Without lyricism and devoid of production filler that would normally give an artist a lot of breathing room, especially in a recording as epically stacked as Singing the Nocturnes is, Elizabeth Sombart favors indulgence when and where it counts for something in this album’s tracklist, which granted her a significantly different profile from what a lot of other performers have been going with in the past year. 2022 was a banner moment for a lot of the minimalist artists who had been desperately trying to make something out of the surrealist movement in pop music over the past five years, but in this record, we find a pianist who is almost gleeful about adopting excess melodic and physical the same.

It would be unthinkable on the part of her closest contemporaries in and out of the underground, but that’s part of what drove me so wild every time I sat down to hear Singing the Nocturnes; it goes places, sometimes rebelliously, that others just don’t have the moxie nor the gumption to travel. Striking as some of the cosmetic elements in these tracks happen to be, they remain augmentations of an original work that has stood the test of time quite well and all the more serves as an ironic introduction to who this performer is (for those who were not already bewitched by her previous work).

(2022) ALBUM OF THE YEAR – Elizabeth Sombart – Singing The Nocturnes (LP)

Indie Shark proudly presents Elizabeth Sombart with our award for Album of the Year 2022, and if what this artist has exhibited in her acclaimed LP is any sort of reflection on her depth as a pianist in multiple capacities, I would expect to see her name in the headlines again in the next year. Singing the Nocturnes is the very first album to win this trophy without offering a shred of original material per se, and yet it doesn’t feel like a record filled with covers we could have unearthed from a bevy of sources. Sombart imparts personality in a year that felt quite bleached and underwhelming for those of us who were turned on by the excitement left over from a landmark year for indie music in 2021, and as someone who takes a considerable amount of time perusing the deepest realms of the underground for smart listens, I can attest to the authenticity and uniqueness of this piece. Once again, congratulations to one Elizabeth Sombart for her impeccable and award-worthy work on this LP.

Read my original review posted back in January 2022: https://indieshark.com/awards/pick-of-the-week/elizabeth-sombart-singing-the-nocturnes-lp/

Once again congratulations to Elizabeth Sombart for her amazing tribute to Classical Pianist Pianist Frederic Chopin. #elizabethsombartalbumoftheyear

Mark “The Shark” Druery

Winning Album of the Year through a dexterous display of emotion and keyboard prowess, Elizabeth Sombart stole the hearts of many through Singing the Nocturnes, and whether you’re a big Chopin fan or simply needed a classical rewind this year, this was the record to own from the moment it hit record store shelves forward. Although much more intellectually demanding than some of the pop records the shark covered in 2022, Sombart’s new album didn’t have any difficulty in winning favor with critics and fans the same thanks to a heady tracklist as accessible as it was brooding.

A close runner-up for AOTY was instrumental rockers Go to Space Die’s Red Air Don’t Care, which both captured the essence of moving, physical post-rock as it’s matured in the past two decades whilst also hinting at alternative themes I can’t wait to hear more of in their next LP. On the opposite end of the spectrum aesthetically, we found Jonah Leatherman working a lot of magic behind the mic in his eponymous debut, which narrowly lost the shark’s trophy but remained the most-played complete tracklist of 2022 thanks to its easy-going lyrical wit.

While Monsoon’s Ghost Party was the sleeper indie rock hit of the season, it felt like every not the introduction to a band on the cusp of breaking the mainstream. Psychedelic components were never far from reach this year, replacing the subtle surrealism of the late 2010s all too bluntly, but they didn’t overwhelm soloists like 148, whose album Simpati was already trending at Indie Shark long before it saw an official release date worldwide. Where some struggled to define what contemporary postmodernism could sound like in 2022, every artist here nailed it – all the while making a unique impression their rivals just couldn’t.

There can be no review of the past year without mentioning the superb Le Olam from Alex Krawczyk, who is the one artist I am most excited to hear more from in 2023. Ambition defines every moment of this LP, and like the other elite releases we heard in the past year, it has the look and feel of a boundless experiment free of mainstream rules where it matters the most. Something tells me this is just the start of this player’s ascent, and from the looks of his trending presence online, the fans agree with me completely.

