Bobcom Launch

• 1st Mar 2011

Bobcom looks at becoming the 'Sundance for new music' NEW SOCIAL NETWORKING SITE BOBCOM hopes to do for new leftfield musicians what the Sundance Film Festival has done for independent filmmaking. The site allows musicians to upload and sell their work, interact with fans, find fellow artists to collaborate with, advertise their work and enter competitions that are judged by their peers. As part of this, it has secured deals with both Abbey Road Studios and Channel 4, with similar partnerships and prizes being added on a rolling basis. Bobcom co-founder Mike Callan says he wanted to create “a one- stop watering hole” where young musicians could find “a genuine and empathetic home”. “There would be things on that site that bring instant empowerment and they could use the siteat whatever level they wanted,” he adds. He explains that Bobcom is a series of free incentives for talented people. The most obvious manifestation of that is the prize of a week's recording at Abbey Road. The winner of that competition was found using the site's Fasttrack mechanism, where the community votes for the act that should get the prize. “Fasttrack is the heart of the machine,” explains Callan. “It is a voting table and the votes are garnered from different sources. From those votes, we create a chart. Individual artists can lobby, they can bring on fans, put on extra music and so on to increase their score. It is based on a table of peers and users and how they are commenting on and selecting the best of the music that is on the site.” In creating the site, Callan took direct inspiration from Sundance founder Robert Redford, having spent 15 years with the actor working on his memoirs. “It was Redford's idea in the Seventies to give opportunities to marginalised filmmakers,” says Callan of Sundance's origins. “It struck me that music culture and pop music's place in culture in general was becoming very narrow and glossed up. I wanted to create something like Sundance that would empower marginalised musicians.” The site is also expanding to help spot and develop talent outside of music creation itself. “We are about to launch incentives for photographers to find the next Annie Leibovitz,” Callan says. “We believe that image-making and photography are a huge and relevant part of how musicians' messages are carried forward. There will also be incentives for videomakers to find the next Spike Jonze.” The site runs on ad money but Callan says he is keen to avoid going down the sponsorship route with marquee brands, as this could compromise the platform's function. “It's not something that has been put together as a commercial and exploitable package,” he suggests. “From the beginning we said this was a culture model and we felt that it was something that was significant.” The next incentive-based initiative is a TV partnership with Channel 4. “It is a million miles away from an editorialised 'jury of three' talent shows,” says Callan of the show's focus and purpose. “Our slogan is Declare Your Independence,” he concludes. “Independence and empowerment for musicians. Independence for talent.”