Award Winning Australian singer/songwriter Andy Penkow

Award Winning Australian singer/songwriter Andy Penkow is known for his songwriting skills and smooth, powerful vocals. many charts entries. So far he has released 20 singles to radio and 8 singles have reached No.1 across multiple Australian Country Radio Charts.

His latest album “Love, Lies & Dirty Dishes” peaking at No.3 on the ARIA Charts, No.2 on the Australian Apple ITunes Charts and No.4 on the Australian Independent Albums Chart.

In 2023 he was nominated for a Golden Guitar Award and have previously won 2x People’s Choice Awards (“Best Bush Ballard 2023” and “Most Promising Rising Star 2022”), 3x Independent Country Music Awards (“Most Popular Male Artist 2023”, “Most Popular Music Video 2023”, and “Most Popular New Male Artist 2022”), a “Best Male Vocalist” award at the 2021 Gold Medallion Awards, five “Purple Air Guitars”, and was the winner of the “Australian Busking Championships 2019 – Gundagai”. Internationally, two of his songs peak at No.1 on the Nashville Country Independent Radio Charts, his album “Love, Lies & Dirty Dishes” peaked at No.1 for three weeks at the Canadian CFUR Radio charts, and his song “Ghostly Gums” peaked at No.2 on the UK Country Radio Charts.

Music2Deal: Tell us a bit about yourself?

Andy: I am an Australian Singer/Songwriter from a small town in Sussex Inlet, New South Wales. I would consider myself to be a contemporary, americana country artist with a bluesy, soulful voice. I grew up surrounded by different styles of music, heavily influenced by my grandmother who was a professional opera singer, and my mother’s collection of classics including Dolly Parton, Elvis Presley and Neil Young.

Music2Deal: Why do you think your kind of music will do well internationally?

Andy: My music is all about the storytelling and the emotions. A representation of my travels and life experiences. I believe my music transcends through languages, borders and differences and can be relatable on many different levels. My songs have charted Top 5 in four different countries, Australia, USA, UK and Canada, and my 4^th studio album, scheduled for release in May 2024, was co-written and produced in Canada.

Music2Deal: Notable projects you have completed

Andy: I have created 4 studios albums, have released 20 songs to radio, have created and released 8 music videos, and have had 8 number one charting songs on Australian Country Radio. In 2022/23, I have toured across every state and territory in Australia, completing more than 130 gigs.

Music2Deal: Upcoming projects / tours?

Andy: My 4^th studios album is scheduled for release in Australia and Canada in May 2024. The first single from this album is scheduled for release in October 2023. I will be relocating from Australia to Canada in March 2024 to promote my new album and tour across Canada, UK and USA.

I have another 45 gigs booked between now and March 2024 in Australia.

Music2Deal: What do you think is the single largest problem faced by the music industry today?

Andy: Outside usual responses from musicians around the lack of fair financial compensation from streaming platforms, I personally think that the single largest problem faced by the music industry today is the lack of support, pathways and opportunities for upcoming musicians/independent artists. Unless you are a signed label artist or have connections with organisers and representatives, it is virtually impossible to get into music festivals and receive fair airplay on commercial radio stations.

Music2Deal: How do you think it can be resolved?

Andy: Decisions on government funding should be made by a fair and broad independent committees, not consisting of major labels and commercial radio representatives, and radio stations should have a weekly quota to play a select percentage of independent and upcoming artists.

Music2Deal: Your plans for next year?

Andy: I will be relocating to Canada in March 2024 to promote my music and my 4^th studio album.

Music2Deal: A good word on Music2Deal.com

Andy: Music2deal is a fantastic integrated online platform for music industry professionals and creatives from around the world to network and engage”

Links:

Profile from Andy Penkow on Music2Deal.com

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Interviews · music business · music industry · music industry interview · Music2Deal.com

Interview with Robert Ngoun, C.E.O of Beutara, Music2Deal’s new representative for Central and West Africa.