As 2023 gets underway, these albums will likely stay handy for those who appreciate the best parts of independent music, but as anyone who follows the shark knows by now – the underground is as unstoppable as it gets, and top-shelf output is almost to be expected. Congratulations to Elizabeth Sombart and all submissions for AOTY in 2022, I doubt we’ve heard the last from any of these players.

(2022) ALBUM OF THE YEAR – Elizabeth Sombart – Singing The Nocturnes (LP)

The best music is neither practical nor predictable; but with that said, the most refined music follows an order that takes years, and often decades, to master. In her Album of the Year Award-winning effort Singing the Nocturnes, Elizabeth Sombart demonstrates the kind of poise that is required to follow such an order, and although the competition she faced for this coveted top prize from Indie Shark was quite stiff, to say the least, it was ultimately her distinct manner of play that made this LP the best of the year by far. Singing the Nocturnes exploits our general concept of Chopin’s best work delicately, allowing for its star player to reinvent some of the material from an arrangement standpoint without deviating from the core aesthetics of the original composer at all. It’s often difficult to break down a cover album, particularly when its content is as familiar and at times stoic as what we hear in this record is, but through her admirably unique approach to the piano, this is a musician who demands our attention around every turn, even at moments that might have otherwise felt just a bit stock if presented by a different set of hands.

Without lyricism and devoid of production filler that would normally give an artist a lot of breathing room, especially in a recording as epically stacked as Singing the Nocturnes is, Elizabeth Sombart favors indulgence when and where it counts for something in this album’s tracklist, which granted her a significantly different profile from what a lot of other performers have been going with in the past year. 2022 was a banner moment for a lot of the minimalist artists who had been desperately trying to make something out of the surrealist movement in pop music over the past five years, but in this record, we find a pianist who is almost gleeful about adopting excess melodic and physical the same.

It would be unthinkable on the part of her closest contemporaries in and out of the underground, but that’s part of what drove me so wild every time I sat down to hear Singing the Nocturnes; it goes places, sometimes rebelliously, that others just don’t have the moxie nor the gumption to travel. Striking as some of the cosmetic elements in these tracks happen to be, they remain augmentations of an original work that has stood the test of time quite well and all the more serves as an ironic introduction to who this performer is (for those who were not already bewitched by her previous work).

Indie Shark proudly presents Elizabeth Sombart with our award for Album of the Year 2022, and if what this artist has exhibited in her acclaimed LP is any sort of reflection on her depth as a pianist in multiple capacities, I would expect to see her name in the headlines again in the next year. Singing the Nocturnes is the very first album to win this trophy without offering a shred of original material per se, and yet it doesn’t feel like a record filled with covers we could have unearthed from a bevy of sources. Sombart imparts personality in a year that felt quite bleached and underwhelming for those of us who were turned on by the excitement left over from a landmark year for indie music in 2021, and as someone who takes a considerable amount of time perusing the deepest realms of the underground for smart listens, I can attest to the authenticity and uniqueness of this piece. Once again, congratulations to one Elizabeth Sombart for her impeccable and award-worthy work on this LP.

Read my original review posted back in January 2022: https://indieshark.com/awards/pick-of-the-week/elizabeth-sombart-singing-the-nocturnes-lp/

Once again congratulations to Elizabeth Sombart for amazing tribute to Pianist Frederic Chopin. #elizabethsombartalbumodtheyear

Mark “The Shark” Druery

Bard’s Flying Vessel released an incredible debut in I that we’re still talking about months after it initially hit record store shelves, but in terms of making the perfect sophomore album, I can’t say another act had my attention this year quite the way Meditative Animal did in their record Social Gravity. Rather than building off of the conventions outlined in their debut, this second album sees singer/songwriter Nick Mirisola going even further down the rabbit hole of boundless creativity and rivaling equally stunning efforts from The Color Forty Nine (String Ladder) and Nathan Germick (Goldenboy) rather epically.

