Yamaha Corporation of America, in cooperation with Broadjam.com, has crowned nine winners of the 2004 Yamaha International Music Production Contest. Chosen from a group of 45 who had successfully completed three respective categories—Peer Review, Music Genre and the final round, Product Category—the winners will receive Yamaha music gear worth $10,000 for first place, $5,000 for second place and $2,000 for third place.
The contest began in September 2004 with more than 1,400 entrants logging on to www.yamjams.com and entering original song productions created using Yamaha’s 01X, Motif or AW Series product lines. Each product included five musical genre sub-categories: Rock, Hip Hop/R&B, Film Scoring/Orchestral/World, Jazz/Latin and Dance/Electronica.
In the first round, Peer Review, entrants applied online, chose an appropriate product category and genre, uploaded their music by creating an .MP3 file, and reviewed songs from six other contestants. Using Broadjam’s technology, contestants were be able to stream and listen to other contestants’ music, join peer reviews, and participate in forums at selected end-user websites.
Confirmed entrants advanced to the Music Genre round to have their music evaluated by a panel of celebrity judges: producer Justin Stanley, Rock; producer and American Idol personality Randy Jackson, hip hop/R&B; contemporary jazz act Fourplay (Bob James, Harvey Mason, Nathan East and Larry Carlton), jazz/Latin; drum and bass pioneer DJ Rap, dance/electronica; and film/TV composer Don Davis, film scoring/orchestral/world.
The top three winners in each music genre received a certificate of achievement signed by the artist judge, and moved on to the final round, Product Category, where first-, second- and third-place winners were selected for each product. Top productions came from the U.S., Canada, Argentina and Austria.
First place winners included Janet Ritz, “Drive On” (Rock, AW16G), Florian Macheck, “Silly Me” (Rock, 01X) and Rob King, “Untouched” (Rock, Motif). Second place winners were James Parker, “All The Angels” (Dance/Electronica, AW16G), Daniel Martina, “Parque Urquiza” (Latin/Jazz, 01X) and D. Byron Spangler, “Into The Hills” (Film Scoring/Orchestral/World, Motif).
The third place winners were Gary Ginsberg, “With My Eyes” (Latin/Jazz, AW16G) Roy Maya, “Every Time I Close My Eyes” (Hip Hop/R&B, 01X) and Marcus Collins, “You’ll Never Know” (Hip Hop-R&B, Motif).
“What set this contest apart was that it judged the quality of productions, rather than the songs,” says Athan Billias, director of marketing, Yamaha Corporation of America, Technology Products. “It was a great opportunity for end-users from around the globe to tap their creative energy using the power of Yamaha music production gear.”
For more information about Yamaha, visit www.yamaha.com or www.yamjams.com.
