NL version: OPINIE Bart Becks – Belgium zero points, maar een hoog BNG-gehalte

FR version: Opinion Bart Becks – Belgium zero point, mais une haute ENB

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Unfortunately, only few bands ring a bell. But 2 newcomers are getting high marks. These are the ones that constantly get recognition and appreciation:

1. over the last year’s, our Dewaele Brothers hit it big with 2ManyDj’s. They’ve headlined or closed quite some amazing festivals. And they are amazing guys! (I even asked my wife to marry me during one of their gigs, but that’s another story)

2. Lords of Acid have made a huge name for themselves, being one of the first bands that combined electro and rock. After top-producer Rick Rubin produced a record, and sales topped at nearly 2,5 Mio albums (combined), their act created a lot of buzz. Last year’s tour was quite amazing, selling out most of the gigs in a 20-leg tour across the US. New album out now: “deep chills”! (ps: the frontman is Praga Khan/Maurice Engelen, my partner in SonicAngel)

3. Very under-appreciated in their home-country, but Front242 have left an incredible impression in the electro/EBM scene in the US and also in South America. They are certainly not forgotten!

Two new ones have just appeared:
4. from the classic genre, but Dirk Brossé made quite an impression on the folks across the US. Not only because of his position in Philadelphia, but selling out huge arena’s with the star wars concert. I had quite some goosebumps, watching him direct an orchestra in a 7.000 people hall in LA, while favorite Star Wars’ scenes were projected

5. new kid on the block, but this might become the biggest one ever: 987FM is playing him all night long, and all of the US is embracing Gotye. Although considered Australian, he is actually born in Belgium. He’s been in Australia since a long time – but we’re keeping him Belgian though. If you have any doubts, watch the scenes of last nights ‘Somebody that I used to know’, live at the Coachella fest 2012. Goosebumps for us Belgians, I tell you!

Enjoy – bart.

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BRUSSEL - Hij is amper 23jaar oud en haalde in San Francisco zomaar even 1,1 miljoen dollar op. De Limburgse internet-ondernemer Davy Kestens krijgt de steun van enkele grote jongens voor zijn bedrijfje Twitspark. En dat voor een zittenblijver en een drop-out.

more

bravo davy. read also: http://goo.gl/Grqyi (more relevant than ever)

bart

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In NL:

Should I stay or Should I go (NL): http://datanews.knack.be/ict/knowledge-center/start-ups/opinie-bart-becks-should-i-stay-or-should-i-go/article-4000041792537.htm

Er leeft iets in ons land: http://datanews.knack.be/ict/knowledge-center/start-ups/opinie-bart-becks-er-leeft-iets-in-ons-land/article-4000029393231.htm

In FR:

Cela bouge dans notre pays: http://datanews.levif.be/ict/centre-de-connaissance/jeunes-entreprises/opinion-bart-becks-cela-bouge-dans-notre-pays/article-4000029492640.htm

Should I stay or Should I go: http://datanews.levif.be/ict/actualite/opinion/opinion-bart-becks-should-i-stay-or-should-i-go/article-4000041835389.htm

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Happy for the nomination, proud of our team! Team means: the team working day to day, but certainly all the fans, all the artists and everyone involved. It will allow us to tell our story to the international music scene. Additionally, Tom Dice is also selected for the NRJ music awards that is held during the MIDEM conference – so we’re present twice, with our platform AND our music!

Crowdfunding is becoming a gamechanger in empowering talent across the world, even if I see crowdfunding as a start (and not the end) of creating a new creative ecosystem. More about that later.

For now: thanks. Very grateful. Short video below (don’t mind the quality – but it does tell our story).

bart

Paris: Official Press Release related to MIDEM – the global music conference (28-31 January 2012, Cannes/France)

Midemlab, the international pitching competition for ground-breaking start-ups and app developers across all sectors, today unveils the 30 finalists poised to be the innovators of tomorrow’s music industry. The finalists – chosen by UK digital consulting company Music Ally and French specialist open innovation consultancy, bluenove – will present their projects to a jury of leading international digital experts including potential business partners and leading investment firms.

The finalists will each outline their cutting-edge technical solutions that could offer new opportunities to industry executives, artists and brands to reach and engage with new audiences and generate revenues.