Sharlamar Curry’s Dreams Never Die/ColdWave was the runaway indie R&B favorite around indie circles since it first came out this year, and taking just a peek at its tracklist should help you to understand why. Skewing lo-fi hip-hop themes with old-school R&B swing of the lightest variety is one thing, but Curry evolves an entire concept of post-funk melodicism inside of this tracklist (and sometimes even within the same song) like it’s second nature. You can’t argue with the kind of charisma on the table in a record like this one, and I was left enraptured by its quality stylization from the moment I pressed play forward.

Kemme’s Cyclorama and Sandy’s Sami & Sandy tied for second place behind The Well for Album of the Year in 2021, ironically for the same reason – their utilization of smart surrealism. In a year that featured everyone trying to get more cerebral than everyone else, these are two acts that have been able to simplify profound emotional expression and avant-garde notions behind and in front of the mixing board so well that they could be credited with making their own brand of outlandish alternative music a lot sooner than later. Where Kemme brings Joni Mitchell-esque pastoral qualities into the future with brooding harmonies that could double for diatribes with the right beat behind them, Sandy’s remixes the idea of surf rock and psychedelic postmodernity for a generation demanding something more intellectual on the FM dial, and I can’t wait to see what either of them release next.

(2021) ALBUM OF THE YEAR – Brielle Brown – The Well (LP)

Which brings us to this year’s Album of the Year Award-winning piece in Brielle Brown’s The Well.  Although a mere twenty-four minutes long and technically an extended play, The Well was instantly a favorite for AOTY in 2021. Starting with the tonally poised “Concrete Stars,” Brown doesn’t hold back from giving us one of the most refined and charmingly harmony-centric performances in this record you’re likely to hear this year or anytime in the near future. Her presence is consistently the main attraction in the tracklist, which isn’t to say her instrumental arrangements don’t give us something desirable on their own. Contrarily, lofty concepts behind “Let the Water” and “Skylark’s Tune” suggest we’re listening to a player who isn’t satisfied straddling the simplistic rhythms that a lot of her contemporaries would be content to recycle a hundred different tims into just as many songs. She challenges herself in this record, pushing hooks along ever so slowly whilst acknowledging pressures from tempos and textures the same in her delivery, which is everything I want out of a vocal release like this one.

Brown’s eagerness to defy the modern pop model never translates as rebelliousness in the title track of The Well or even something more straightforward in attack like “She’s Come to Sing,” but instead comes to us in much subtler terms. The very fluidity of this set of songs speaks to her cohesiveness as an artist and someone who doesn’t need a lot of time, assistance, or experience to find her sound and what kind of aesthetics she wants to call her own. As she indicates so fearlessly in the unabashedly humble “This Time Around,” hers is a future defined not by circumstance but perseverance, which is why I’m hoping this is only the first of many incredible works she’s going to share with us.

Read my original review posted back in June 2021: https://indieshark.com/awards/pick-of-the-week/brielle-brown-the-well-lp/

It wouldn’t truly be a yearend cover story without throwing in a couple of honorable mentions for indie records like Chesca’s Feel the Breeze and Brandon Coleman’s Champagne, both of which hit the spot at their release dates and still have a lot to offer listeners who give them a spin in 2022. Overall, I think 2021 was quite the enriching year for both artists and audiences in the international underground as well as the mainstream, the latter of which saw quaking releases from hip-hop and country especially, and if there’s anything that we can predict about 2022 from the past twelve months of tenacious content coming out of the woodwork, it’s that experimentation is going to remain the order of the day. We’re living in the time of hybrid harmonies, and Brielle Brown’s The Well proved that as well as any of the other headline-making works you read about on INDIESHARK this year did.

Once again congratulations to Brielle Brown for having the courage to remain true to herself as a “total package” singer/songwriter/entertainer. #briellebrownalbumoftheyear

Perhaps the greatest lesson from 2021? It’s a good era to be an audiophile and an even better time to have a taste in independent beats.

