Surface Unsigned is working in association with Marshall, Kerrang, Zildjian, Tama, Evans, Planet Waves, Ashdown, D’addario, PMT, Univibe Audio, Music Live, Entertainment Distribution Company (EDC), Shure Distribution, Surface Digital, Backstreet Merch and Oxjam to develop alternative ways for bands to gain exposure and develop their fan base.
2009
In 2009 events will be held in Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff and London making Surface Unsigned the biggest event of its kind. For bands that reach the final stages of the Festival, both Surface Unsigned and our sponsors will award the best bands and musicians with Industry Showcases, Recording and Production Deals, Professional Photo Shoots, Cash, Endorsements and much more. The winning band will receive prizes worth in excess of £30K.
The Surface Unsigned National Showcase 2009 will be a 2-day Festival held at the popular O2-complex in London. The IndigO2 at the O2-complex has a flexible capacity of 2,400 and has seen acts such as Jools Holland, Timbaland, Joss Stone, Ne-Yo, Usher, Estelle, T-Pain and Busta Rhymes to name a few. It has also held events such as The Eagles album launch and the X-Factor’s exclusive 'Boot-Camp' episodes. For further information on the IndigO2 please visit www.theindigO2.co.uk.
The 2009 Band of the Festival will receive the following:
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£5,000 Cash |
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40 hours multi-track recording and 25 hours rehearsal (spec: DDA AMR24 mixing console, Apple mac Quad Core, Logic Studio 8, Westlake BBSM8 full range monitors, Focusrite Class A preamps, EMO professional power distribution) |
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Professional Full day photo shoot - studio or location, art direction, hair / makeup, stylist, post production courtesy of TrippCobain Imaging |
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Digital distribution courtesy of Surface Digital – Winning band will have a chart eligible single release to over 700 stores including mobile, digital, and ringtones |
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Featured content on Surface Unsigned online TV station and Surface Unsigned Magazine (50,000 copies) |
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DMK57/52 (Shure Microphone Drum Kit), 2 x SM58 mic’s, 2 x Beta58 mic’s, PGX24/SM58 wireless system including wireless SM58 mic and 2 x KSM141 Instrument Mic’s |
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Marshall Rig |
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Ashdown Rig |
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Tama Kit |
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Zildjian Custom A cymbals |
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15 x sets of D’Addario XL strings, 15 x sets of D’Addario Bass strings, Planet Waves S.O.S. Guitar Tuner, Planet Waves S.O.S. Bass Tuner, 5 x Planet Waves Instrument Cables, Planet Waves Capo, Evans Tom Pack (3 tom heads), Evans Snare Head and an Evans Drum Key courtesy of Planet Wanes, D’Addario, Evans |
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100 T-shirts, 200 badges and 500 stickers courtesy of Back Street Merch (Razorlight, The Charlatans, Babyshambles, Download Festival) |
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CD pressing QTY 1,000 units (single or album) format with either 4/0 j-card or 4p 4/1 booklet & 4/0 inlay and final over-wrap courtesy of EDC (Entertainment Distribution Company) |
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Main stage appearance at Music Live 2009 (the largest Music show in Europe - 25,000 people) and at the Surface Unsigned Stage. Music Live has played host to the likes of Duff McKagan (Guns N' Roses, Velvet Revolver), Bullet For My Valentine’s Matt Tuck, Dave Kushner (Velvet Revolver), Slayer’s Kerry King, Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Rick Parfitt (Status Quo), Black Stone Cherry, Roy Mayorga (Stone Sour) and Tyla (Dogs D’Amour) |
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Press release to over 45,000 music-related email-addresses
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2010
In 2010 events will be held in the Northwest (Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds), the Midlands (Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Nottingham) and the Southeast (London, Reading, Brighton) making it the biggest event of its kind.
Oxjam
The Surface Unsigned Festival is an Oxjam event. For more information on Oxjam please see their website: www.oxfam.org.uk/oxjam
Oxfam GB is a member of Oxfam International. Registered Charity No. 202918
Equipment
Surface Unsigned provides the venue, technical organization, sound technician, stage manager, lighting technician, presenter and every other aspect of organization i.e. the P.A., microphones, stage monitors, etc. Surface Unsigned also provides the full backline (guitar & bass amps, full drum set incl. cymbals, stands, drum stool and kick pedals). All the equipment is brand-new. For full list of equipment please see our FAQ page.
Sponsors
Surface Unsigned is working in association with major manufacturers and industry names in order to provide bands with opportunities of Industry Showcases, Recording and Production Deals, Professional Photo Shoots, Cash and Endorsements and much more. The Surface Unsigned Festival is in association with Marshall, Kerrang, Zildjian, Tama, Evans, Planet Waves, Ashdown, D’addario, PMT, Univibe Audio, Music Live, Entertainment Distribution Company (EDC), Shure Distribution, Surface Digital, TrippCobain Imaging, Backstreet Merch and Oxjam.
Industry
Surface Unsigned invites a variety of industry guests to its showcases. Industry guests in the 2008 Festival have included Adam Foster (label rep at Q, Mojo and Kerrang, 70SIX Music), Boy Wonder Records, Flat Cap Promotions, Gotham Records, Gordon Rintoul (Producer + Engineer, incl. artists Alanis Morrisette, Prince, Paul Weller + many more), GetYourBandOn - Band Management, Development and Promotion, Horus Music, Transmission Management, Audio Authority Management, Revolver Records, Jon Brookes (The Charlatans, One Beat Media), Weekender Records, DCC Recording, The Hit Sheet Magazine, James Lucas (Promoter and Artists/Band Manager), Fat Fox Publishing, Mojo Magazine, London Unplugged, Monumental Management, SPC Live, BBOX Management, Rage Events, Mixtape Promotion, MAS Records, Modern English Record Company, Alan McGee Management, Carl Barat from Dirty Pretty Things, Paul Tipler producer of Idle Wild and Placebo, MTV2, Steve Kent producer and mixer, Equator Music, Tap n Tin Records, M20 Records, BBC Essex, The Rage, Rockbottom Promotion, HeadSpace Events, Surface Management, TrippCobain Imaging, Simon Burchell (Arena Television, Glastonbury), Faber Music, IMG Publishing, Mercury Records, Andrew Maurice, Frances Murphy (Tour Engineer for The Melvins and The Ting Tings), Oxjam, Surface Management, Surface Magazine Journalists and more individual A&R and journalists. Bands that reach the National Showcase 2009 will perform in front of a committee of music industry experts.
