The right track

The music industry can be fickle and cutthroat. Whether an artist succeeds in this competitive arena is often more a matter of good marketing and luck rather than talent. Unless an artist and repertoire (A&R) person, whose job it is to find new artists and sign them to a label, likes an act and chooses to promote it, it may well never get off the ground.

Slicethepie is a new concept in music promotion that allows the public to choose who to back, giving them the opportunity to review and even invest in a wide range of artists and bands. New and established artists upload tracks onto the Slicethepie website, and music fans take on the role of talent scout, earning money by reviewing tracks, spotting new talent and ensuring that the best artists get put forward for financing. Alongside this, an automatic analytics service, SoundOut, produces a detailed summary of reviewers’ feedback, giving artists an accurate and objective insight into what people think of their music.

“There’s a huge amount of music on the Internet, but only a tiny selection is marketed by major labels,” says David Courtier-Dutton, CEO of Slicethepie. “Slicethepie gives artists the chance to be judged by the public, and the very best then have the opportunity to raise finance to record their music professionally. Meanwhile, our SoundOut software automatically reads reviews submitted about a track and combines this with a wide range of ratings and demographic data, producing a detailed insight and analytics report that gives artists an indication of what the public thinks of it. This helps them to improve their songs or recording, decide where to focus their marketing effort, and access commercial opportunities.”

The full success story can be found in related documents