Mark “The Shark” Druery

Emailing press kits and Soundcloud links has become as much a part of the 9-5 for indie artists in recent years as actually getting into the studio and hammering out a couple of hot tracks has been traditionally, but if you’re in this platform’s hands, your workload could be reduced considerably. Submitting content to Song Angel doesn’t leave you with an undisclosed wait time between hitting the send button and finally getting a response – using the app’s dashboard and technical notifications, you’re always on top of who is opening your email, listening to your content, enjoying the aesthetics of your artistry and more. It’s like having a crystal ball; there’s are no unsolvable marketing mysteries with Song Angel because clarity is built right into their corporate concept.

SONG ANGEL: https://songangel.com/dashboard

Don’t have a clue where to start promoting the artists you’re managing? Let this platform do the heavy lifting for you – one of the best elements of Song Angel is the extensive network of professionals it immediately connects you with. You’ve already gone out and done the legwork it takes to get a good roster of talent on the books, and instead of juggling focus between one or two acts, signing up for a Song Angel account can create opportunities to balance personalized relationships with your players and thus bring home the biggest wins for everyone on your team. The only folks to ever say the music business needed to be impossibly difficult were those who never wanted to share the wealth it sustains through recession and surplus the same; thanks to this company, joining the big leagues has never been easier.

In the entertainment game, this is one brand becoming too great a force to be reckoned with for any indie artist or manager to leave it unutilized in any serious campaign, and a simple look at Song Angel’s track record confirms as much. If you’re passionate about transforming your next project from just another inbox casualty into an unmissable vehicle for professional and personal recognition, Song Angel is a must-have platform you need to be signed up for and working with in 2021. The journey from obscurity to superstardom can be long and hard, but with this company, you don’t have to go it alone.

Mark Druery

The finer points of Hēran Soun’s artistry are defined less by the cosmetics of his music and more by the technique with which he applies his craft to the canvas that is this medium. His attraction to size in songs like “In My Mouth,” “A Picture of a Woman” and the brutishly melodic “A Lover Waits” never manifests itself through the swell of the volume exclusively; there’s always another arm to this physicality, and as I discussed in my initial review of Undeaf, this physicality is a cornerstone of the poetic value and interpretive relevancy of his style of songwriting. If this guy cares about the mainstream narrative, you’d never know it by talking to him – his prerogative isn’t obligatory but self-imposed, which is something I haven’t been able to find in a lot of the indie experimentalists evolving out of the new Bay Area scene lately.

Hēran Soun has already recorded a follow-up to Undeaf, and judging from the ambitiousness of his AOTY-winning submission in this year’s release, I would expect nothing but stellar handiwork out of his next project as well. Where the late 2010s were shaped by genre-benders on the left side of the dial, here we find an artist that seems intent on creating something that is neither a hybrid nor a third or fourth-gen contribution to an alternative movement spurred forth decades ago. Truth be told, Undeaf has the hallmarks of an awakening, a new chapter in the bridging between noise rock and melodic pop songcraft that could produce something quite incendiary among the underground scene in Cali and beyond a lot sooner than some critics might be inclined to acknowledge.

After an intense horse race to the finish line, I sincerely congratulate Hēran Soun as the winner of Indieshark’s Album of the Year award. Despite some fierce competition from releases both domestic and foreign alike, Undeaf comes in as our unequivocal favorite LP of 2020, and if you haven’t already taken the opportunity to explore its fifty-six minute tracklist I would highly recommend doing so on the next occasion you find yourself browsing for unmissable up and comers.

Read my original review posted back in November 2020: https://indieshark.com/awards/pick-of-the-week/heran-soun-undeaf-lp/

Once again congratulations to HERAN SOUN for having the courage to remain true to himself as a “total package” singer/songwriter/entertainer. #HeranSounAlbumOfTheYear2020

Mark ‘the shark’ Druery

This past February, one of the first great indie singles of the year rocketed its way into my playlist courtesy of Moran Mallory and has yet to depart from my daily listens – in “Bullet,” this pop singer/songwriter straight-up elevates himself to the big leagues with a hook worthy of a standing ovation. One of the best vocals I heard in 2020 undoubtedly belonged to Desmond Myer, whose single/video combo in “Playing With Fire” instantly became a favorite for breakout release of the year upon my first giving it a spin. Blxpltn’s “Zzeerro (Dying for You to Get Rich)” and Proper Einstein’s “Like This” remain two of my favorite videos of 2020, and in some ways they represent the extremes of minimalism as they’ve been refashioned for a new chapter in the history of western music.

