A TON of fresh, new, independent music: Welcome Jamendo!

Ladies and Gentlemen music lovers of Whyd, we have a big announcement for you! Today we’re proud to welcome another platform that is a treasure chest of independent music from all over the world. 

Having been around since 2004, Jamendo has been a home for independent musicians who are seeking alternatives to the traditional structure of music distribution. Jamendo helps artists reach new fans, license their music, and synchronize their tracks with advertisements, corporate videos, or even cinema. Jamendo’s emerging, innovative artists are exactly the type of musicians that Whyd music lovers will be happy to discover, scratching that remote itch in the back of the ear that comes from having unequaled music appetites. 

Now you can add any track you want from Jamendo, either with the [+ Add Track] button on the site or with the bookmarklet. We’re counting on you to help share these artists get their music out to the world! 

We encourage you to go and start exploring Jamendo now, as we will be launching a playlist contest next week featuring music from the platform. To get you started, here’s a Whyd playlist put together by the audiophiles on the Jamendo team! 

Never stop jamendoing! 

Music Business Entrepreneur, Artist, Journalist, Former Footballer, and Quentin Lechemia is still only 23 years old

1. Can you introduce yourself? Where are you from and when did you realize that music was going to play a big part in your life? 

My name is Quentin Lechémia, so there’s that. All jokes about my last name are definitely welcome. I am 23 years old and I follow a rather atypical path. After completing an intensive sporting effort (five years playing on l’AS St-Etienne, and golfing championships after), I quickly started an Electro-pop due called Destronics, that kicked off and has since seriously encouraged me to throw myself into music. I am also oriented towards studying accounting in Lyon. My DSCG Masters convinced me of one thing: don’t be an accountant, but put my imagination (and my developer skills that I picked up in high school) towards being an entrepreneur. So I created my first sites and my start up MyBandMarket that hosts most notably the news outlet MyBandNews that unifies about thirty other editors. 

2. Tell us about MyBandMarket. What is its objective and who is it for?

MyBandMarket is part of a simple proposition: artists have a hard time finding dates for shows, and booking agents - professionals as well as amateurs - often have difficulty finding artists to play at their events. Why not create a platform that brings the two together? Thus MyBandMarket was born, giving each booker the ability to search for an artist based on criteria like budget, style of music, place, and find the gem in the rough for their event. It’s an artistic database like we’ve never seen in the music sector. 

3. You are also a music and business journalist for Presse-Citron. How do you see your role as a journalist, and what are the types of stories that attract you the most? 

You must know that I was a big fan of Presse Citron from the start, and I had a connection to Eric Dupin, its founder. I wanted to check in with him and see if a column about digital music would be interesting. He is also a music lover, and loved the idea immediately. Each week, I like to share the cool things I find, and ridiculous things too about the industry that is in the middle of a total transformation. And I always love finding new concepts that pull the music industry up! Whyd, like a lot of other start ups, deserves a certain visibility. And it’s my job at Presse Citron to put them forward. 

Concerning the news that fascinates me the most, they are still mostly business or technology related. But I also can’t write about everything I love, it would take up way too much time! 

4. What should we look forward to in 2014? 

To commemorate the new version 2.0 of MyBandMarket, we are going to launch a big European contest called EuroMusic Contest 2014: a Eurovision 2.0. Our primary goal: break the barriers of Eurovision today, creating a contest that is driven by innovative technologies and open to all European artists. 

We already did one edition of EuroMusic Contest in a partnership with Soundcloud in 2011 when I was in London. It generated more than 110,000 votes and 2,200 sign ups. We’re doing it again with some awesome partners like the TV Channel and VOD platform iConcerts; Swarmplanet - a new streaming platform that works like a peer to peer network and allows us to get an HD quality image through a 3G connection with just three seconds of delay; and Jamendo. A great adventure is waiting for us! 

If you Whyd fans want to support the project, don’t hesitate to participate in our crowd funding campaign on KissKissBankBank. http://www.kisskissbankbank.com/fr/projects/euromusic-contest-2014

Sounds awesome! Make sure to subscribe to Quentin on Whyd!