Previous editions have provided a launch pad for some of today’s major technological innovations, such as SoundCloud, The Echo Nest, Songkick and Root Music. The list of finalists for 2012 will herald the next generation of innovation.

Cannes, here we come!

bb

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.A CFO for SonicAngel  (incl. our new initiatives FilmAngel & Angel.me)

SonicAngel was created with the vision to create an innovative platforms to find, finance & release a new generation of artists powered by the fans. Central in our approach is a crowdfunding model, which allows fans to invest in the bands. However, we have a relentless focus to create success stories, so we’re also further building platforms based on social media te detect but also to optimize the release of creative work.

After a start in Belgium, we are now extending in various genres, but we’re also rapidly expanding to the US, Germany & France. As a start.
On top of it, we’ve just released FilmAngel.TV. Same concept, different domain.

And there’s much more to come.

In order to achieve our ambitions, we are looking for a CFO.

We believe it’s essential that a CFO can drive the following statements:

1.     “It’s all in the details” - A professional accounting designation is the foundation. A few years ago it was all the rage to have MBAs in the top finance role. These days, an MBA does not begin to cover the accounting, process, and tax knowledge needed to steer a company’s finances.

2.     “Let’s make a deal” - The dream team CFO not only runs the deal process for fundraising, but should also bring deal flow into the company. They should have a track record of originating and closing equity deals, and should have a long list of potential financing sources that are willing to take their call. Also you want someone who can stretch your funding by knowing which expenses to cut without harming your business.

3.     “Time to get organized” - Your CFO should take a leading role in bringing operational excellence into your company. It means installing just the right amount of process, reporting and structure. Not so much that it slows you down, but enough so that you smoothly run and grow the engine.

4.     “What happens in the company stays in the company” – Your CFO should be a trusted advisor to the CEO and other executives. Running a company can be lonely. Your CFO will a key, objective source of advice and counsel as you make the big and the small decisions.

5.     “Jack of all trades” – Able to perform other duties (e.g., human resources, technology, legal, and information technology) as needed. It will be a long time before you have in-house counsel, and you can’t afford an outside law firm for every NDA or contract to sign. So, choose a CFO who is very comfortable with legal documents, as well as finance.

6.     “Been there, done that” - Building a software based company is much different than a manufacturing one, or services. The differences are just as apparent in the financials as they are in technology. You need someone who knows the ropes in your industry. And who wans to excel in it

7.      “I have a dream” - The startup road is guaranteed to be long and hard. Investors look for someone who loves the challenge, looks and sounds like he can weather the storm, will always see the bright side despite adversity, and never gives up.

The job of a startup CFO is very different from one at a “big” company. The latter is much more of a hands-off role focused on investor relations, deal making (financing, M & A), governance, reporting and other back office matters. In stark contrast, the startup CFO is much more hands-on and integrated into the day-to-day of the business.

If you feel ‘Yeah’ while reading above statements, and you’d like to work in Brussels, call me on +32 477 62 65 74 or mail me at bart.becks@sonicangel.com

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This is the 5th time in a relatively short time that one of our band is selected to do a major opening.
1. Tom Dice for Taylor Swift @ Vorst (Brussels) & Ahoy (Rotterdam)
2. Barefoot & the Shoes for El Fish @ AB (Brussels)
3. Vienna for Avril Lavigne @ Forrest (Brussels)
4. Jerusalem Syndrome for While Lies @ Lotto Arena (Antwerp)
5. Newton for INXS @ Vooruit (Gent)

We’re incredibly grateful for our bands, and I think that our approach has something to do with it.
1. our selection method to detect talent works pretty good. We developed an internal social media driven platform to analyse fan experience based on twitter, facebook, youtube and some voting principles. And we combine it with traditional A&R, with a clear focus on talent, attitude, hunger to go for it.
2. the principle of SonicAngel is to involve fans as of the beginning, and try to involve them in every step along the way. It allows bands to create followers and fans before they actually start, and a fan feels so much more involved. And I think they’ll vote and support their band much more because they are so involved
3. our current selection of artists and bands is just amazing.

Ofcourse there is always a bit of luck needed.