While I might not have heard Chords of Eve, singer/songwriter Anthony Quails, Ancient Whales or Izzy Outerspace before the start of this year, each of these acts made my list for best new artists of 2020 without any debate this December. Chords of Eve’s sexy Dear Engineer EP lit a fire that has burned particularly bright since its arrival, and if they’re able to expand upon the sound that they’ve introduced us to in its five songs with a proper LP in the next year, I haven’t any doubts as to whether or not they’re going to be frontrunners for the 2021 AOTY fin. Moxie is everything in this industry, and when combined with charisma, it results in tracks like “The Future’s Not What It Used To Be” getting stuck in your head for months on end.

If there is only one album that you listen to in 2020, it needs to be Undeaf – that said, there’s absolutely no excuse for listening to only one full-length in a year that has produced premier cuts like I.Am.Tru.Starr’s lo-fi rap masterpiece Viva, Tatiana Eva-Marie’s uncompromising Bonjour Tristesse, The Brothers Union’s Pain and the Opposite, Cinemarty’s Death of the First Person, and Thomas Charlie Pedersen’s Daylight Saving Hours. Whether experimenting with the limits of genre or simply the parameters of their own artistry, there isn’t a single player among these acts that didn’t deserve to win Album of the Year; in fact, I would say their arriving at the same time as Hēran Soun’s smashing new LP was a divine coincidence gifted to music lovers in a nauseatingly uncertain period that was already going to rob us of countless live concert experiences.

Every month of 2020 has brought forth a new record, single or music video worth spending a little extra time with, but there are certainly a few records from 2019 that I felt like I had to mention in this yearend editorial simply out of respect for their consistent listenability well after their initial release. Cracking my personal top 3 are Derrick Davis’ throttling sophomore effort Anti-Social, Roses and Cigarettes’ unexpected swan song Echoes and Silence, as well as Speakea5y’s breathtaking EP Circles, the latter of which I eagerly await hearing a sequel to (hopefully within the first half of 2021).

There’s still a lot we don’t collectively know about what 2021 is going to look like for live music, but with a litany of fresh records slated to debut in the next few months alone, you can bet everything in your bank account on the next year sounding as spellbinding as this one has for indie music buffs around the globe. Trends in surrealism and atmospheric melodicism seem to be waning in favor of something a bit more focused and visceral among pop musicians, but if there’s anything that I would anticipate hearing in the next year as a result of quarantine culture’s influence, it’s a continuous insularity in both composing and mixing that is sincerely reflective of the times we’re living in.

No matter what the soundtrack of 2021 consists of, stay locked in to Indieshark for the premium leads on where the underground’s hottest beats are coming from. The aforementioned content makes for one amazing pandemic playlist, and while none of us like staying cooped up inside, artists like these are finding a way of making even the darkest of times just a little easier (as always).

Mark ‘the shark’ Druery

Some may be skeptical. They will say, “Isn’t it a streaming world now? Shouldn’t we concern ourselves more with outlets like Spotify, Bandcamp, and Soundcloud? What about social media?” These are important platforms, without question, but radio continues to rule the roost as the most prominent medium for releasing new music. A recent study discovered 92% of the music listening public are regularly tuning in to some form of radio programming. Times change, but the cachet of getting your music played on radio abides and still legitimizes performers in a way other platforms cannot match. Musik Radio Promotions recognizes this and devote themselves to placing new and veteran artists with the right stations.

