The multi-platinum international phenomenon known as Owl City is teaming up with the world’s largest and notably most successful online distributor TuneCore in a unique partnership designed to empower developing artists.

TuneCore has created a special website in collaboration with Owl City. Artists that choose to go through this website for distribution can have Owl City’s Adam Young listen to one “single” off their release. Young will choose his favorite among all of the music submitted and provide a constructive critique of the song directly back with the artist. Young will choose the artist and song on December 1, 2010.

“When I look back on the last 24 months of Owl City – the ease of getting music pushed out to the masses in the music industry today was without a doubt a huge factor in people being able to discover my music, said Young. “I feel honored to work with TuneCore to provide Owl City fans this same opportunity I was fortunate to have at the inception of my project.

CMJ Music Marathon & Film Festival 2010 has partnered with SonicScoop.com to present “Studio Time,” an intensive two-part program focused on music production at New York University’s Kimmel Center.

Open to all CMJ badge holders, “Studio Time” provides emerging artists, engineers and producers with recording and mixing insights and inspiration from expert music creators.

Studio Time’s “Part I: Mix Reconstruction” sees three top mixers taking the audience through their personal mixing process. Each mixer will discuss how they approached and ultimately mixed a song from their discography, playing pre- and post-mix examples to illustrate how they work. Basic techniques and creative solutions will all be examined in this illuminating event.

Ariel Hyatt founded Ariel Publicity & Cyber PR and her firm has worked with over 1,000 musicians and bands of all genres. Her company is now 100% digital and helps artists increase their online exposure. Sign Up here:http://www.arielpublicity.com. Follow Hyatt on Twitter @cyberpr.

It happened a few weeks ago in Australia.  I was standing at the opening cocktail reception for APRA’s Song Summit Music Conference overlooking Darling Harbor in Sydney, and I was chatting with a perfect stranger (who it turns out is a very famous Australian musician with quite a few top 10 hits in Oz).  Noting my foreign accent he asks “What brings you here?” “I teach artists about online marketing and social media.”  I answer sheepishly, because this news is not always met with elated enthusiasm.

Former vocalist of Come & Live’s Holding Onto Hope, Cory O’Keefe has launched his long awaited project, LUVD.com.

“LUVD is certainly not mine, it belongs to everyone. This is 100 percent a family,” O’keefe explained. “Each one of us has the capacity to inspire and uplift another human – the first step is just believing we are capable.”

The site is designed to be a community for the arts. Whether its music, fashion, photography or whatever you feel your creative calling to be, LUVD.com has something for you.

The Jaycast. Take your Ipod on a trip! Escape to a world of comedy banter, toilet humour, and the best in new unsigned Rock Podsafe music. Join Jay and Mr D  in a british podcast that is:  “The world of the JC”.

The Jaycast Podcasting Live from “The Jaycast House Milton Keynes UK” every fortnight!

Q) Tell us a little bit about your site. What inspired you to start it?

A) The Jaycast is a British based Music & Comedy podcast playing the best in new unsigned, indie and Podsafe Rock and Pop music on the net, The JC tis a blend of two guys doing guy stuff, sharing silly stories and jokes mostly geared towards toilets and life. Lets think of it of it as an escape from the real world for around 30 to 40 mins and Jay’s world is pretty weird.

Inside the Circle is an online destination for news, information and conversation about Zune, Music and Community. The site began in July of 2008 as a place for readers to engage in open, thought-provoking and stimulating discussion. Inside the Circle is also proud to help give voice and exposure to musical acts of different genres and styles — both from the indie and mainstream areas. This is done through: interviews, reviews and free music downloads (both embedded from the blog and links to locations of free music).

Q) Tell us a little bit about your site. What inspired you to start it?

Come sit on The Couch every Monday when Vinny Bond will chat with unsigned artists, artists who are self-producing and artists who have signed with labels to discuss their songs, their journey and what is in store in the coming months. This is where you will find the success stories of tomorrow!

Q) Tell us a little bit about your site. What inspired you to start it?

A) I began writing about music on my ‘home blog’ Big Leather Couch (www.bigleathercouch.com) about 2 years ago.  I love music and wanted to share new, unsigned artists with my readers.