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INTERVIEW IN FRENCH at the end / ENTRETIEN EN FRANÇAIS à la fin

Music2Deal: Can you tell us a little more about your background ?

Robert: I’ve been in the music business for over 30 years. I was one of the founders of the very first Cameroonian boy’s band, Star System, and then I was lucky enough to benefit from professional training at some top schools like SAWI in Switzerland or the University of Lyon for a master’s degree in artist career management, which enabled me to redirect my professional career by going into the administration of music projects. Thanks to this training, I set up an agency in Switzerland that specialised in fundraising for festivals and launched the fundraising system in Switzerland in 2003 / 2004. I then went on to work for LMD Prod and Camus Prod and wrote two books on the performing arts. To date, I am the owner and CEO of Beutara.

Music2Deal: What opportunities do you see in Music2Deal ?

Robert: Personally, I see a lot of possibilities that Music2Deal offers to entertainment professionals in particular. Culture in general. With nowadays, more than 15000 professionals present and coming from different horizons of the show such as the publishers, the producers, the journalists, the experts, the agents but better, the professionals coming from different countries, the French-speaking professionals of Central and West Africa will have in their procession, a tool, a network at hand with this possibility not only to create their own network but especially to contact easily, the professionals present for synergies, collaborations, and so on…

Music2Deal: What would be essential for African professionals to have a greater presence ?

Robert: First of all, it’s important to point out that Music2Deal offers enormous opportunities here for African professionals. Better than LinkedIn, which will enable independent artists to develop their careers and labels to increase their sales. Now it’s all a question of the integration offer put forward by the CEO, which will enable as many people as possible to take part.

Links:
https://music2deal.com

https://www.beutara.com/

INTERVIEW IN FRENCH / ENTRETIEN EN FRANÇAIS

Music2Deal: Pouvez-vous nous dire un peu plus sur votre parcours ?

Robert: Je suis dans le domaine de la musique depuis plus de 30 ans. Je fais partie des créateurs du tout premier boy’s band camerounais, le Star System et ensuite, j’ai eu cette chance de bénéficier des formations professionnelles dans certaines grandes écoles comme le SAWI en Suisse ou l’Université de Lyon pour un master en gestion de carrières d’artistes qui m’ont permis de de réorienter ma carrière professionnelle en rentrant dans l’administration des projets du domaine de la musique. Grâce à ces formations, j’ai créé une agence en suisse qui était spécialisée dans la recherche de financement pour les festivals, lancer le système de fundraising dans les années 2003 / 2004 en Suisse ensuite, je suis passé par LMD Prod ou Camus Prod et ecris deux ouvrages sur le spectacle vivant. Je suis à ce jour, propriétaire et CEO de la société Beutara

Music2Deal: Quelles possibilités voyez-vous dans Music2Deal?

Robert: Personnellement, je vois ici, des tas de possibilités que Music2Deal offre aux professionnels du spectacle en particulier. De la culture en général. Avec à nos jours, plus de 15000 professionnels présents et venant d’horizons différents du spectacle tels les éditeurs, les producteurs, les journalistes, des experts, des agents mais mieux, des professionnels venant de différents pays, les professionnels francophone de l’Afrique centrale et de l’Ouest auront en leur procession, un outil, un réseau à porter de main avec cette possibilité non seulement de créer leur propre réseau mais surtout de contacter facilement, les professionnels présents pour des synergies, des collaborations, et j’en passe…

Music2Deal: Qu’est ce qui serait indispensable pour que les professionnels africains soient plus présents ?

Robert: Déjà, il est important de préciser que Music2Deal offre ici aux professionnels africains, des opportunités énormes. Mieux que LinkedIn, qui permettra de développer pour les artistes indépendants, leur carrière et pour les labels, leur chiffre d’affaires. Maintenant, tout sera question de l’offre mise d’intégration mise en avant par le PDG qui permettra au plus grand nombre d’y être présent.