I said recently at the World Creativity Awards that one of my ambitions in life is to contribute to a culture where you can dare, dream, fail but also win. Same counts for our bands, and hopefully soon our young filmmakers!

On a side-note: I’ve been to every concert mentioned here above, so I’m feeling like a “lucky mascot” – so I’ll be in gent as well!

Bravo to Newton, and thanks a lot to the fans, the teams around them and everyone who helps.

bart

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Besides the fact that I’m a classical music lover, we’re also launching the SonicAngel – Festival van Vlaanderen partnership to enable young classical talent to get discovered, earn a record deal and have huge exposure at 2 major classical music events. I’m quite a fan actually, and even though I took my wife (girlfriend then) to a 4 hour Wagner opera as our first classical music concert, she still joins me often. For the anecdote, I still remember that Wagner evening though:
During the break after 90 minutes…

. She: “I’m glad it’s over, didn’t like it’
. Me: “It’s not over, it’s the first break”
. She: “The first?”
. Me: “Yep, it’s gonna be 2h30 more !”

That said, besides the content and meeting people full of passion, I also heard about the new music note that the government will hopefully approve this week. It unites all music related organisations, in a strong and forward looking plan that will benefit the entire industry. From preserving and promoting access to practicing music, to guiding in management and a lot of incentives on the evolution of distribution and connection (digital) and financial support. It can be the enabler of a strong turnaround of the sector, if all work united. Kudos to Stef Coninx (Chief Muziekcentrum Vlaanderen) & his team for taking the time to explain me the background and potential impact. I was also impressed to hear Philippe de Coene, a parliament member, who came forward to highlight the legislative counters of this reuniting note.

Guess we’ll hear a lot about it. Let’s do all we can to build an industry based on new principles, where the artist, the fan and all other players work together to find and break amazing talent, embrace the connection with the fans, and use technology as a means where it can solve the inefficiency of the sector. Maybe some entrepreneurs will step in again, in an industry that has mainly known downsizing, restructurings and more negative news. And believe me, more companies will go out of business, but I think we’re at a pivotal moment in time during which a new reality is being created.

Let’s go
bart

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1. internationally, with currently a main focus on Germany & Switzerland, France & the US. Our homepage is customized depending on the country you surf from, so just go sonicangel.com . If you’re a band, best to start at our auditions platform: sonicangel.com/auditions
.

2. genres, with currently a main focus on:

• classic: see klarafestival.sonicangel.com
• flemish language based: see domino.sonicangel.com
• electronic & soon also dance: lektroland.sonicangel.com

3. domains, with currently a main focus on film & tv: FilmAngel.TV

–> Below some supplementary info, such as:
- a link to some international articles explaining our actions
- a photo with Oliver Stone at the same day we announced our FilmAngel.TV project
- the press release and the jury of our classic music initiative for young talent

Let’s go!

bart

- – - – - -

(1)

. SonicAngel detects talent based on facebook & twitter: http://www.whathifi.com/news/music-label-uses-facebook-and-twitter-to-find-and-fund-new-artists

. SonicAngel = kickstarter + label: http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2011/09/sonicangel-creates-hybrid-crowdfunded-label.html
. SonicAngel artist Iris to represent Belgium at Eurovision: http://escdaily.com/articles/26125

(2)

.
(3)
Flanders Festival and SonicAngel join forces on a project to support young, classical talent using a new model

