Popkomm Digital Music Innovator Nominees Chosen

Six finalist will compete for the Popkomm-IMEA (Innovation in Music and Entertainment Award). All are companies worth watching closely. The winner will be chosen October 8th during Germany’s Popkomm convention.

• BMAT (Spain) has developed technology which rates singers. The technology offers a graphic presentation of various rated features such as pitch contours, note segmentation and vibrato, thereby assisting the user to improve their vocal technique.
• Independent IP (Netherlands) has developed the FUGA business-to-business platform to distribute digital content including audio tracks, videos and cover art etc.
• Kyte (USA) is a mobile and online platform which enables everyone, from consumers to the media to entertainment groups, to produce and distribute digital content, live or on-demand, via the internet, social networks or cell phones.

• Rawrip (USA) is a website where users discover new music via The Rippler search engine, and which guarantees artists and record labels 100% of all revenues from the music sales.
• roccatune (Germany) is a free full on-demand music portal offering over a million tracks from such well-known performers as Robbie Williams, R.E.M., Mariah Carey and the Rolling Stones.
• The Filter (UK) is the brainchild of Grammy winner Peter Gabriel – a search engine that can filter entertainment and information from around the world to create recommendations for users.

All six candidates who have made it through to this shortlist have already won something: coaching by one of the judges. The three panel members are:

• Julie Meyer, founder of First-Tuesday.
• Michael Bornhäusser, a pioneer in commercial radio and software entrepreneur.
• Charles Grimsdale, founder of OD2 and technology investor

Each of the six finalists will receive coaching from the panel to enable the candidates to be prepared for the presentations at the finalists’ screening sessions on 8 October at the Popkomm conference. It will then be up to the audience to choose the winner, who will receive a free stand together with accreditation at Popkomm 2009, a cash prize of EUR 3,000 and, of course, plenty of publicity, as well as media and public exposure.