Interviews · music industry · music industry interview · Music2Deal.com

ALLEN JOHNSTON – THE INTERVIEW

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(M2D) Music2Deal would like to introduce you to our VIP partner Mr. Allen Johnston aka The Music Specialist. Allen a digital distribution company owner at Sony / The Orchard for over 16 years, has held the position of Director of Urban sales for the K-Tel Corporation, Simitar & associated labels, VP sales for Mind Seed Corporation, Southeast regional director of promotion for Arista, EMI, Ariola and Fantasy Records. He was co-owner of Joey Boy Records, J.R. Records, On Top Records. American Faith Records, Joey boy Publishing BMI, Beam of Light Publishing ASCAP, To Soon To tell Publishing Sesac and Bazooka Filmworks.

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(Allen Johnston)

ON TOP RECORDS, LLC has been around for many years, but a new, more formal collaboration between Allen Johnston (The Music Specialist) and Jose Armada Jr. (ON TOP RECORDS, LLC) promises to send the label to new heights. Johnston and Armada have worked together for over 20 years and have developed hundreds of positive revenue projects. Now the two are looking forward to even bigger and better things.

(AJ) After having run a digital distribution company via Sony / The Orchard for 15 years, I have seen firsthand the many problems that face independent artists.

I spoke with my old partner Jose Armada, and we found a common thread.

In fact, Jose Armada says “Allen and I have the same goal. We want to assist those who need help distributing their music and music videos, with an emphasis on independent labels and artists. We have the tools and expertise to make that happen.

AJ jOSE

(Allen Johnston & Jose Armada)

(M2D) What do you see as the problems facing independent artists and labels today?

(AJ) Our focus is on independent labels and artists; Music is a business. You can have the most talented artist or record label, and if they don’t know the business end of it – i.e., how to get their music and music videos distributed, played, and how to collect compensation for those, they will probably either fail or spend much more money than necessary. A lot of artists spend money on things that they don’t need to. We guide them through the entire process, even assisting them with their social media sites. To say that we help them with TIK TOK, Spotify, Facebook, and YouTube would be just scratching the surface.

(M2D) Is there any particular genre of music that you are interested in?

(AJ) ON TOP RECORDS, LLC works with all genres of music, but over the last 15 years, Latin music has dominated its roster. We work with artists and labels from Mexico to Central and South America, Puerto Rico, Spain, the Santo Domingo, and other continents and countries. Music is universal, and so are our efforts. Our current combined catalog also has music from Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, France, Germany, Bangladesh, India and of course multiple labels from the United States. Technology allows us to work audio, video, podcasts, movies, audio books and more within 600 destinations in 190 countries. Every major DSP (Digital Service Provider) has been added to our growing list of outlets, and we continue to monitor the social media sites marketing and promotion opportunities.

We have not limited ourselves to any one language and now have workers that are fluent in many different languages and cultures.

(M2D) I see that you are continuing to grow and expand. Are there any plans for the near future?

(AJ) We are actively looking for companies that want to expand their business footprint and develop positive revenue streams. To this end we offer three (3) tiers of accounting solutions that cater to the needs of labels of any size and level of complexity. Our client platform is an intuitive one stop shop that consolidates distribution, marketing and financial services and proprietary solutions. We oversee Neighboring Rights, Sound Exchange collections and other related matters.

One of the largest revenue streams available is video monetization and our video strategy is designed to increase exposure and generate revenue through the collections of royalties and claims.

digital-distribution_orig

(M2D) Is there anything else you would like to let our members know?

(AJ) Yes, there is no upfront charge for any of our services. We make money when our clients make money and clients that follow our direction see an increase in their revenue streams monthly.

I want to thank you Mario and the entire Music2Deal staff for continuing to be the leader in professional networking and opportunities. And of course for allowing me the platform to discuss our new business.

Links:
Allen Johnston

ON TOP RECORDS