NME - the brand that champions new music - has announced a new partnership with PledgeMusic to offer new, emerging artists and bands funding, marketing and promotional support. The move follows last year's launch of 'NME Emerging', a platform hosted on NME.com that is dedicated to supporting emerging talent, giving them the chance to be heard by NME and the 3m UK unique users that turn to NME.COM each month.

The new partnership will see PledgeMusic offering NME Emerging artists the opportunity to build their own campaign and develop their fan-base across the fast-growing 3 million-plus PledgeMusic community who are looking for new music. By the same token, the 50,000-plus artists who have already run successful PledgeMusic campaigns can now access the discerning NME.com audience. PledgeMusic will be messaging the partnership to artists across its newsletter and social media platforms.

All NME Emerging artists working with PledgeMusic will have access to dedicated campaign management to advise and assist in running campaigns tailored for their latest release, tour, video or any other related musical project. Building and placing their individual artist profile on the NME Emerging page already delivers a direct route to millions of music fans. Through the PledgeMusic portal, they will now have a practical roadmap to raising funds, moving forward and developing a career.

Malcolm Dunbar, co-founder and president UK & Europe PledgeMusic adds: 'PledgeMusic is delighted and honoured to be linking up with NME Emerging in this new initiative to assist and work with developing artists and bands. NME has a rich history of supporting unsigned and independent talent and the PledgeMusic model of rights-free funding is perfectly aligned with that. All of us at PledgeMusic very much look forward to working with the NME team on the project'.

NME digital director Keith Walker says: 'Working with PledgeMusic is a natural fit for the NME. It benefits fans and artists by introducing a new way to bring them together on NME Emerging'.

Glorious Encounter Named Songwriter Of The Year
     
Glorious Encounter, a Los Angeles-based worship group, has been named Songwriter of the Year of the 15th annual ChristianSongwriting.com competition. The contest, sponsored by CM United, is the longest-running Christian songwriting contest in existence.

Glorious Encounter earned the honour for its song 'Anchor Of My Soul', from the band's album titled 'Your Presence'. The musicians, who also comprise the songwriting team, are Devon Glenn, Johnny Zirkel and Chris Deming.

Winning the competition earns Glorious Encounter numerous prizes and opportunities, including writing or co-writing a song for an INOV8 Music Group Label Artist, which will then be released to radio internationally by A-Sides Radio Promotion. Visit this link for a complete list of prizes.

Each year, the ChristianSongwriting.com contest names quarterly winners, with all first place quarterly winners becoming eligible to be named the annual songwriter of the year.

To learn more about Glorious Encounter, visit GloriousEncounter.com, like on Facebook and follow on Instagram.

Desmond Child To Be Honoured By ASCAP

ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) will present Grammy Award winner and Songwriters Hall of Fame Inductee Desmond Child with its prestigious ASCAP Founders Award at the 35th annual ASCAP Pop Music Awards in Los Angeles on April 23, 2018.  From Aerosmith to Zedd, Child's genre-defying collaborations include some of pop's biggest hits over the last five decades including classics like "Livin' On A Prayer," "You Give Love A Bad Name," "I Was Made For Lovin' You," "Dude (Looks Like A Lady)," "Livin' La Vida Loca," "I Hate Myself For Loving You," "Poison," "Waking Up In Vegas" and "Beautiful Now." 

Celebrating his 40th anniversary as a member of ASCAP, Child has penned over eighty Top 40 hits (rock, pop, Latin and country) and serves as the Chairman / CEO of the Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame. "… Mr. Child is one of the most successful songwriters of the last 30 years." - The New York Times.

"Desmond is one of the most respected and successful songwriters in the world," said ASCAP President Paul Williams. "His unique ability to capture the essence of our lives through song -- whether we're livin' la vida loca or livin' on a prayer -- is simply unequalled. We are honoured to present Desmond with the ASCAP Founders Award in recognition of his towering achievements. With #1 hits spanning five decades now, Desmond surely has many more milestones still to come."

Child's peers also are some of his biggest fans. KISS' Gene Simmons once said, "Desmond is the perfect songwriter. Neither styles in music nor trends and fads have ever held him back from doing what he does best, which is craft a song like nobody else." Aerosmith's Steven Tyler said, "The guy's a f**king genius!" Reflecting on Child, longtime collaborator Jon Bon Jovi has said, "The Desmond you don't know about is the one who not only taught me the next level of songwriting but so many of the true aspects of friendship: truth, honour, and loyalty."

This month, Desmond launched a new performance series "An Evening With Desmond Child" directed by Richard Jay-Alexander to rave reviews. Broadway World said, "There are many people who try to rock and pop...but Desmond Child is the REAL DEAL." The sold-out, three night premiere engagement at Feinstein's/54 Below in New York City featured the original members of his hit band, Desmond Child & Rouge including Maria Vidal, Myriam Valle and Diana Grasselli.

Tech Veteran Nigel Hall Joins PRS For Music As COO

PRS for Music has hired Nigel Hall, formerly Managing Director at KPMG UK, as its new Chief Operating Officer, effective immediately.

At KPMG UK, Nigel was Client Lead Partner and Lead Subject Matter Expert for a number of KPMG's technology, media and telecoms accounts building on more than 20 years of experience including, leading the launch of Orange internationally and founding his own company, Interim-Consulting Ltd, to focus on his passion for start-ups.

In 2016, PRS for Music processed 4.3 trillion lines of data, as streaming contributed to the global growth in music consumption. Nigel's background in digital growth is well-placed to assist PRS in its own technological evolution, as the leading global collecting society continues to handle vast increases in data each year.