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Madison Area Music Association’s Breakthrough Artist Competition Fosters Artistry and Ethics
So you’re a new artist or band, working your way into the clubs, developing a local following, fine-tuning your songwriting and production skills. It’s usually about this point in a musical artist’s or group’s career where they begin to wonder how to take things to the next level.
The first decision, naturally, is at what level do you want to be? Once a choice has been made to pursue success, there are a myriad of avenues and obstacles. The Madison Area Music Association has developed an event that assists newer artists and bands in taking the next step. The Breakthrough Artist competition was developed three years ago by Mary Sweeney. Sweeney owns her own business, Sweeney Photography, and excels at creating photographic portraits of musicians whether it’s in a live setting, in her studio or on location. Projecting an image is critical to an artist’s appeal and Sweeney has adapted these skills to the Breakthrough Artist event. Its stated purpose is to guide these artists as they create successful, independent, small businesses and grow them into larger businesses.
BTA, as the event is known, works like this: The artist must be currently registered with the Madison Area Music Association. That means the eligibility requirements are the same in terms in location and activity. The band or artist must have been established in the last two years and must have performed publicly during the past year. Current project must be unique and independent of any and all past projects, lineups, and music style and all music submitted to the contest must be original works. The submission part is facilitated by Broadjam, which also handles all the submissions for the annual MAMA Awards. This streamlines the process and those registering for the BTA competition can also register for the awards. Voting is open now until March 5th (first round voting for the MAMA Awards is also currently open). The competing bands will be announced shortly thereafter.
There are also other commitments potential BTA competitors agree to:
- They must provide merchandise for sale during the BTA event.
- Artists must demonstrate initiative by using promotional tools such as Broadjam, Backstage Vibe, and any other digital or physical resources that may extend awareness of the artist and event.
- They must also demonstrate a local following on social media and have a minimum of 300 followers, at least 50% of them being local.
- They must commit to performing live at the Madison Area Music Association Breakthrough Artist competition.
- They must be able to respond to event coordinators within 48 hours of significant planning dates, including the announcement of the finalists.
- They must be able to commit to performing live at the Madison Area Music Association Awards, should the band win the contest which includes honoring that event’s performance contract.
This year’s Breakthrough Artist competition will be held at Full Compass (9770 Silicon Prairie Parkway) on Saturday, March 19th. The event is open to the public and an opening set will be provided by the Mascot Theory. Each finalist will be allowed to perform up to three songs, with a time limit of fifteen minutes. A panel of independent judges from various areas of the music industry will evaluate the artists on a predetermined set of criteria with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners are announced directly following the competition.
The prize winnings are as follows:
First Prize:
• A performance slot at the MAMA Awards on June 19th
• Five hours of studio time from Blast House Studios
• A Primo membership to Broadjam ($200 value, plus 52 free music licensing submissions!)
• A professional styling and in-studio promo session with Sweeney Photography
• 1 box of Dunlop guitar strings (Customized to the winner’s preference)
• 1 box of Dunlop bass strings (Customized to the winner’s preference)
• 2 bags of Dunlop picks (Customized to the winner’s preference)
• 2 Dunlop effects pedals – one overdrive and one delay (Customized to the winner’s preference)
Second Prize:
• A Primo membership to Broadjam
• A performance slot at the MAMA Finalist Party on April 3rd
• 1 box of Dunlop guitar or bass strings (Customized to the winner’s preference)
Third Prize:
• A Primo membership to Broadjam
• 2 bags of Dunlop picks (Customized to the winner’s preference)
This year’s judges include Yellow Phone Music Conference founder Doug Johnson, Chrys Johnson who is Director of Artist Relations for Jim Dunlop Manufacturing, and Charlie Goldstone who works with Frank Productions.
“The competition was created to help these new artists (solo performers and bands, in all genres of music) answer the question “What do we do next?” says Sweeney. “Its purpose is to guide these artists as they create successful, independent, small businesses and grow them into larger businesses. The judging criteria is set to address all aspects of working and performing in the music industry. Simple items such as showing up on time, social media use, having merchandise to sell – all the little things that when combined properly can help artists be successful. The competition was not set up to simply hand over a successful business – it was set up to educate artists and provide the tools they would need.”
Below is the schedule of all the upcoming events and deadlines leading up to the MAMA Awards:
FEBRUARY 5th – MAMA Awards 1st Round voting begins
MARCH 14th – MAMA Awards 1st Round voting ends
MARCH 19th – Breakthrough Artist Competition at Full Compass
April 3rd – MAMA Awards Finalist Party at the Brink Lounge and Final Round voting begins
MAY 9th – MAMA Awards Final Round Voting Ends
MAY 9th – Deadline for Student/Teacher of the Year Applications
MAY 15th – MAMA Awards Youth Registration Ends
MAY 30th – Student/Teacher of the Year winners announced
JUNE 19th – 2016 MAMA AWARDS SHOW in the Capitol Theater of the Overture Center
