Music Connection

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Music Connection
Music Connection Magazine March 1985 Cover with Madonna.jpg
Cover for March 1985, featuring Madonna
EditorJoseph Maltese (Senior Editor)
Categories Music magazine
FrequencyMonthly
PublisherE. Eric Bettelli
Total circulation
(2011)
75,000 [1]
First issueNovember 10, 1977 (1977-11-10)
CompanyMusic Connection Inc.
Country United States
Based in Glendale, California
LanguageEnglish
Website www.musicconnection.com
ISSN 1091-9791

Music Connection is a United States-based monthly music trade magazine that began publication in 1977. [2] The magazine caters to career-minded musicians, songwriters, recording artists, and assorted music industry supporting personnel. Initially, the magazine focused solely on the Southern California music scene, but has since expanded to a national distribution. The publication and its website provide information about the music business, including directories of contact information for professionals and free classifieds for musicians. Music Connection also publishes reviews of unsigned and independent live performers and recording artists. [3] [4] Several acclaimed artists achieved their first music magazine cover status from Music Connection including Guns N' Roses, Madonna, Jane's Addiction, Alanis Morissette, The White Stripes, and Adele. [5] [6] [7]

Contents

Beginnings

Music Connection [8] magazine was founded in 1977 in Los Angeles, CA, by J. Michael Dolan, [9] an unsigned singer-songwriter who worked as a background engineer and projectionist at various film and TV studios. Looking for songwriting opportunities but finding limited resources, Dolan conceived the idea of a weekly music publication, featuring articles and reviews comparable to those in Cashbox and Billboard, alongside free classifieds inspired by The Recycler. He invited Eric Bettelli to join the company as its first Vice President of Advertising. The publication eventually gained recognition among industry executives and musicians, who referred to it as “the musician’s bible.” Subsequently, Michael launched Songwriter Connection magazine, which became part of the Music Connection suite of products and services. In 2010, after 33 years as CEO, Michael sold his shares of Music Connection Inc. to Eric Bettelli, who is now serves as the sole publisher, with senior editor Mark Nardone promoted to Associate Publisher/Senior Editor.

Online

Music Connection has maintained an online presence since 1997. The digital edition has an archive dating back to January 2008. The company launched the AMP Network in 2007. [5]

Annual Top Artist lists

At the end of each year, Music Connection publishes a "Hot 100 Live Unsigned Artists and Bands" list of live performers, and a "Top 25 New Music Critiques" list of unsigned recording artists. Artists who have appeared on the Hot 100 list include Holy Ghost!, Sara Bareilles, and Steel Panther. [5] [10] [11] [12]

National Directories

Music Connection publishes a series of annually updated directories containing music industry contact information. The directories cover areas such as music attorneys, record label A&R representatives, music schools, vocal coaches, mastering studios, film/TV music supervisors, music publishers, producers, engineers, managers, booking agents, guitar and bass instructors, recording studios, indie record labels, marketers and promoters, publicists, rehearsal studios, gear rental/cartage/tech services, duplicators and replicators, and merchandise manufacturers. [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Songwriter</span> Person who writes the words or music to songs

A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. A songwriter who mainly writes the lyrics for a song is referred to as a lyricist. The pressure from the music industry to produce popular hits means that song writing is often an activity for which the tasks are distributed among a number of people. For example, a songwriter who excels at writing lyrics might be paired with a songwriter with the task of creating original melodies. Pop songs may be composed by group members from the band or by staff writers – songwriters directly employed by music publishers. Some songwriters serve as their own music publishers, while others have external publishers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jackson Browne</span> American singer, songwriter and political activist (born 1948)

Clyde Jackson Browne is an American rock musician, singer, songwriter, and political activist who has sold over 18 million albums in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shuggie Otis</span> American musician (born 1953)

Johnny Shuggie Otis is an American singer-songwriter, recording artist, and multi-instrumentalist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paula Cole</span> American singer (born 1968)

Paula Dorothy Cole is an American singer-songwriter and producer. After gaining attention for her performances as a vocalist on Peter Gabriel's 1993–1994 Secret World Tour, she released her first album, Harbinger, which suffered from a lack of promotion when the label, Imago Records, folded shortly after its release. Her second album, This Fire (1996), brought her worldwide acclaim, peaking at number 20 on the Billboard 200 album chart and producing two hit singles, the triple-Grammy nominated "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?", which reached the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 in 1997, and "I Don't Want to Wait", which was used as the theme song of the television show Dawson's Creek. Cole was a featured performer in the 1996 prototype mini-tour for Lilith Fair, and also was a headliner for Lilith Fair in 1997 and 1998. She won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1998, and also became the first woman ever to be nominated for "Producer of the Year" in her own right in that same year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jerry Allison</span> American rock musician (1939–2022)

Jerry Ivan Allison was an American musician. He was best known as the drummer for the Crickets and co-writer of their hits "That'll Be the Day" and "Peggy Sue", recorded with Buddy Holly. His only solo chart entry on the Billboard Hot 100 was "Real Wild Child", issued in 1958 under the name Ivan. Allison was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Demo (music)</span> Song recorded for limited circulation or for reference use

A demo is a song or group of songs typically recorded for limited circulation or for reference use, rather than for general public release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas in a fixed format, such as cassette tape, compact disc, or digital audio files, and to thereby pass along those ideas to record labels, producers, or other artists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Midlake</span> American folk rock band

Midlake is an American folk rock band from Denton, Texas, formed in 1999. The band consists of Eric Pulido, McKenzie Smith, Scott Lee, Eric Nichelson, Jesse Chandler, and Joey McClellan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Music competition</span> Contest that rewards the best musical performer

A music competition is a public event designed to identify and award outstanding musical ensembles, soloists, composers, conductors, musicologists or compositions. Pop music competitions are music competitions which are held to find pop starlets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Change the World</span> 1996 song by Wynonna Judd

"Change the World" is a song written by Tommy Sims, Gordon Kennedy, and Wayne Kirkpatrick and recorded by country music artist Wynonna Judd. A later version was recorded by English singer Eric Clapton for the soundtrack of the 1996 film Phenomenon. Clapton's version was produced by R&B record producer Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds.

