Will Mako Transform Beijing's Live Music Scene?

"by Eric de Fontenay, MusicDish*China (http://china.musicdish.com)"
The growth of Beijing's indie scene has coincided with that of the venues that have acted as showcases for local talent that might otherwise not be heard. Now a new venue called Mako has launched, hoping to join the ranks of other revered clubs such as D-22, Mao Livehouse and Yugong Yishan.

Mako's full name is MAKO Arts Display Center, located in the Chaoyang District where a Beijing Jeep plant used to stand, China's first joint venture cooperation. The entire space is over 2,000 square meters, consisting of two drama theaters, a music stage, the rehearsal rooms, bars, cafes and other multi-functional areas. The various performance and arts spaces will serve as a web of live artistic platforms, from stage shows, music, opera, folk art and many other vivid arts. This coexistence of various forms of arts in one center is a historic first in Beijing. And it has reportedly the the best sound system in Beijing, with over 3 million RMB invested in it.

While it may be a first for performaning art, the reuse of abandoned industrial space for the arts clearly borrows a page from the 798 Art District, a site of derelict state-owned factories in the Dashanzi area turned into a community of contemporary art, architecture, and culture. Actually, the dragons in the MusicDish*China Sounds logo were actually taken in that district on my last trip to Beijing.

A space this large and sophisticated is likely to have the same impact that 798 had for the arts in Bejing: putting the city on the map as a world class center for creativity, bringing to the next level what D-22 started in 2006. I'm looking forward to catching some great performances - as well as the five-meter-tall Transformer - when I pass by on my next trip to China.

MAKO Arts Display Center
No. 36, Guangqu Road, Chaoyang District,
Tel: 52051112

MusicDishTV: onseeker music's iPhone App Connects Fans, Artists & Venues

Houston-based start-up announces onseeker music is now available - free to consumers at the iPhone App Store. The new iPhone app connects fans, artists, and venues in ways never experienced before. onseeker music is the 'how' to the 'who, what, when, and where' for music and entertainment. Using the mobile platform, onseeker music provides the unique benefit of real-time interaction between fans, artists, and venues using full multimedia profiles, status updates, location-based content, and more.

Create a profile or learn more about it at www.onseekermusic.com

onseeker Music Presents The Ultimate Music-Lover’s Hook-Up For Fans, Artists, And Venues!

Houston-based start-up announces onseeker™ music is now available free to consumers at the iTunes App Store. The new iPhone app connects fans, artists, and venues in ways never experienced before. onseeker™ music is the "how" to the "who, what, when, and where" for music and entertainment. Using the mobile platform, onseeker™ music provides the unique benefit of real-time interaction between fans, artists, and venues using full multimedia profiles, status updates, location-based content, and more.

Subscriber artists and venues control content and receive consumer-generated feedback, metrics, and analytics that offer intimate insight into tastes and user trends previously unavailable.

The feature-rich app is growing and changing daily as new artist and venue subscribers populate the platform with profiles, show dates, and new media content. Plans are currently underway to offer the onseeker ™music app through all major smartphones including Google Android, Palm Pre, Blackberry, WindowsOS, and Nokia.

Create a profile or learn more about it at http://www.onseekermusic.com

ArtistRise.com Launches Free Online Community For Concert Industry

Los Angeles, CA -- Artist Rise Inc. announces the launch of beta site ArtistRise.com, a free profile based community for the concert industry. AR provides musicians, industry professionals, venues and fans with a platform to network, post content and conduct business online.

The digital age of music has sparked the creation of countless social media websites. But, few if any, have focused on the most lucrative areas of the music business... concerts.

"As record labels struggle to find a new bottom line, we're left with corporate branded creativity, misdirected talent and in many cases bad taste," said Ken Ashley, Founder, Artist Rise Inc.

"Our goal is to build a community that heightens the experience of live music, not digital music, to develop unique site culture and provide cutting edge features that help young bands gain exposure and book shows."

