ALL THE NEWS ON THE FUTURE SOUND OF NOTTINGHAM 2013 IS HERE DUCK.
RULES FOR THIS YEAR’S (2012) FUTURE SOUND OF NOTTINGHAM ARE HERE
THE BRAND NEW NEW MUSIC PODCAST (OUT MONDAY 2ND) WILL TELL YOU HOW TO ENTER, CLICK HERE.
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CHECK MONDAY (19TH) MORNING’S PODCAST FOR NEWS ON THE LINE-UP FOR MARKET SQUARE AND ADVICE ON WHAT YOU WILL ‘NEED’ TO BE ABLE TO ENTER THIS YEAR’S COMPETITION.
SIMPLY CLICK ON THE PODCAST TAB AT THE TOP.
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CHECK MONDAY (5TH) MORNING’S PODCAST FOR NEWS ON 2012’S FUTURE SOUND OF NOTTINGHAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SIMPLY CLICK ON THE PODCAST TAB AT THE TOP.
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SUPPORT DOG IS DEAD ON DECEMBER 17th AT ROCK CITY – THE COMPETITION!
THE FINAL HAS TAKEN PLACE (see deets further down the page), result announce via the NUSIC New Music Podcast on Monday 5th December 2011.
ROUND TWO, THE SEMI FINALS, NOW LIVE:
Any votes cast by the Nusic team or Dog Is Dead will not count in the final result.
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The rumours are true, together with the band (fair to say they’ve had some input!) and DHP Promotions we are giving you the chance to play at… The biggest ever headline show by a Nottingham act!!!
ENTRY details are contained on the brand new New Music Podcast, listen to it HERE.
You will hear all the latest updates on this competition first in the latest NUSIC New Music Podcasts.
More event info HERE
We often get asked in regard to our comps why we don’t just let you have all the info now, its a fair question with two main answers. Firstly we don’t know always know all the info at the beginning! Secondly its a ‘the ends justifies the means’ strategy. Four months off air in early 2011 meant we lost audience, exposing your music to our 2000 odd audience (including a significant industry listenership) was one of the main benefits of our work, it’s in all our interests to continue buidling that audience back up. For that reason EVERY major announcement on this competition and anything else we do will be made via the New Music Podcast first. I hope you understand why.
ROUND ONE MAIN RULES and JUDGING PROCESS:
YOU MUST BE FROM NOTTS – This means you (if more than one of you the majority of you) either live in the Great County of Nottinghamshire or were brought up here (whilst now living somewhere else e.g. you are at Uni). You must proclaim Notts as your hometown on all social media (we will check).
ALL GENRES – To ensure we live our Third Commandment and represent a diversity of genres all genres are invited to enter. However we do not have as much influence on this competition as our own Future Sound of Nottingham comp so there will be no minimum quota of ‘Urban Musicians’. We must also admit that as this comp is to support a band bands are likely to have an advantage, this doesn’t mean non-bands should not bother but to be honest with you you’ll need to be at the very top of your game to win a comp to support a band.
WHO CANNOT ENTER? – Those who have won/ headlined any previous NUSIC or NOTTS UNSIGNED competitons. For the avoidance of doubt this means THE MONEY, LONG DEAD SIGNAL, FRONTIERS, THE TURF and of course unsurprisingly DOG IS DEAD themselves. Previous finalists can enter.
JUDGES – For Round One the judges are George Akins {Owner Dog Is Dead’s management company DHP (Who also own Rock City)}, Paul K (LeftLion Music Editor), Simon Wilson (Editor of Nottingham Post’s EG) and Peter Fletcher (Denizen/ Confetti).
JUDGING PROCESS – Each judge will mark each act of ten twice. The first mark will be for ‘raw talent’ as perceived by them. The second mark will be for ‘ability to nail it supporting Dog Is Dead at Rock City’ as perceived by them. Scores from the judge giving the highest score will be excluded (explained below). The other three Judges will have their scores all added together giving each act a final mark out of 60. The top ten (subject to the criteria outlined above) acts will go through to Round Two (public vote).
WHY DO YOU EXCLUDE THE HIGHEST SCORE? – It’s about ensuring independence and fairness. We want our judging process to be impartial and independent, striving for that over time we have realised its IMPOSSIBLE to put together a judging panel of individuals with knowledge of the Nottingham Music scene who do not have connections with musicians in that scene, everyone has their favourites. By excluding the top vote you make sure any ‘freak’ 10 out of 10 given to the act who features one of the judge’s nieghbour’s sons does not bias the result.
CAN PEOPLE WHO WORK WITH/ FOR YOU ENTER? – After some thought on this one, yes. We have a large number of volunteers from the Nottinghamshire scene who help and support us, many are musicians themselves. Not letting them enter would effectively ‘punish’ them for helping out.