It began as a review of their music and then developed into a written Q&A with the artists and a posting of one or two of their songs.  My readers were asked to vote in a poll as to their feelings for the artists.

Reports are a brewin’ about  a new “social network” called Google Me after a tweet was posted by Digg’s Kevin Rose. That’s right, Facebook, you allegedly have a competitor being released into the social media realm soon.

It brings me to ask questions about the upcoming social network…

Will it be artist friendly? Is there going to be a music player for bands and artists? Are they going to take aspects of Myspace to help the cause?

Gigjunkie.net offers a one-stop shop for tickets, listings, and tour dates. The site’s newest feature is the launch of Concert Ticket Affiliation.

Earning revenue from your website’s traffic couldn’t be easier with the GigJunkie Affiliate Program, according to the website.

Signing up to GigJunkie’s new services will not only enhance your website content, but could also earn you hard cash.

BandCentral.com officially launched today, offering bands a suite of essential tools that will enable them to take control of their music careers. With BandCentral, artists, managers and labels can organize all the vital business aspects of band life – everything from tours and fan databases, to merchandise and money – enabling them to develop and sustain successful careers.

BandCentral is already being used by thousands of bands, labels and managers, worldwide and changing the way they work for the better.

“There’s real potential here for BandCentral to change the way artists take control of their careers, and I’m certainly keen to see how labels and artists get to grips with it,” said Darren Hemmings, Digital Marketing Manager at PIAS.

Do you want a successful, stable and rewarding music career? Would you like to know exactly what record companies, producers, and management companies are looking for when seeking out new artists?

There are many great musicians who are not able to build a successful music career because they do not know what it is these companies want from them. As a result, many struggle and wonder why they are unable to “make it” even though they may be incredible musicians with great songs. What usually happens is that people start to believe the common myth about luck. They believe that you need to “get lucky” in order to “make it”. The result is that most musicians give up on their dreams and get a normal (non music related) day job.

Because you are reading this article, I can imagine that you have probably faced similar challenges. I know how you feel, because I went through the same depressing struggle for years and have seen hundreds of great musicians travel along the same path. But over time, I have discovered that in many cases the lack of success is caused by the musicians (including myself in the past) simply not knowing what it is the music business companies want from new artists.

Featuring female performers who deliver vocal excellence, depth of character, and lyrics that leave a lasting impression.

Q) Tell us a little bit about your blog. What inspired you to start it?

A) Women of Substance Radio is a streaming, online radio station which airs 24/7 on the Live365 Network. Our tagline is “Whether you’re a label artist or an Independent, if you’ve got great music, you’re on Women of substance Radio.”  Substance can be defined as “significant quality with the implication of a hidden or special significance.”  Music of Substance is not just entertainment or fluff, but has an essential “core” brimming with heart, soul, and spirit.  Women of Substance Radio plays music by female performers who deliver high quality music that speaks to the listener through vocal excellence, depth of character and emotion, and lyrics that leave a lasting impression.

…and a few real boners thrown in for good measure…

Music and video – was there ever a better match made and sent down to us from rock ‘n roll Mount Olympus? The answer was no, until the music video contest came along. Now we’re talkin’ serious chem lab explosions. And how about music video contests run by musicians? Welcome to metameme ground zero.

Of course, there’s nothing new about a band or an artist running a contest as a promotional tool, but a music video contest is special (like your cousin Muley) because it’s a self-perpetuating promotional machine that’s easy to use and everybody wins:

• The musician hosting the contest wins by generating buzz.
• Entrants win because they’re musicians or indie filmmakers who are also generating buzz by entering the contest.
• The winner wins a prize and exposure for their own art.
• And the hosting musician wins again because she just got a bunch of people to promote her music for free!

There are many different ways to run a music video contest. Let’s take a look at a few going on today to see how the pros are doing it:

Ingrid Michaelson

Indie-pop-singer-songwriter Ingrid Michaelson is currently in the voting phase of a contest she ran in promotion of her new album, Everybody. She asked her fans to submit videos of themselves performing the album’s title track. She then pared the submissions down to ten surprisingly talent-laden entries, and now fans can vote for their favorites on her website. To further sweeten the pot, everybody who votes gets a free download of the original song.