The Artist Rise homepage serves as a "living" industry resource by featuring content contributed by members. Members can easily submit news, events, reviews and rants for publication via a one-click system. The goal is to post fresh content daily and build an intelligent, interactive community. Members have access to unique features including: custom profiles, multi-media, messaging, contact befriending, calendar scheduling for shows and a booking system to exchange performance offers.

"Every band should join Artist Rise solely for the booking system," said Chongyang Luo, who leads the project development at Artist Rise Inc. "Even if a band has no representation, AR provides a means to receive performance offers. They can be as simple as house party gigs or complex as tour support bookings. Within a few clicks, the offer arrives in the band's AR profile inbox and is copied in an e-mail for the band, their manager or agent to review. It's simple, effective, and free."

The websites design provides an alternative to the commonly advertisement ridden and cluttered pages of other communities by presenting a distinct professional style. No banner advertising appears in member's profile pages or even on the homepage.

"MySpace became a default resource for the music business since it enabled bands to reach fans and industry to quickly evaluate new acts. But in reality, it's part of the Fox News Corporation umbrella and doesn't provide any business solutions," said Johnny V, a Los Angeles based music manager. "Artist Rise not only encourages bands to play live but provides the tools to do so. That's what the business should be about."

Artist Rise Inc. has initiated marketing efforts in New York and Los Angeles but membership is open to the globe.

"Artist Rise is one big grassroots experiment", said Ken Ashley. "We have no corporate funding and only volunteers working on top of their day jobs. I invite anyone who loves live music to share in our vision, submit interesting content through the homepage and spread the word to bands. Together we'll ensure live music is the future of music."

About Artist Rise:

Artist Rise Inc. founded in 2007 by entrepreneur Ken Ashley and Chongyang Luo to develop, maintain and promote ArtistRise.com. Ken Ashley is a New York City native currently living in Los Angeles and works for a music booking agency. Chongyang Luo is based in Silicon Valley and focuses his work on new business models that can transform industries and lives. Artist Rise Inc. mobilizes volunteers from various segments of the music industry to help maintain and promote ArtistRise.com.

http://www.ArtistRise.com

Livekick Launches Its Live Concerts Recommendation & Tickets Search Engine

New York, NY - June 8, 2009 - Livekick, the live concerts recommendation and tickets search engine, announced today the official launch of its platform at http://livekick.com. The site, which is free to use, helps music fans easily discover local live concerts based on artists they like and find the best and cheapest available tickets online. The Livekick search engine includes more than 75,000 concerts in the U.S., more than 20,000 artists performing, close to 40,000 venues, and near real-time updated ticket pricing information from the most popular concert tickets web sites.

Anyone can easily create a free account at http://livekick.com and add their favorite artists in seconds by pointing Livekick to anywhere they engage with music, online or on their computers. You can import artists from your iTunes library, computer music library, MySpace Music, Last.fm, Pandora, iLike, blip.fm or Rhapsody accounts. You can also add artists by name or by selecting artists Livekick suggests. Livekick creates a musical profile based on your favorite artists and automatically imports new artists from your music services as you listen to new music online.

Based on your musical profile, and where you live or travel to, Livekick makes sure that you are always updated about artists' tours that are relevant to you, and about special promos, tickets presales and more. Livekick automatically sends you newly announced concert recommendations via email, Twitter or personalized RSS feeds and you can also check your concert recommendations on http://livekick.com.

Once you find a concert to go to, Livekick makes it easy for you to find and to buy the best available tickets online. The Livekick tickets search engine continuously scans the most popular direct and reseller ticket web sites, including TicketMaster, LiveNation, StubHub, Tickets.com, TicketWeb, TicketCity, TicketsNow, eBay, and MySpace Music, to find the cheapest currently available tickets.

"We developed Livekick to help music fans never miss a live concert again," said Aviv Eyal, co-founder of Livekick. "Our live concert recommendation alerts ensure you're among the first to know when an artist you like is performing near you, and our tickets search engine provides you with the most affordable ticket options available via all of the major ticketing sites. Livekick is a valuable one-stop destination for music fans and anyone who's looking to make the most of their entertainment dollars."