Raised by Swans is the recording alias of Canadian solo artist Eric Howden. A singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Howden chose the name 'Raised By Swans' in 1997 following a cathartic dream he had after leaving his previous band, The Gandharvas; the name relies on a homonym to convey a simultaneous sense of connection and freedom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ari Herstand</span> American singer-songwriter

Ari Seth Herstand is an American musician, songwriter, author, actor, blogger based in Los Angeles, California. He is the CEO and founder of the music business education and artist advocacy company Ari's Take.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bon Iver</span> American indie folk band

Bon Iver is an American indie folk band founded in 2006 by singer-songwriter Justin Vernon. Vernon had originally formed Bon Iver as a solo project, but it eventually became a band consisting of Vernon, Sean Carey, Michael Lewis, Matthew McCaughan, Andrew Fitzpatrick, and Jenn Wasner

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Brooks (singer)</span> British singer and songwriter

Joe Brooks is an English singer and songwriter. Brooks started out as a Myspace musician when he was just 17 and quickly gained popularity on the site while releasing two independent EPs. By 2008 he was hyped and labelled as the "Number 1 Unsigned UK Artist" on MySpace and had amassed 11 million song plays. In 2009 he signed to Jason Flom's Lava Records and Universal Republic Records, where he released his first full-length and major label album, Constellation Me, in 2010. Following his exit from Lava/Universal in 2011, he released a fan-funded independent EP, A Reason to Swim, later that year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tony Martino (singer)</span> American singer-songwriter

Tony Martino is a singer-songwriter and record producer from Chicago. Martino is also the primary singer-songwriter and producer for his new side-project formed in 2017, The Rarest Kind, a group with a "revolving member" format in which he is the only official and permanent member. His songs have been featured in several television shows, including the "Ghost Whisperer" on CBS, MTV's "The Real World" and "Road Rules", and many others the Discovery Channel and Sy-Fy.. He has also received critical acclaim and other mentions in major media publications and music magazines such as the Daily Herald, San Francisco Chronicle, Amplifier Magazine, and Performing Songwriter Magazine. Martino is also known for his upfront opinions on various music-related topics. He was quoted in The Wall Street Journal discussing the controversial use of Auto-Tune recording software. Academy Award and Emmy Award-nominated musician, Adam Schlesinger of the pop/rock band Fountains Of Wayne, also praised Martino's music in an article Schlesinger penned in The New York Times, stating, "I get handed stuff almost every day. I try to listen to all of it – 99 percent is garbage. But every so often you get something that stands out...This is a guy with incredible potential."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anine Stang</span> Norwegian singer and songwriter (born 1985)

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Daniel Pearson is an English musician and songwriter from Kingston upon Hull, England. He has released two studio albums as a solo artist, and plays guitar, bass guitar, keyboards and percussion on his releases, which have been acclaimed by national and international press and radio. He is primarily known as an indie/folk rock artist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Natania Lalwani</span> American singer-songwriter

Natania is an Indian pop musician and singer-songwriter based in Los Angeles, California.

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<i>Live in San Diego</i> (Eric Clapton album) 2016 live album by Eric Clapton

Live in San Diego is the thirteenth live album by British rock musician Eric Clapton. It was released through Reprise Records as a live album on 30 September 2016 and as a 2-hour live DVD on 10 March 2017.

References

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  3. "Artists & Bands Who Are Serious!". LA Music Connect. Archived from the original on January 16, 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  4. "Music Connection Magazine". Tyler Stenson Blog. January 6, 2011. Retrieved August 30, 2013.
  5. 1 2 3 "MUSICIANS AT HEART » Blog Archive » Q & A with Music Connection". Blog.lafamos.com. February 22, 1999. Archived from the original on December 16, 2012. Retrieved August 30, 2013.
  6. "J. Michael Dolan". Archived from the original on February 15, 2012. Retrieved February 13, 2012.
  7. "Music Connection". Afka.net. Archived from the original on June 18, 2013. Retrieved August 30, 2013.
  8. "Home Page". Music Connection Magazine. Retrieved September 25, 2023.
  9. "J. Michael Dolan |" . Retrieved September 25, 2023.
  10. http://www.neon-entertainment.com/media/promo/reviews/mann/mchot1002004.pdf%5B%5D
  11. "Three MI Alumni Bands listed on Music Connection's "2010 Hot 100 Live Unsigned Artists & Bands" List | Jan 24, 2011 | Success Story at Musicians Institute". Archived from the original on April 15, 2011. Retrieved March 18, 2012.
  12. "news | Katie Named Music Connection Top 100 Live Unsigned Artist Of The Year!". Katie Garibaldi. November 23, 2009. Archived from the original on December 10, 2010. Retrieved August 30, 2013.
  13. "Frequently Asked Questions". Warner Bros Records. March 19, 1958. Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved August 30, 2013.