Getty Images presents the MISHMASH music video remix competition.  What is MISHMASH? It’s a competition for people who enjoy remixing and editing music and film.  Create a music video using one (or a mix of 5) Pump Audio music tracks and at least 50% of Getty Images’ footage clips & imagery.  Submit your video before 15 October 2009 for the chance to win a MacBook Pro 17inch with Final Cut Studio.

MISHMASH Music Video Competition is open to any person over 21 years of age, who are residents in Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and UK and are working for agencies or production companies.

To get all the details and to register for the competition visit MISHMASH.

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So I was on vacation last week in an undisclosed location.  It’s remaining undisclosed because it was beautiful and I don’t want too many people to go there.  Anyhow, my wife, baby and I shared this beach house with another couple, who also had one child.

The husband, Rob, is an enormous music fan with an amazing ipod which we listened to all week.  Knowing that I’m in the music business and having gone to a few shows together, Rob was excited to talk music – everything from how great Ron Wood is, to up and coming bands from Boston, to opining how underrated the Pina Colada song is (which it is, listen to it again, it’s funny and good – especially the O’Malley’s line).

It was reassuring in a way to listen to music and talk music with someone who is really just a fan, and an at-home guitar player.  You can forget sometimes what music means to people when it’s your work.

Why am I talking about this? I ‘m talking about this because it triggered in me the importance of music in people’s lives.  And how that importance translates into what Pump Audio is all about.  Our music tea consists of music lovers and musicians that listen to every track that’s submitted – we now have over 40,000 fully classified tracks in our Pump Audio collection – which is an amazing feat.

Our staff, many who have been with Pump for years, are fully supportive of the independent music scene and continue to be the engine room for our business, which creates the millions of dollars that we pay out to independent artists every year.

Not sure there’s any news here – more on that later.  I just wanted to remind everyone, and myself that we have the most dedicated music team out there – making things happen and I’m proud to be part of the continued Pump Audio movement.

Maybe it was the sand and waves that have me thinking this way – but I’ll take it.

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Les Paul, often credited as the inventor of the solid body electric guitar, died today at age 94.  In addition to being an imaginative jazz guitar player himself, he changed the sound, context and bravado of the guitar forever.  He brought innovations to the realm of multi-track recording, overdubbing and delay and phasing effects throughout the 1940s and 50s, helping give birth to rock n’ roll as we know it.  His development of the solid body guitar started in the 1930s with “the log” (above), a guitar he made from a piece of lumber and electronics, integrated into an Epiphone acoustic body.   Les Paul’s inventions have had an incredibly far reach.   Fingers of the greats from all genres have graced the Gibson Les Paul  guitar.  See Les and his instruments here and here.

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As part of our Personal Style series, We must mention French singer national treasure,  Mireille Mathieu.  With the bone structure of a model and the intensity of Edith Piaf, she molded her personal style into a sophisticated modish aesthetic, always keeping a bold, geometric hairdo.  She looks great at age 63, partly because of the consistency she keeps, opting for simple shapes, confident eye wear and neutral colors.  Of course, her haircut hasn’t changed in decades either, and has subtly morphed from an angled banged bob to a proper bowl cut.  Agyness Deyn, Katie Holmes and Linda Evangelista have worn the same strong crop she wears in the early 1970s (above right).  See Mathieu from the 1960’s to now here, along with those who may have been inspired by her look.

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I’m not sure where to start when it comes to blogging, since I’ve never done it, but I think for this first Pump Audio blog – I’m going to start with where we are.

Pump Audio continues to be the #1 licensor of true independent artists’ music in the world.  Being part of the Getty Images family has allowed us to grow at a rate that we never could have on our own.  We now have hundreds of sales people around the world selling your music.  Pump Audio music is being used in more television productions, advertising, web based media, corporate videos, in-store displays, video games and tons of other places then ever before – and now in more locales.

We have recently launched in Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore.  Japan, Portugal, Brazil and others are coming soon.  This is an amazing thing for Pump Audio and a great opportunity for our artists.  We are working hard to make sure that we have the same success in these regions that we had in the US, just faster.  The Getty Images sales teams around the world are chomping at the bit to get to start selling Pump Audio and the feedback on the music has been great.  The one thing that keeps coming up is how good and varied the music is, and how authentic – which we already knew.

What we do need is more international content – so if you know artists from Europe or Asia or South America that are looking for the best deal in the music business, make sure they go to www.pumpaudio.com and submit their music.  Some examples of what we need are… J-pop and lyrical content in non-English languages, especially Spanish, German, Italian and French.

Without getting too far ahead of ourselves, we are encouraged and excited about what is happening and have very high expectations – which we intend to meet.

You know, I have spent the last few weeks on the phone with some of our top earning artists discussing some of the things that I’ve mentioned here, and it’s great when you can hear first hand some of our great success stories – artists that have quit their jobs to become full time musicians; songwriters who have put a down-payment on a house – but my favorite must be the artist I met in Austin at SXSW who has been part of Pump Audio almost from our inception back in 1999 or 2000.   He told me that he had just gotten married to a woman in Austin who had never dated a musician (which makes her the only woman in Austin who hasn’t dated a musician) and was worried about how her husband was going to be able to make a living long term – when the gigs were over.  A few days later his BMI check came in, which was predominantly Pump Audio placements in TV shows and he showed it to her…she smiled and hasn’t asked him about money since.

So it’s good to know that Pump Audio is not only making money for artists – it’s keeping families together.

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