled my fave top 3 for the week NJOY! (We have lots of cool links and pics but I’ll just put up vids until we get a domain.  If you would like to add coolness to our wave,  just add your …@gmail.com in the comments and we’ll add you to the wave!