They further recognize that the world doesn’t revolve around the American market alone. Instead, Musik Radio Promotions adopts a global approach and tailors their work for artists to find ideal markets for their music. The work extends over five continents and 180 countries. MAF charts artists on the Euro Indie Music chart and World Indie Music Charts with 160 stations reporting from 60 different countries. These include Billboard, Mediabase, and other important measures of exposure. Passion and inspiration define their production services as well. Members of the MAF team boast an impressive list of past credits they have charted such as Jason Derulo, The Rolling Stones, Jennifer Lopez, and David Guetta, among many others. Platinum producers such as Robyn Robins, responsible for mastering over three thousand release worldwide as well, do not grow on trees and Musik and Film Production associate themselves with the cream of the crop rather than also-rans or never-weres. They are likewise capable of calling upon the services of top-notch session players to help strengthen material as well as tackling remastering and remixing that can stand alongside any major release.

MAF is also equipped to provide artists with music video production and promotion. Interested in the popular lyric video form? Or perhaps a video with still images including album previews? The MAF team can bring these ideas to fruition utilizing the latest filmmaking technology so clients can present a polished and professional product each time out. Their video promotion has the same sort of extensive reach enjoyed by their radio promotions. MAF’s work is a mainstay on outlets such as MTV, over a dozen of the largest video pools, FUSE ON DEMAND, and AXSTV, among others. They can put their connections with hundreds of music video blogs and websites, as well, to ensure as many eyeballs as possible view your promotional clip.

Repeat clients are common. Even a brief perusal of the company’s website reveals a wealth of testimonials from artists who have reaped rewards from their long-standing relationship with MAF. You don’t keep coming back for more and forking over fees for shoddy service and results. The time, love, and focus the MAF team invest in promoting artists through various methods and helping them realize their dreams is not the hallmark of workmanlike profiteers looking to make a buck and nothing more. It, instead, testifies to a company-wide understanding of music’s transformative power. MAF value their place in the creative food chain and the power they possess for making a musician’s voice heard over the din and clatter of modern entertainment.

This isn’t a company looking to gouge you. This isn’t a company who takes your hard-earned money and gives you a lukewarm return on your investment. Instead, you can describe what they do as advocacy masquerading as commerce. The MAF team work hard to make sure artists have a seat at the table of their potential success rather than leaving them twisting in the wind and reliant on either fate or luck to bring them popular and critical notice. This quality, among others, puts them more than a cut above your everyday promotional company. Instead, they are standard bearers for gifted musicians and songwriters who might otherwise go unheard.

We need companies like this is fast-changing times. The musical landscape, since the major labels collapsed in the wake of technological advances and decades-old corporate greed, is ever evolving and many of the old gatekeepers are fallen and forgotten giants. MAF fills the gap. Their broad-based approach to pushing an artist’s work leaves no stone unturned in its aim to bring them the renown and attention from popular culture. The clients who join them on this journey can be sure they will receive five-star treatment at every turn and the MAF team will work tirelessly to make sure they are in the best possible place to succeed.

If you are a musician, band, or songwriter who has a message, life experiences, and boundless creativity you want to share with the world, you cannot hope for better. MAF, in all its incarnations, will strive, push, pull levers behind the scenes, and make the necessary contacts to give you the exposure you desire. Put yourself in the best position possible to succeed. Make sure your voice is heard. Such opportunities do not present themselves every day and, when you harbor such ambitions, it is incumbent upon any musical artist to make the most of those chances. MAF are here to help you maximize the chance you reach the widest possible audience. Don’t pass it by – seize the moment and bring the full gamut of possibilities spring to life. If music and creation are your passions, align yourself with a company who shares those same passions. The MAF team will be waiting to hear from you.

Pertinent Links:

URL: https://musikandfilm.com/

WORLD INDIE MUSIC CHARTS: https://worldindiemusiccharts.com

MORE INFO ON (CEO) STEPHEN WRENCH : http://stephenwrench.com

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/musikandfilm

TWITTER:: https://twitter.com/musikandfilm

End of Article

As most are already aware by now, Seattle crooner Ronnue was the runaway winner of the Album of the Year award for his smoldering R&B hybrid Introduction 2 Retro-Funk, and one needn’t have much more than a cursory listening session with its tracklist to understand why. In true 2010s fashion, Ronnue melds so many styles together in his latest LP that it’s often difficult to find the right terms to categorize it, but through all of the diverse melodies it offers, all are bound by raw, uncut emotion. Sexuality, introspection, the release of inhibitions; this guy covers it all with little more than a groove and a sweeping harmony, and that just couldn’t be said about any other artist caught in the Shark’s net this year. It was a pleasure to personally present the trophy to him this past December, and my gut tells me that it won’t be the last piece of hardware he puts on his mantle.

