TuneCore was honored to carry the title of Official Music Distribution and Publishing Administration Sponsor for this year’s A3C Festival, and boy did we have fun! The festival, which took place in Atlanta from October 8-12, brought together over 500 artists/producers and countless fans to celebrate 5 days of hip-hop, art, film, style and education.
A3C Festival celebrated it’s 10th anniversary this year, featuring a variety of hip-hop artists from new schoolers like 2 Chainz, Casey Veggies and Trinidad Jame$ to old schoolers such as Bun B, Smif N Wessun and Masta Ace. Among some of the more well-known names lie the hundreds of independent artists, and we’re proud to boast that almost 50% of this year’s lineup has distributed music through TuneCore!
(TuneCore’s Chris Mooney with Torch)
There was no shortage of fun to be had around Atlanta during this year’s festival, and we were thrilled to be a part of the action. Launching the #TuneCoreStudio at the SAE Institute of Atlanta was an especially rewarding experience: we brought together nine producer/artist pairings, over three days, to compose entirely new songs during their own personal three-hour recording sessions. All the while, A3C attendees were able to witness hip-hop history in the making through a live stream of all the action in the studio!
#TuneCoreStudio was a total success, bringing together artists from different parts of America, (in one case from another country), to collaborate on the spot in the true spirit of independent hip-hop. All songs recorded will be released on an exclusive A3C/TuneCore co-branded digital compilation, which will be available soon on Amazon.com for free!
(ChellaH, Slim Deville (Nappy Roots), Kaelub (Rich Kidz) & Quake Matthews at TuneCore’s “Blueprint for Going Global” panel)
In between hanging out with artists in the #TuneCoreStudio sessions and catching live sets, TuneCore’s Senior Director of Artist Promotions & Strategic Relationships, Chris Mooney moderated the panel: “Fueling the Independent Spirit: Blueprint For Going Global”. TuneCore presented this panel, (which featured TuneCore artists ChellaH, Quake Matthews, and members of Rich Kidz and Nappy Roots), as an opportunity for emcees and producers alike to ask questions, share their thoughts, and openly discuss distributing music, growing a fan base, and keeping their goals to expand globally intact.
Reflecting the panel Chris said, “The conversation was great because each artist had their own way of discussing what it takes to succeed. It was also very rewarding when panelists and audience members took the time to tell me how much they appreciated TuneCore—they love logging in to see their sales and money.”
(Dutch ReBelle & Black Metaphor at work in the #TuneCoreStudio)
Be sure to check out photos from our time in the #TuneCoreStudio and at live events during A3C on Facebook. Also, see below for links to some of our A3C Artist Spotlight interviews/articles below in case you missed them!
A3C Artist Spotlights: Translee & Ripynt
A3C Artist Spotlight: Signif
A3C Artist Spotlights: Shome & Goldyard