Press
June 5, 2006
Music site hits the right note - SoundJunction wins New Media Age Award
SoundJunction - the new composing and music learning website - has scooped the coveted music category prize at the New Media Age (NMA) Effectiveness Awards 2006.
Ben Sandbrook, project manager of SoundJunction, collected the award at the NMA Award Ceremony on Thursday, 1 June, at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London. Judges said SoundJunction was "a high-quality resource filled with rich multimedia and a creative way of getting people to investigate music". The panel were impressed with the "great integration of audio and video on SoundJunction" and said that it was "well ahead of the other entries in the category".
Ben Sandbrook said: "This award is a fantastic credit to the hundreds of people – musicians, web developers, authors, editors, designers, teachers and students – who have worked to make SoundJunction what it is. It's great that in such an enormous and competitive online music marketplace as we have today, a website about learning and creating music yourself can win through. Let's hope it gets more people making music!"
The award winning website – www.soundjunction.org – is a new initiative from the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) that aims to inspire musical learning and exploration by providing a wealth of information, interactive tools and know-how so that anyone can use it to delve deeper into the world of music.
Commissioned by Culture Online (part of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport) and built by Atticmedia, its development involved input from more than 200 top musicians, teachers, students and music industry professionals.
Commenting on the success of SoundJunction, Richard Morris, Chief Executive of the Associated Board, said: "In developing SoundJunction, our vision was to harness the power of online technology to create a resource that would encourage musical skills, understanding, exploration and creativity. We are delighted to have received this prestigious award and my thanks go to Culture Online, Atticmedia and to the many others whose knowledge and expertise have contributed to the realisation of this vision."
Mike Greenwood, Commissioning Executive at Culture Online, said: "SoundJunction is a fantastic online experience that allows users to engage, to learn and to create. Culture Online is proud to have commissioned a resource that is both innovative and will have long-lasting value."
Having launched to great acclaim in October 2005, SoundJunction is now averaging 90,000 page impressions a month and is on target to reach 250,000 to 500,000 young people in the UK over the next three years. The site features over 50 hours of audio and video and some 1,000 pages of content covering over 300 pieces of music from traditions around the world. Pioneering new tools allow users to:
* Find out about composing, performing, recording and producing music
* Create their own music by remixing elements of specially-commissioned pieces with other ‘sound bites’ from the comprehensive SoundJunction library
* Listen to music specially written and recorded by more than 40 top musicians, remix artists and composers
* Explore music, take it apart, listen to different instruments and voices and find out how music works
* Discover music and instruments from different traditions – and different continents
Mark Weber, Chief Executive of Atticmedia commented: "It's great to see an education site win a non-education award like this. The sheer volume of creative, learner-driven content on the website means that there's so much to watch, listen to and interact with. We had to really push the boundaries of technologies when creating SoundJunction and we're thrilled with the end result."
SoundJunction Composer Competition
SoundJunction is currently running a competition to seek out new musical talent and encourage young people to get composing. The first prize includes a day in the world famous Miloco recording studios in London with Colin Emmanuel (aka C Swing), who has produced amazing talents, including Jamelia, Beverley Knight and Mary J Blige (remix).
Budding composers are encouraged to create a composition of around five minutes, using the tools, samples and sounds available on the SoundJunction website. Compositions can be of any style, although the judges are looking for the most imaginative ways of using the different music styles in the site. There are four age categories: under 13s, 13 to 14-year-olds, 15 to 16-year-olds and 17 to 19-year-olds.
More information can be found on the website – www.soundjunction.org. The competition closes on 10 July 2006.