Again, I don’t have the new one yet, so this one from last year will have to suffice for now:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media contact: Dave Karlotski, info@rpmchallenge.com, 603-205-5144
RPM Challenge Celebrates 6th Anniversary
Creative music challenge turned international music phenomenon kicks off February 1, 2011
Portsmouth, N.H.— The RPM Challenge is simple, but has compelled more than 6,000 bands from all seven continents to join since 2006. Now, in time for the February 1 start date, musicians across the globe are signing up at www.rpmchallenge.com to participate in the 2011 challenge, and more are welcome.
The RPM Challenge itself is to record an album in 28 days, just because you can. That’s 10 songs or 35 minutes of original material, written and recorded during the month of February. To date, the challenge has resulted in the creation of an astonishing 30,000+ new songs. The music spans every genre imaginable—from electronic to experimental, from hip hop to heavy metal—and represents the work of all types of musicians: aspiring stars, working bands, hobbyists, students, and closet musicians.
The challenge begins February 1, but musicians who come aboard early are able to share their thoughts and trade ideas with an enthusiastic and tight-knit RPM community online. Once registered, participants can either create music in isolation if that’s their preference, or join the conversation to blog, add photos, participate in discussion groups and send messages to fellow RPMers during the challenge. Local scenes band together to lend a solo, an amp, or a little peer pressure as they help each other to the finish line.
The web site is the hub of the project, a tool for the musicians to connect and support each other. With thousands of musicians all working alongside each other, groups that might never come across each other in the regular world can meet, share ideas and collaborate through the site, bringing fresh perspectives and new insight into their own music.
Though the RPM (Record Production Month) Challenge is foremost a test of individual creativity and perseverance, the RPM community has become a vital part of the experience. Personal connections made during the event have endured long after February ends, giving musicians a group of like-minded people with whom to share their artistic life.
RPM Challenge began in February 2006 as a creative challenge for local bands in Portsmouth, N.H., where it was conceived by the local weekly newspaper The Wire in order to further the local music scene. It has since been adopted with similar local intensity by The Scope in St. John’s, Newfoundland, and The East Bay Express in Oakland, Calif. In 2007, the Wire opened the RPM Challenge to the international music community, where it was covered in popular blogs like Slashdot, in music Web sites like Pitchfork.com and on the National Public Radio show “All Things Considered,” with RPM bands featured on NPR’s “All Songs Considered.”
So this February, your option could be to hibernate, or you could choose to write a fistful of new material and get it recorded. From Anchorage, Alaska, to McMurdo Station in Antarctica, from London and Oslo to Tokyo, Aukland, Pretoria and Los Angeles, independent musicians from all genres and walks of life have come together with a common goal: to set aside any obstacles to producing music for the month of February, and to find themselves on March 1 each holding in their hands a new CD of their own original work that they would not have made otherwise.
Then, we celebrate! We’ll all join together for a global listening party on Saturday, March 26. Some parties happen in communities where RPMers get together and listen to each others tracks; others take part in the fun online, playing tracks and joining chats.
There is no fee to participate in the RPM Challenge. Bands must postmark their RPM 2011 CDs by March 1 to the RPM office at 10 Vaughan Mall, Suite 201, Portsmouth, N.H. 03801. For more information, to see the participating bands, listen to the online jukebox or to read the whole text of the challenge, go to www.rpmchallenge.com.
Click for more official JAFS sites.
