Music Ally

The 2008 Popkomm IMEA finalists in more detail - www.popkommawards.com

• BMAT (Spain) has developed technology which rates singers. The technology offers a graphic presentation of various rated features such as pitch contours, note segmentation and vibrato, thereby assisting the user to improve their vocal technique. In February 2008 BMAT was commissioned by “Operacion Triunfo”, Spain’s most popular singing competition. Within six weeks the online casting had generated 24,000 auditions and six million hits.
• Independent IP (Netherlands) has developed the FUGA business-to-business platform to distribute digital content including audio tracks, videos and cover art etc. FUGA’s one click system is all that is needed to send them to retailers anywhere in the world.
• Kyte (USA) is a mobile and online platform which enables everyone, from consumers to the media to entertainment groups, to produce and distribute digital content, live or on-demand, via the internet, social networks or cell phones. Kyte has already entered into strategic partnerships with international media groups, providers of cell phone services and cell phone manufacturers, including Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Telefónica, Nokia Groth Partners, Steamboat Ventures, TeliaSonera, DoCoMo Capital, Holtzbrinck and Swisscom.
• Rawrip (USA) is a website where users discover new music via The Rippler search engine, and which guarantees artists and record labels 100% of all revenues from the music sales. It features a widget, Rawstores, that allows artists to sell directly from their websites or from profiles on other social networks. Fans can also link up with their favourite bands on MySpace and other social networking sites.
• roccatune (Germany, formerly Adtunes) is a free full on-demand music portal offering over a million tracks from such well-known performers as Robbie Williams, R.E.M., Mariah Carey and the Rolling Stones. Users can hear individual tracks or entire albums, or compile their own playlists, which can be accessed by any PC and via mobile phones in Germany.
• The Filter (UK) is the brainchild of Grammy winner Peter Gabriel - a search engine that can filter entertainment and information from around the world to create recommendations for users. The portal uses artificial intelligence (AI) to produce recommendations for personalised content, matching the
  user’s tastes and interests.

The six finalists in this year’s Popkomm-IMEA contest have been announced, having been whittled down from more than 70 entries. The finalists are:

• Independent IP
• Rawrip
• Roccatune
• Kyte
• Bmat
• The Filter

The finalists will be mentored by Julie Meyer, Charles Grimsdale, Michael Bornhausser for their final presentation on the 8th October in Berlin at the Popkomm conference. The standard of entries was extremely high this year, so thanks to everyone that entered.

Up until now, it’s only particularly switched-on kids in the UK who’ve heard of the Jonas Brothers, but that’s changing thanks to a big promotional push ? including an innovative campaign on Bebo, which uses mobile broadcasting service Kyte. The band are being filmed with a Nokia N95, with the footage being broadcast to the Kyte channel on their Bebo profile. It certainly shows the potential for this kind of technology, since in the past producing this kind of backstage / on-tour footage required sending a camera crew around with bands.