We were blown away by the fantastic effort from all the entrants to this year’s Mishmash competition.  We’ve had a hard time judging, but two pieces of work really stood out for us. And so, without further ado, we’d like to announce the winners:

David Hopkinson won the UK prize with “Flash Forward (And Back)” – a video which merges a series of old-school images and footage, with a classic speech from Grand Master Flash on the art of mixing. Tommi Lius won the Northern Europe category with “Glitchmindly” – a fast-paced, high octane video montage set to electronic music.

Each of these winning videos has carefully blurred the lines between imagery and footage, from archival to contemporary, to create music videos which amazed the judges with their innovative editing techniques.

The judging panel comprised of a who’s who in music and film production, including representatives from advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi, production company Cobblestone Hamburg Filmproducktion and UK music duo, “Hexstatic.”  The judges looked at each music video as soon as it was uploaded and gave their verdict by leaving comments and rating each entry, ensuring each video received real time feedback.

One of the judges, Dan Waite, Label Director of MTV Talent  & Music International said: “It was a delight to be a judge on this panel. The creativity that the entrants showed using Getty Images’ stock footage and Pump Audio music tracks was of a very high quality.  As I watched some of the videos, I thought that a few were good enough and compelling enough to be on a music channel in their own right. It highlighted to me the breadth of the Getty Images film archive and the outstanding abilities of tomorrows’ music video and film producers.”

Congratulations to our two winners. They’ll soon be receiving their brand new 17″ MacBook Pro with Final Cut Pro.

If you weren’t lucky this time, don’t worry, as we’ll be running Mishmash 2010 next year. So, get your thinking caps on — we’re sure it’ll be an amazing competition.

For more information and to see all the work, visit: www.gettyimages.com/mishmash

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Erik Von Weber/Getty Images

Due to popular demand, Getty Images has extended the deadline for “MISHMASH” Music Video Challenge to October 23.

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 23 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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Before “rapper” Drake was throwing signs and wearing matching Louis Vuitton accessories (above 2009) he was “actor”, Aubrey Graham from Degrassi: The Next Generation (below 2005).  Graham always played it a little cool on Degrassi as “Jimmy”, the school basketball star who dabbled in hip-hop, but as a star of a squeeky-cleanish Canadian tween show Graham faced an uphill battle for respect as a true rap talent from fans and the industry alike.   Just as Melissa Gilbert posed nude for Playboy to abolish her typecast as pigtailed Laura Ingalls in Little House On The Prairie, Graham went raunchy to make his way to number 1. on the Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs Hot Rap Track Billboard charts with “Best I Ever Had”. He also adopted the name Drake to distance himself from his unsordid past.

Working with Lil’ Wayne, Kanye West and Eminem, Drake has come into his own and we look look forward to Thank Me Later, expected in 2010.

Steve Granitz Archive/WireImage/Getty Images

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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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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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Eric Blum/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Just in time for the massive 1980’s revival, Devo is scheduled to play a handful of times over the next few months.  The band is headlining the BMI showcase at SXSW on March 20th and will perform their 1978, Eno produced album, “Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo?’ in full at the London Kentish Town Forum on May 6 as part of ATPs’ Don’t Look Back series.  Two days later they will play a  set at London’s All Tomorrow’s Parties for the Fans Strike Back event.  View more images from Dev-o’s hay-day here.

Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Paul Natki/WireImage/Getty Images

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It’s been 23 years since a super group of pop stars including Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson and Tina Turner formed to lay down the self-described historic recording “We Are The World“  as “USA for Africa”.  As well as inspiring Live Aid, Farm Aid and countless other charitable platforms for mega music stars, the bloated project has been parodied on every continent from the beginning.  Some of the better known spoofs have been done by on In Living Color, and Saturday Night Live, but Japanese television has taken a straight emulation to new heights.  This week, PitchforkTV debuts Tim Harrington’s stab at the charity parody genre with a ridiculously catchy song about “giving cash to all the trust fund children”.

Harrington, member of Les Savy Fav and Pitchfork TV “Beardo” host enlisted a crew of indie musicians and friends including Andrew W.K., Fred Armisen (Trenchmouth), Moby, Nancy Whang of LCD Soundsystem, the New Pornographers’ Carl Newman, Ian Svenonius (Nation of Ulysses, The Make Up, Weird War),  Okkervil River’s Will Sheff, actress Amy Carlson (Third Watch/Law & Order), Oliver Ackermann of A Place to Bury Strangers, Gavin McInnes (Street Carnage/ex-VICE), comedian Seth Herzog, plus members of Love as Laughter, Excepter, Cheeseburger, and Panthers to participate in this tongue in cheek critique with high production value and discreet charm.  Watch the video here.

Dave Hogan/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

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