For music enthusiasts, Livekick has additional features that make it the ultimate one-stop destination for live concert information. Your Concerts provides a personalized concert calendar with your favorite artists' performances, which you can easily export to your Outlook or iCal calendars; Your Artists tracks your favorite artists with complete tour listings, user-generated videos from their live concerts, links to artists' web sites, and more; the Livekick Desktop Widget, downloadable to a PC or a Mac, automatically scans your computer daily for new music files and adds new artists you listen to on your computer to your Livekick account; and social network sharing enables you to share concerts with friends via Facebook and MySpace.

Web site developers can use the free Livekick API, available at http://livekick.com/api/ to add rich, local and up-to-date concerts and tour information to their web applications. Utilizing the API, CBS Radio Online provides radio listeners with a link to Livekick to find out about live concerts by artists they hear on the radio, and to find the cheapest tickets available online.

Livekick was founded by Aviv Eyal and Yarden Tadmor in May 2008 and soft-launched in beta in Fall 2008. Livekick was recognized by AlwaysOn as an OnHollywood 100 winner in 2009.

About Livekick Livekick is a live concerts recommendation and tickets search engine that helps you never miss a live concert again. Livekick helps anyone easily discover local live concerts based on artists they like and finds the best and cheapest available tickets online. The Livekick search engine includes more than 75,000 concerts in the U.S., more than 20,000 artists performing, close to 40,000 venues, and near real-time updated ticket-pricing information from the most popular ticket web sites. It is free to create a Livekick account and use the site. Livekick was founded by Aviv Eyal and Yarden Tadmor in May 2008. The company is based in New York. Visit http://livekick.com for more information.

Local Music Vibe Launches National Network Of Local Music Communities

Local Music Vibe, the online service provider that will power a national network of local music communities, launches today in the San Francisco Bay Area. Each local site connects fans with live music in their community, while extending the reach of local bands and venues to a broader regional network. Iconic producer, and president of the San Francisco Chapter of The Recording Academy (Grammy.com), Stephen Hart, states, "Local Music Vibe's outreach to young bands and emerging artists, providing previously non-existent performance opportunities is too cool. They do more than merely report on the music scene, they become part of it."

Anyone who registers can instantly create free, custom pages for any aspect of the music industry they represent: band, musician, performer, venue or resource, such as studio, teacher, rentals, etc. Local merchants and corporations also benefit through targeted, interactive sponsorships, and advertising opportunities. User-generated content and a local focus enable complete coverage for ex-urban markets that are currently ignored.

Local Music Vibe is an extension of the wildly successful Marin Local Music founded by husband and wife entrepreneurs Dave and Shelley Champine. Since its launch less than a year ago, MarinLocalMusic.com has dramatically improved live entertainment business by increasing attendance, improving awareness, attracting new fans of all ages, and creating exciting new events. Musicians have benefitted from networking sessions, self-promotion opportunities, and showcases. The secondary benefits to local recording studios, music stores, restaurants and bars are immense.

Brian Zisk, co-founder of The Future of Music Coalition and Executive Producer of the SanFran MusicTech Summit states, "What Marin Local Music has done for Marin's music community is incredible, and it is great that Local Music Vibe will now expand this work around the Bay Area and beyond. The sort of grass roots network which Local Music Vibe has built is poised to have significant impact as it expands around the nation."

Local Music Vibe also offers opportunities for entrepreneurs. A "Community Manager" in each location ensures quality and consistency while providing the human connection crucial to organize and energize the local scene online and in-person. This personalized, hands-on approach is unique among social networking sites and generates revenue from local events, advertisements, and sponsorships while fueling the growth for regional and national opportunities. A simple, but powerful technology platform makes it possible for one motivated person to transform a community of hundreds of thousands of music fans.

For more info, please visit http://localmusicvibe.com