Indaba Music is a community of mostly independent musicians, but we also work with some major artists to produce innovative and engaging campaigns that redefine what it means to produce and promote albums.
Here’s a sample of some artists we’ve worked with:
Mariah Carey: Indaba ran a six week campaign to engage fans and generate broad media interest by enabling unprecedented access to Mariah Carey’s music. Mariah had always been a powerful force in the remixing community, but never before had she been able to engage so many fans and musicians in such an interactive and engaging way. Musicians and fans downloaded and remixed/re-imagined the 70+ stems for Mariah’s single, I’ll Be Lovin’ U Long Time. The Indaba community voted for the top entries and a panel of celebrity judges selected a winner from among those. The winner received a $5,000 cash prize and exposure on MariahCarey.com, MySpace, and IslandRecords.com.
The Roots: The Roots are one of the most unique, relevant, and important musical acts today. The Philadelphia-based group has pushed hip-hop to a new level through the use of live instrumentation, prolific lyrics, and collaborations with diverse artists. Their latest album, Rising Down, couldn’t have come at a more appropriate time. Their most political release to date, co-founder ?uestlove described it as “more mature and intense than all of our efforts.” The track, “Criminal”, deals with issues of injustice and life on the streets and features guests Truck North and Saigon. For Round 1 of a 2 part contest, The Roots made the original stems from “Criminal” available to Indaba members to remix and re-imagine.
Yo-Yo Ma: Preeminent cellist and collaborator Yo-Yo Ma has always explored new ways to share music with his audience and other performers. For his album, Songs of Joy & Peace, Yo-Yo invited a remarkable group of friends to create music with him – including such internationally respected artists as James Taylor, Alison Krauss, Diana Krall, Chris Botti, and Renée Fleming. In celebration of the album’s release, Yo-Yo shared the joy of collaboration with Indaba’s international community and enabled them to play along with his recording of the melody of the traditional song, “Dona Nobis Pacem (Give Us Peace)”. Participants collaborated with Yo-Yo by adding their own counter melodies and entirely new variations. The winner got the opportunity to go into the studio and record with Yo-Yo.
Third Eye Blind: As 3EB finished laying down tracks for their new album, the band posted unmixed instrument stems for Indaba members to tweak, shape, and edit through a series of contests. Through a regular blog that chronicled their experience of creating an album, access to the unmixed stems and the dialogue among Indaba members, people around the world got the chance to participate in the group’s development their newest artistic concepts.
K-OS: K-OS has been a hip-hop innovator since the critically-acclaimed release of his debut album Exit in 2002. In this tradition, K-OS, IndabaMusic, Nettwerk Music Group, and Universal invited musicians around the world to mix the stems for the 11 songs slated to comprise K-OS’s 2009 album release, entitled Yes! These songs had not been previously released to the public, and K-OS looked to the Indaba community to help him define his newest musical creations. The 11 contest winners will be featured on the companion album to Yes! scheduled to be distributed by Universal, and will be paid $1,000 each for their work.