Payment to bands
We offer one of the best unsigned payment deals in the U.K. You can find information on our payment structure in the FAQ section.
Promotion
Surface Unsigned provides full online promotion for all events of the Surface Unsigned Festival. Listings are posted up across the internet on gig-listing sites, internet-based magazines and relevant music-related websites. This is done nationally as well as regionally.
Upcoming gigs are also posted on the front page of our website along with each band's MySpace/website-link. The website is currently receiving on average, 728,000 website hits per month and is on the front page of google when searching for 'unsigned', providing great exposure for unsigned bands.
Surface Unsigned posts daily bulletins on www.myspace.com/surfaceunsigned with band line-ups. All our MySpace friends have been added manually, are UK-based and music-related. As a result we are targeting a large amount of people directly interested in the UK-music scene with your band details.
Newsletters
Surface Unsigned has a UK mailing list of over 45,000 music-related email-addresses which is used for promotion of the bands in the Surface Unsigned Festival. We also have area-based mailing lists, meaning we can target direct mail-outs for each area of the Festival.
Press
Surface Unsigned has a vast data-base of press-contacts for each area of the country. The Surface Unsigned schedule is submitted to national press as well as to local news and entertainment sections.
Other Promotion
Surface Unsigned makes a particular effort to promote bands that stand out to music-related businesses, such as:
- Promotion Companies
- Artist Management Companies
- Music Distribution Companies
- Radio
- Independent record companies
- Music Industry contacts and our sponsors.
Local level promotion
- Flyering
- Promotion directly with the venues where the events are being held
- Local Music Magazines
- Local industry contacts
Reviews
In the latter stages of the Festival Surface Unsigned invites a journalist who will write a review on each band, which is then published on our website, which can be copied and used for band promotion. Professional photographers are also hired for the latter stages of the Festival.
The bands
Surface Unsigned will provide promotion for gigs but we also expect bands to promote themselves as much as possible. Remember, the more people at an event the better the atmosphere will be, the better the chance of increasing fan base and the more a band will be paid. Fan support is fundamental in all areas of the music industry and we therefore expect promotion of Surface Unsigned gigs to be a team effort.
Merchandise
Surface Unsigned actively encourages bands to sell merchandise at Surface Unsigned gigs. Surface Unsigned gigs are separated by genre. This gives the opportunity for bands to increase fan base as audience members will be fans of the same genre. Bands should take this opportunity to promote themselves to new people and sell merchandise, also gaining extra profits for themselves.
Surface Unsigned Committee
The Surface Unsigned Committee will consist of a panel of music industry representatives and will have the privilege of seeing the very best unsigned acts from around the UK that will appear at the National Showcase. The committee will decide on the bands that will receive Industry Showcases, Recording and Production Deals, Professional Photo Shoots, Cash, Endorsements and Prizes worth in excess of £30K.
Surface Unsigned Magazine
The top bands of the Surface Unsigned Festival get a feature in the Surface Unsigned Magazine. 50,000 copies are distributed nationwide once the Festival is over:
CIRCULATION:
1. With the number of unsigned musicians growing, the UK sees a record amount of recording and rehearsal complexes in all areas of the country. 15,000 copies are distributed as a free magazine to all rehearsal and recording complexes throughout the UK on an annual basis in October of every year.
2. The Magazine is handed out to visitors of Music Live – the biggest music making exhibition in Europe (held in Nov each year). Music Live 2008 saw over 20,000 visitors
3. The Surface Unsigned Magazine is handed out at every event of the Surface Unsigned Festival running from February to September every year. In 2009 the Surface Unsigned Festival will be held in Bristol, Cardiff, Birmingham, Manchester and London. We expect around 10,000 copies to be taken home from the Festival.
TOTAL: 50,000
Please also take a look at www.surfaceunsigned.co.uk/magazine
Surface Unsigned TV
Our in-house production crew use 3 broadcast quality cameras, edit the show using Final Cut, and master the sound in a state of the art recording studio giving an amazing final live production. Surface Unsigned TV is fantastic platform for promotion and provides media content of the highest level which can be placed on MySpace or YouTube pages.
www.surfaceunsigned.tv
Surface Unsigned On MySpace
Surface Unsigned Festival: www.myspace.com/surfaceunsigned
Surface Unsigned Magazine: www.myspace.com/surfaceunsignedmagazine
Surface Unsigned TV: www.myspace.com/surfaceunsignedtv
Regional MySpace Sites:
London Surface Unsigned Festival: www.myspace.com/southeastsurfaceunsigned
Midlands Surface Unsigned Festival: www.myspace.com/midlandssurfaceunsigned
North Surface Unsigned Festival: www.myspace.com/northwestsurfaceunsigned
Bristol Surface Unsigned Festival: www.myspace.com/bristolsurfaceunsigned
Welsh Surface Unsigned Festival: www.myspace.com/walessurfaceunsigned
Scottish Surface Unsigned Festival: www.myspace.com/scotlandsurfaceunsigned
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