CAN PEOPLE WHO KNOW DOG IS DEAD ENTER? – Again, after some thought on this one, yes. Not letting them enter would effectively ‘punish’ them for being friends with the band. We want to encourage Dog Is Dead to remember Nottingham (and give back) on their rise to glory, requiring them to penalise their friends will not encourage them to do that.
Practically it’s also very hard to define what counts as a friend, do you ban anyone who has ever met the band? Snogged the band?! Been to a gig of the bands?!!
OK HOW DO YOU ENSURE NO BIAS? – By trying our best. Three points to the answer. None of us (those of us working on Nusic on a day to day basis) will be judges, in fact all our judges are high profile members of the local scene who work elsewhere. Secondly, any acts who have links with us and make it through to the semi-finals we will declare so everything is transparent. Thirdly our cunning judging mechanic explained above.
The final ten will be announced on Mon 7th NOV via the New Music Podcast. Their decision is final, by entering the competition you agree to accept this and all the above.
We will not publish the specific scores for all artists for two reasons:
1) We want the judges to be able to score honestly and not worry about getting grief when musicians see the scores they gave them.
2) We don’t want to discourage people, if you see you came last with 3 points out of 60 that’s not very encouraging, and we’re all about encouraging.
ROUND TWO – THE PUBLIC VOTE
The final ten will be brought down to a final five by a public online vote, precisely as we did with The Future Sound of Nottingham.
THIS IS NOW LIVE: http://www.nusic.org.uk/wordpress/dog-is-dead-comp-voting-advice-and-guidance-2/
ROUND THREE – THE BAND DECIDE
The band picked their favourite from the final five voted for by the public in Round Two.
The voting was conducted in a similar way to the Round One’s expert judging round with a few important differences. Firstly the voting was ‘blind’, the band were not told who each artist was, they voted purely on the merit of the anonymous tracks they were hearing. Secondly they listened to two tracks with the option to listen to a third if they wished, this reflected the fact they were picking an artist that was going to have to play a full set, they couldn’t risk a one hit wonder! In all five cases they asked to hear a third track (although not all artists has provided one).
As with Round One’s expert judges they gave each artist a score out of ten for raw ability and a score out of ten for suitability.
We will not publish a full breakdown of results for the same ‘potential to discourage’ reasons as Round One (see above).
Obviously individuals may recognise artist’s sound but there isn’t really more we can do to keep the process impartial and fair, if you can think of anything email us with subject title ‘No Brown Envelopes Thank You’ to nusic@leftlion.co.uk
TRANSPARANCY: In terms of potential clashes of interest at least one member of the band knew someone in three of the five finalists. In addition (as befits it’s place at the heart of the Nottingham music scene) every single one of the finalists had studied, worked and/ or recorded at our Sponsor’s Confetti ICT.
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FUTURE SOUND OF NOTTINGHAM 2011
As part of our launch and the build up to our annual FUTURE SOUND OF NOTTINGHAM showcase we will be giving away to one Nottingham artist the chance to play the main stage at Splendour.
AND NOW ROCK CITY TOO!
You will hear all the latest updates on this competition first (including how to enter) in the latest NUSIC New Music Podcasts.
Facebook event is HERE
A few of you are asking why we don’t just let you have all the info now, its a fair question with two main answers. Firstly we don’t know all the info yet! Secondly its a ‘the ends justifies the means’ strategy. Four months off air means we have lost our audience, exposing your music to our 2000 odd audience (including a significant industry listenership) was one of the main benefits of our work.
We need to do all we can to build that audience back up as quickly as possible, its in all our interests. For that reason EVERY major announcement on this competition and anything else we do will be made via the New Music Podcast first. I hope you understand why.
The first NUSIC New Music Podcast is available to download NOW and contains details on the registration process for the competition.
ROUND ONE MAIN RULES and JUDGING PROCESS:
YOU MUST BE FROM NOTTS – this means you (if more than one of you the majority of you) either live in the Great County of Nottinghamshire or were brought up here (whilst now living somewhere else e.g. you are at Uni). You must proclaim Notts as your hometown on social media.
ALL GENRES – to ensure we live our Third Commandment and represent a diversity of genres at least two of the ten semi-finalists will be urban artists (definition of urban = would be played on Radio 1Xtra, Chairman makes this judgement call)
WHO CANNOT ENTER? – Those already on this year’s bill no matter what stage cannot enter the competition. Neither can any of the local acts who have played the main stage in previous years.
ARTIST WHO HAVE PREVIOUSLY PLAYED NON MAIN STAGE STAGES AT SPLENDOUR – These may enter but a maximum of five such artists will be allowed through to the final ten, this is to ensure brand new talent gets a chance.
JUDGES – for the semi-finals the judges are Andy Wells (DHP Group Marketing Director), Paul K (LeftLion Music Editor) and Mike Uwins (Course Leader, FdSc Music Technology, Confetti).
JUDGING PROCESS – each judge will mark each act of ten twice. The first mark will be for ‘raw talent’ as perceived by them. The second mark will be for ‘ability to nail it at Splendour’ as perceived by them. All added together each act will have a final mark out of 60. The top ten (subject to the criteria outlined above) acts will go through to the semi-finals.