That said, there were a handful of serious heavyweights that made a noteworthy play for the AOTY crown we also have to acknowledge. Derrick Davis’ unstoppably melodic Anti-Social was a major contender throughout the year, as it found its way back onto the staff’s playlists time and time again on the strength of swinging R&B jams like “All I Need to Know,” “Best I Can” and the unforgettable power ballad “End of Days.” By far the best EP I heard all year was speakea5y’s Circles, a darkly emotional offering from an artist with more talent than a studio can hold; from the opening cut of “Apollo” to the breathtaking instrumental “Luna,” I find myself on the edge of my seat, constantly waiting to hear whatever twisted beat is going to come oozing out of the speakers next, every time I press play.

On the pop music end, Shelita’s self-titled debut was another rookie release that was in heavy rotation around the Indieshark offices from the moment it dropped up until New Year’s Eve, when “Penetrate!” and “Libations!” both helped to ring in the New Year for this critic and his friends. Country fans were likely doing the same with W.C. Beck’s First Flight as well, as it was undisputedly the most potent dose of Americana that came out of any independent recording session I had the chance to listen in on.

2019 had plenty of breakthrough moments for both established vets in the underground and newcomers alike, and for my money, the beats didn’t get much better than those I heard in Dan Rico’s smashing BA$ement P0p, an extended play featuring four divine tracks in “Scofflaw,” “Shi,” “Star*” and “Dream Vaca$ion” that no one could play just once. Nya, a vocalist who has been active for a couple of years now, turned heads with her acoustic EP Hold On, which included a reworking of the heart-stopping “Love You to Death” (a song which, in its original form, I’m not too embarrassed to say I’ve listened to every day of the winter season). Singer/songwriter fans couldn’t have asked for a better debut than they got in Melissa Ruth’s Meteor, and though the LP’s title track was by far my favorite of its collection, there were plenty of whiskey-soaked nights in front of the keyboard when the entire album acted as the bittersweet companion to writer’s block that I believe it was always meant to be. Echoes and Silence, an early frontrunner for AOTY and a watershed moment for its creators, ended up serving as the swan song for country duo Roses and Cigarettes, whose singer Jenny Pagliaro tragically lost her battle with cancer in April. Pagliaro forever left a mark on those who heard the absolutely spellbinding voice that was her own, and I don’t think I’ll ever forget hearing the music she made with Roses and Cigarettes for the very first time just a couple of short years ago.

As far as standalone releases go, 2019 didn’t disappoint us in the slightest. Collaborations between Gold Light + Snakemusk in the album Shadows in the Shallows as well as a game-changing single in  “Hungover You” from Hazey Eyes and Moli were required listening no matter who you asked around here, while Noiire’s compellingly artistic music video for the ironically-titled “taste ($$$)” put its competition in the dust the minute it played on our big screen. If we gave out a ‘Best Comeback’ award this year, it would go to the band A Picture Made (more commonly stylized as a picture made) without a doubt, as their long-awaited LP Heal ended up being the alternative pop/rock awakening that we never knew we needed.

With 2019 in the rearview mirror and 2020 now upon us, there are plenty of reasons to be excited about the year that lies ahead for the international music underground. At the top of my watch-list, aside from the aforementioned players of course, is the soulful Latin singer Labán, explosive pop temptress Heather Fay, R&B groove-maker Sherman de Vries, and young vocal sensation Szandra Mayer, all of whom released remarkable music in 2019 that we’re still listening to this January.

Where there’s blood in the water, us sharks tend to show up, and if this year is anything like the last one was, there are going to a be a lot of thrilling beats just waiting to be discovered left of the dial. Stay tuned!