Bart Becks (SonicAngel) spoke at the Staten Generaal van de Klassieke Muziek, in the context of ‘new initiatives to support young talent’. This new initiative of SonicAngel and KlaraFestival fits in perfectly with the theme of the Staten Generaal van de Klassieke Muziek, which acts as the launch pad for young musicians and offers them career opportunities. Bart Becks will now take this opportunity to explain the new concept in detail. More to the point, various parties will work together to find and finance new talent and allow them to record an album. In addition, top talents are selected to perform during the KlaraFestival 2012 as well as the RTBF’s Musiq3 Festival. Promising local talent can register through the website at http://klarafestival.sonicangel.com. The promoters are focusing on young musicians between the ages of 16 and 26. There are three registration categories: interpretation of existing work, own compositions and cross-genre works or classical-music inspired compositions. Registration concludes 31 January 2012. Fans will then be able to vote online but there is also a ‘social media’ score calculated based on the circulation via email, twitter and facebook. In a third step, a professional jury will invite 15 finalists to give a live performance. Their selection will depend predominantly on the social media score, the quality and the quality of the online profile. The prestigious jury is composed of: Dirk Brossé (conductor and classical composer), Hendrik Storme (Artistic Director Flanders Festival Brussels), Maurice Engelen (multidisciplinary artist and co-founder of SonicAngel), Martine Mergeay (classical music critic for La Libre Belgique), Gerrit Valckenaers (musician, composer, music programmer for Klara), Geert van der Speeten (culture and media editor De Standaard), Bernard Meillat (head of Musiq3, RTBF). Subsequently, three winners will be selected and they will then be offered a recording contract via SonicAngel. The winners will also be given a spot on the KlaraFestival 2012 and Musiq’3 festival 2012 posters. Bart Becks, co-founder of SonicAngel: “Classical music is often overlooked in innovative projects but through a major, nationally coordinated event, we want to offer young talent the opportunity to be discovered as well as to record an album and to perform. The new models that are successfully applied to the pop and rock genre can certainly be a positive catalyst for classical music and in particular for the younger generation who can use all the support they can get.” Sophie Detremmerie, Business Director KlaraFestival: “Young talent in the world of classical music has difficulties to find the merits to produce a cd. SonicAngel.KlaraFestival guarantees a big communication campaign to convince fans to vote online. So, we can give some youngsters the chance, supported by their fans, to go to “the next level” which is so important for the development of their talent/career.” Presentation of the jury:  Dirk Brossé is a conductor and classical composer from Ghent. He is music director for the Tokyo International Music Festival and the Flanders International Film Festival, Ghent. He is also currently the artistic director for the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. For a long time, Hendrik Storme headed Flanders Festival Bruges, which organises the Musica Antiqua festival, together with Tomas Bisschop. In 2005, he co-founded the successful baroque orchestra B’Rock. Since 2009, Hendrik Storme has been the artistic director at Flanders Festival Brussels, which organises the KlaraFestival and The European Galas, among other musical events. Maurice Engelen is known for being a creative jack-of-all-trades. Amongst other things, he is the frontman for Lords of Acid and Praga Khan. He founded Antler Subway which was successfully sold to EMI. In 2010, he founded Sonic Angel together with Bart Becks and caused a fresh wind to blow through the musical landscape. Martine Mergeay studied nursing, criminology and music. Inspired by her time and music studies in India, she organises concerts of Indian music with Ravi Shankar. She established Festival Midi-Minimes in 1984 and then became a music critic. At the moment, she is a classical music critic for La Libre Belgique, among other publications. Geert Van der Speeten completed a postgraduate degree in Germanic Philology. He started his career in journalism as a correspondent for a local newspaper in Ninove and subsequently switched to the culture section of the Gazet van Antwerpen. At present, Geert Van der Speeten is the culture & media editor at De Standaard. Gerrit Valckenaers usually works for theatre and contemporary choreographers as musician and composer. He has been responsible for the music in pieces by Pascale Platel, Braakland ZheBilding, Fabuleus and Action Malaise. He is also music programmer at Klara, previously for Mixtuur and now for the Late Night programme. Bernard Meillat is the head of the Walloon classical music station Musiq3. Before he held this position, he was programme director for the private station Radio Classique in France, his country of origin, which increased its listenership by no fewer than 400,000 listeners under his management. Aim and contest launch With this project, KlaraFestival and SonicAngel want to stimulate talented musicians in their development and offer them a steppingstone to a successful career. The KlaraFestival is the largest Belgian classical music festival as well as the only radio festival. You can find more info on www.klarafestival.be. SonicAngel is an innovative music platform for young talented artists where it is the fans who make the difference. You will find more info on www.sonicangel.com. To subscribe Candidates can register on the website http://klarafestival.sonicangel.com. They can create a “social buzz” by sharing their submitted videos with their fans on social networking sites like facebook, twitter, etc. Titel van het nieuwsbericht More info on http://klarafestival.sonicangel.com Press contact: Femke Mussels on 0471/73.31.72 – femke@sonicangel.com Els Buffel on 02/548.95.97 or 0476/58.93.44 – els@festival.be Sarie Van Lancker on 02/548.95.97 or 0472/52.37.12 – sarie@festival.b

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today we announced our partnership with Universal Music.