CAN PEOPLE WHO WORK WITH/ FOR YOU ENTER? – After some thought on this one, yes. We have a large numbers of volunteers from the Nottinghamshire who help and support us, many are musicians themselves. Not letting them enter would effectively ‘punish’ them for helping out.
OK HOW DO YOU ENSURE NO BIAS? – Fair question. Two points to the answer. None of us (those of us working on Nusic on a day to day basis) will be judges, in fact all our judges are high profile members of the local scene who work elsewhere (wait till you see the ‘Judging Dream Team’ we have lined up for the final!). Secondly, any acts who have links with us and make it through to the semi-finals we will declare so everything is transparent.
Results will be announced on Mon 20th via the New Music Podcast. Their decision is final, by entering the competition you agree to accept this and all the above,
Breakdown of Round One Voting HERE
ROUND TWO – The Semi-Finals
In contrast to Round One which was an expert Judges vote, Round Two is totally open to the public. We wanted to mix things up, an expert vote ensures new talent yet to build a fanbase get a chance (as well as solo artists who often miss out in public votes simply due to there being less of them in the ‘musical entity’), a public vote ensures local musicians who have been good enough to build a fanbase get to acknowledge that, additionally as the public vote happens during round two members of the public get the chance to experience all the Semi-Finalists via the New Music Podcast and also our live semi-finals in MARKET SQUARE!
The public vote is open from 9am Monday 20th June through to 11.59pm Wednesday 29th June. It will be an ‘open’ vote (in that you can see who is winning) until 11.59pm Monday 27th June. At this point we intend to (technology allowing) make the vote private, this will build some tension and drive audience to our New Music Podcast where we will announce the results exclusively 9am Monday 4th July 2011.
You can vote for who you want to see go on to play Splendour HERE
ROUND THREE – The Final!
The voting process is quite complicated, please let us explain the method in the apparent madness.
Its a mixed voting system, half being audience vote, half being ‘expert’ Judges vote. This is an attempt to get the best of both worlds in terms of fairness and also to create a system that helps stimulate a great event.
HAVING JUDGES:
– Addresses the natural numerical advantage of bands with public votes and so re-balances things a bit towards the solo artists.
– Makes sure raw talent, yet to build any following, is recognised.
– Gives you a chance to perform in front of connected, important music industry players, on the Nottingham level this Judging Panel is huge, every major player in Nottingham is represented! This in itself is a big opportunity regardless of the result.
Those Judges are:
Anton Lockwood – Promotions Director DHP Group (organisers of Splendour)
Craig Chettle – Managing Director Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies
Jared Wilson – Editor In Chief LeftLion
Mark Dennsion – BBC Radio Nottingham
Simon Wilson – EG Editor Nottingham Post
Phil McCauley – Chairman Blackstar Amplifiers
Read more about them HERE
AUDIENCE VOTE:
– Helps mobilise the troops. Knowing they can make a difference encourages friends, family and fans to come down and support in the process creating a better atmosphere for all.
– Ensures that talent talented enough to have built a following gets recognised. It always amusing when people moan, ‘they only won because they have more fans than us!’
AUDIENCE VOTE METHOD – Three announced ‘audience votes’ throughout the night via a decibel-o-meter on stage taking precise Db readings of audience volume level. The thinking:
– A decibel-o-meter on the stage encourages the crowd to come to front and get boisterous, not awkwardly stand quietly at the back like a school disco.
– Taking three ‘audience votes’ throughout the night ensures fans of all acts are encouraged to watch all acts thereby creating a better atmosphere for all.
– Having three specific announced ‘audience vote moments’ means everyone will know when the vote is being taken and when to make extra noise for their fav. It also means at all other times they can get behind all acts not worrying about being seen as ‘unfaithful’! Creating a better atmosphere for all.
We will announce these audience vote moments on stage, will then read out each artist name and measure the noise from the crowd for each artist. This will be done at the start at 7pm, after the last act and one time at random.
The Judges will be marking you out of ten on these criteria:
– Stage Presence – swagger, X-Factor, engagement with audience.
– Raw Talent – as perceived by the individual judge.
– Quality of Performance – in time, in tune, hitting notes etc
– Quality of Songs – as perceived by the individual judge.
– Splendour Suitability – would you ‘work’ opening the main stage?
Six judges scoring you out of 50 will give you a total score out of 300.
Each of the three ‘audience votes’ will be out of 100, scores will be allocated like this:
Highest Db – 100
2nd – 85
3rd – 75
4th – 66
5th – 55
6th – 50
After three votes we will have a second score out of 300 giving each artist an overall score out of 600. Needless to say the highest score out of 600 wins that main stage slot at Splendour.
Complicated yes, but all aimed at creating the best possible atmosphere for all as well as seek a winning artist talented enough to win the love of the critics and the people.
vlr
x