Mark “the shark’ Druery

We already mentioned that A&R’s frequently keep a watchful eye on Sound Scan (a service that reports album sales figures by tracking registered bar codes). This can typically show musical trends & “Buzz Factor”. Nielsen SoundScan for example is an information system that tracks sales of music and music video products throughout the United States and Canada. Sales data from point-of-sale cash registers is collected weekly from over 14,000 retail, mass merchant and non-traditional (on-line stores, venues, outlets, etc.) Nielsen SoundScan is the sales source for the Billboard music charts. Weekly data is compiled and made available every Wednesday. So having said all that, how important is a barcode on your product?  Well it’s kind of like asking a pro golfer what he shot at the US Open only having him say “What’s a scorecard?“

If you don’t have a barcode on your CD it not only shows you’re an amateur, it shows you lack some serious knowledge about how the Record Industry works. It basically says I’m clueless, and for every clueless band out there, there are thousands upon thousands of bands that have done there homework and are ready to take your spot. More importantly for your own notes  – it prevents your music from being tracked by some of the prominent systems we have in place to indicate how successful your are.

Also remember – if you ever send free CD’s out to music critics, webzines, promoters, radio stations, club owners, etc. don’t forget to punch a hole somewhere in the barcode. Promo CD’s always have a punched out bar code. You may remember back to LP days when sawcuts, hole punches or corner cuts were made by music publishers mainly so people couldn’t try to return the product to the store for a refund. It also prevents someone from making money off your complementary distribution, besides it’s what the pro’s do.

Barcodes have been and always will be an important component to any Musical Production. So now that you know how important barcodes really are ask yourself right now – do I have barcode on the back of my CD?

Simply put, a Performance Rights Organization is an entity that operates on behalf of songwriters, authors and composers to collect information and ultimately royalties for their registered works.  There was a time when PROs were more difficult to join due to certain requirements and monthly or yearly dues were the norm.  Those times have passed however and if you are a songwriter (music and/or lyrics), composer or author and you are not a member of a PRO, you should be.  Likewise, if you take a percentage ownership of the songs you produce as part (or all) of your compensation then you would be well-served to look into joining a PRO.

The benefits of joining a PRO are many but the primary reason you should look into one is because their function is to collect performance royalties on your works!  For instance, if you were a co-writer on a song and that song was recorded by an artist and ended up being licensed for a television show, you would receive royalties through the PRO you are affiliated with.  No PRO affiliation = no performance royalties.  Get it?  In fact, it’s very likely that the song in my example would even have been licensed in the first place unless the writers were affiliated with a PRO.  There are other benefits to joining a PRO as well – sponsored showcases, networking options, health and insurance benefits via partnerships obtained through the PRO and many seminars and events that only members can attend.

Who are the PROs?  In the U.S. there are three main PROs (and you’ve probably seen one or more if you’ve ever read the liner notes on a CD):  ASCAP (American Society of Songwriters, Composers, Authors and Publishers; BMI (Broadcast Music Incorporated) and SESAC (Society of European Stage Authors and Publishers).  All three operate in a similar manner by using a variety of polling and information-gathering methods and formulas to determine how often and where registered songs are being used and then directing the calculated royalty payments to the registered authors of those songs.  Note that this is different from song ownership.  The ownership of a song ultimately comes down to the copyright – whomever created the original work (be it one person or many).  Oftentimes the owner and author are the same person(s) but it’s still an important distinction.  By registering a work with a PRO, the writer’s share percentage (the amount of the song each writer was determined to have contributed) is input along with the song details.  When a royalty check is cut it is then divided according to the percentage specified for each writer.  The three main PROs use different percentage calculations but the net effect is essentially the same.  Another aspect of how the PROs work is by using a numbering system for each writer.  The numbers are simply to identify the writer within each PROs system.  ASCAP and BMI use the term “CAE” or “IPI” number while SESAC simply calls it the “affiliate number”.  The key is that the numbers are all cross-referenced between the PROs so that registering a song when 3 writers each belong to a different PRO is no problem at all.

This is just the beginnings of the information that’s available regarding PROs and the benefits of affiliating with one (note that you should only affiliate with one PRO at a time).