Not only will our physical distribution in Belgium & Luxemburg be handled by the world strongest distributor, but we will also collaborate in order to find new business models and other experiments, and apply our joint expertise into new digital launches to connect with fans. I’m a very strong believer that our model will be the best model for finding, financing and releasing talent – and one of the key elements remains having a strong distribution. That’s exactly what we’ll do together. I’m actually pretty impressed by the complementarity and the will to create innovative models. NL Press Release below.

It’s also very interesting to see that across Europe, 3 streaming services will launch at nearly the same time: spotify, deezer and we7. Unsure what the financial benefits will be, but it’s sure that part of fans are preferring access to ownership. I’ll share our results and tests on streaming regularly in this learning period. But if it is any like what I’ve seen in Scandinavia, it will be pretty impactfull and impressive.

bart.

PERSBERICHT: 8.nov.2011
Universal Music & SonicAngel verenigen de krachten

Universal Music, ’s werelds grootste platenmaatschappij met artiesten als Lady GaGa, U2, Rihanna en Metallica, gaat intensief samenwerken met SonicAngel, het bruisende label van boegbeelden Maurice Engelen en Bart Becks, dat muziek en technologie combineert.

Universal Music zal in België en Luxemburg exclusief de distributie verzorgen van de fysieke album en single releases van SonicAngel,  en krijgt de optie om voor bepaalde projecten de samenwerking uit te breiden naar een licentie. SonicAngel zal zelf haar eigen digitale exploitatie uitbaten en verder uitbouwen. De krachten worden ook op andere vlakken gebundeld. Zo zal er bij Universal Music een beroep gedaan kunnen worden op de expertise van SonicAngel wat digitale marketing betreft, en starten beide labels ook een gemeenschappelijk initiatief rond nieuwe modellen inzake muziekdistributie en –verkoop.

“Sinds de oprichting van SonicAngel in 2010, hebben we deze nieuwe speler op de markt nauwlettend gevolgd. Hun innoverende aanpak rond digitale marketing en sterke virale campagnes, zorgen voor een frisse wind in de muziekwereld, waar er vaak op een wat stereotype manier promotie wordt gevoerd. Naast de know-how van SonicAngel wat het digitale aspect betreft, hebben ze naturlijk ook een sterk artiestenbestand, met voorop Tom Dice, maar ook nieuw talent, zoals mastercab, Vienna, Airis, Barefoot & The Shoes, Mathieu & Guillaume en BAB. Dat de muziekindustrie het moeilijk heeft, dat weet iedereen, maar stilstaan is achteruitgaan en daarom gaan we ook samen met SonicAngel de strijd aan en zoeken naar nieuwe mogelijkheden om muziek op een legale manier aan de man te brengen”, aldus Patrick Busschots (Managing Director – Universal Music Belgium)

“We zijn verheugd met deze samenwerking en zien uit naar de strategische samenwerking op de verschillende domeinen. Universal Music is een onmiskenbare kracht in de muziekbusiness, en  er is een grote complementariteit tussen beide teams. Dat we voor de distributie van onze fysieke producten nu het brede netwerk van Universal Music ter beschikking hebben, is een heel belangrijke stap in de verdere ontwikkeling van ons label. We gaan voor een gezamenlijke toekomstwerking, waarbij experimenten en vernieuwing niet uit de weg zullen gegaan worden”, zo zeggen Bart Becks en Maurice Engelen (Oprichters SonicAngel).

De eerste projecten waarvoor beide labels de krachten zullen bundelen, zijn de album releases van SonicAngel artiesten mastercab en Tom Dice (respectievelijk najaar 2011 en voorjaar 2012), alsook de lokale lancering van nieuw werk van Universal artiesten Rihanna en Rammstein.

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NIET VOOR PUBLICATIE

Voor meer informatie:
Universal Music Belgium: Dirk Van der Auwera -dirk.van.der.auwera@umusic.com – GSM:0497/52.71.47
SonicAngel: Femke Mussels – femke@sonicangel.com– GSM: 0471/73.31.72

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