MEDIA RELEASE JUNE 29th 2007
WESTERN AUSTRALIAN SINGER/SONGWRITER ACHIEVES INTERNATIONAL RECORDING DEAL
Talented, local singer-songwriter Mandyleigh Storm has achieved an international recording contract with Sellaband, an Amsterdam based company which was created by ex Sony Music Europe, Sony BMG and EMI executives. Support for this international music web site at an all time high, with leading press and music industry figures worldwide praising it’s revolutionary music model.
Mandyleigh has been invited to perform at the “Almelo meets Nashville” music festival in Almelo, The Netherlands, on August the 10th and 11th. Headlining the festival is Melanie Safka, the legendary folk singer/songwriter from Nashville, USA, who also performed at Woodstock in 1969.
Sellaband have also invited Mandyleigh to perform at the world famous Paradiso in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, on August the 16th 2007.
A Dutch National TV station has also requested to interview Mandyleigh when she is in Holland.
Mandyleigh became a part of high profile internet recording entity Sellaband just seven months ago, has been rated at #1 for most of June, out of over 4,300 artists worldwide.
The next step for Mandyleigh is to start pre-production on her to be internationally released debut album. The budget for recording the album is $30,000 USD, with a further $20,000 USD allocated for the manufacturing and distributing of the cd’s.
6 other artists have already reached the $50,000 USD goal in the 10 months Sellaband has been around. Two (Cubworld and Nemesea) have had albums released recently. Cubworld recorded at the world-famous Bennett Studios in New York City, and mastered by Sony Music in New York City.
Sellaband was established by European music veteran Johan Vosmeijer who ran divisions of the Epic and Columbia record labels for Sony Music and was most recently the driving force behind the launch of Red Ink, a boutique label for Sony BMG.
The Sellaband web site enables music fans from around the world to listen to new artists, invest in them from as little as $10 USD and then to share 1/3rd of the profits from cd sales (online and in physical stores), mp3 downloads and advertising revenue on the site. Investors also receive a numbered limited edition cd of a recorded artist for every $10 they invested. These can be sold through the Sellaband online store if they wish. The artist get’s 1/3rd and Sellaband also receives 1/3rd.
The Sellaband slogan is “YOU are the record company”. Three free 256kbps DRM-free mp3’s are available for download from each of the recorded artists on Sellaband. Downloaded tracks are 50c (USD) each, and albums are $15 (limited edition) and $10 (regular edition) each.
Growing up in Perth, Mandyleigh spent 12 years in the UK during the 90s and early into the 2000s, mastering her craft, but also dealing with the demons of depression.
“Some of my songs deal with the severe depression I suffered from when I lived in the UK, which was triggered when my Uncle died,” says Mandyleigh.
“Depression took away too many years of my life, but now with my music, my family and the support of my fans, I’m starting to reclaim them.”
Mandyleigh says she is a very honest songwriter who writes about the things she believes in and what affects her - good or bad.
Most of her demo songs were recorded live in `one take` in a home studio with a keyboardist/producer, but now she has the opportunity to record professionally through Sellaband, who have a lot of major contacts within the music industry.
“Sellaband is becoming an international phenomena and is turning the music business on its head by putting the power and control back into the hands of the listeners,” Mandyleigh said.
“Through Sellaband people can create the next global recording success stories and can share the profits along the way.”
Once the Sellaband target is reached, the artist is assigned a top A&R exec. The artist then chooses a top Producer and a top Studio to record the album. The cd is then distributed worldwide (in stores and online).
The international press (Billboard, Wired, The Times, Financial Times, BBC, BBC Radio 2, The Guardian etc) have been hailing Sellaband as a unique and amazing musical concept. A real revolution.
Industry figures on board include legendary producer Tony Platt, Adam Sieff (former head of jazz for Sony Music UK and Europe), and Abbey Road Studios' chief engineer Haydn Bendall. Adam Sieff has invested in Mandyleigh himself, and says “Excellent songs and a beautiful heartfelt voice. A key member of the Australian Sellaband explosion and deserves to go all the way to $50K”!
Experts in the music industry from all around the world have been praising Sellaband as detailed in the quotes below:
