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WATERLOO CHIONICIE - “realm-y. April 17. 2013 - a t 0 p o 7 Awards and airplay haven t got hrm a contract, but new plan hatched for Scottylames ? BvBoaVnaANAC ‘ ‘ Walk of the Earth that became a 5 (fhmnicleStafl‘ ' ‘ YouTube sensation when all five 1 , members of the band played l t has all the makings of one of Goyte's Somebody That I Used to l I the inspirational success sto- Know on one acoustic guitar. i ries of how a local musician That video has had almost 150 I went from selling CD5 on millionviewsand earned the band i doorsteps to chart~topping suc- an appearance on the Ellen l cess " DeGeneres show. it also earned And Waterloo's Scotty James , ‘ » them a major record deal, and the i thought he was doing all the right ‘ , band is charting its first hit called things, including building a ‘ ' RedHandsoffitsdebut full-length ? healthy following for his videos on " album called R.E.V.0. \ YouTube and recently winning the loannou is a big fan of Walk of l Canadian Radio Music Award for the Earth and the success the best song in the Adult Contempo- band's had. and he and James are rary category for his song Wanna _ aiming for their own YouThbe sen- be Loved. ~ ' sation with an ambitious plan to if the formula sounds familiar ' ”f 33“ ' ; start a campaign to garner one . it’s because it's one that's worked "1 . ' ‘ ’/ ‘ million fans of James' next video ' for a teen sensations just a few ’ If,“ . "e' t? t . within99days ofreleasing it. j cities west of Waterloo from the ’ ' “gs” "To make this happen we have r Stratford area â€" Justin Bieber. And Q” - e " if" to think big and think differently 5 we all know how that story turned «- IQ: - again." said loannou. “We have to l out for the kid who went from “A“, show independenlteagtists that ‘ buskin on street comers to sell- . ‘ ‘ nothing“ is im ssib i u think , ingomgwofld tours. Lmlmdcammlmegummmwwwmwmnybmmfiwm difl‘erently po yo But despite the initial buzz for the Ma‘- James has yet t° “k a record contract and 5 MM'W ‘ new “W9" to W “mm “It’s going to be a declaration James, the opportunities have ‘ video, and talk about our highs started to dry up for the former "That’s been the challenge the state of the music business the labels don’t have the money. and lows, and we'regoing to intro- Wilfrid laurier student turned through this whole process,“ said that has had a hard time monetiz» They don't have the artist develop- duoe our challenge, which is basi- songster. James is still unsigned, loannou. “The one thing we did ing its product with all the leakage ment funds because they don‘t sell cally the first time anybody in the 4 still posting videos to You'lirbe and when Scotty and i started working suffered from the digital age. CDs anymore. Because ofthe digi- music industry has ever done this ‘ still going doorâ€"to-door selling his together is to fast-track his music When people can hear their music ta] revolution and things like pira- “The labels say we need mil- ‘ CDs to make a living. career. for free or rip it from the lntemet cy. the music industry is scram- lions of dollars and years to break l What happened? His manager "Remarkably we ended up hit- without the artist collecting any bling to figure out how to mone- an artist and we’re going to chal~ I Johnny loannou. a local music ting radio and then national radio, royalties. it’s hard to make a buck. tire theirartists" lenge that notion and get a million 1 promoter, wasone of those people and getting on the Billboard chart loannou said that lack of loannou said as independent fans in 99 days with zero dollars. ‘ James serenaded on his doorstep and winning the Canadian Radio money has dried up this develop- contractors, the record labels are That's our hook and we’re going to 1 two years ago with the same song Music Award, which is pretty cool ment pipeline, and made modern expecting them to create their publicly declare that.” that has drawn so much attention. for an unsigned artist. musicians entrepreneurs instead own buzz and build up their own The campaign will begin May 1. But that early momentum has left “But we've also had our share of of contract players, having to hus-_ audience in order to get any back» For more information visit them spinning their wheels roadblocks, because we’ve talked tie to get out their name and their ing. wwwsoottyjamesmusiccom loannou said they've had meet- to every single U.S. and Canadian music. “We came back and said we’re "We’ve reached the point where ings with labels, including a label for the last year but nothing’s “We went from this super high done with the labels for now.” said we are flat broke and we have no potential deal with Taylor Swift’s materialized. We almost signed an of being in Nashville and thinking loannou. "They're asking us to cre- more money to develop,” said new record company. but when international deal with Taylor we landed a contract with Swift’s ate all the buzz and do all the loannou. “We're still going to be l the time came to dot the i's and Swift's label but it was contingent label to a little bit of low," said work, and have the labels take release music, and were going to cross the t's. the deals fell through. on someone else coming on board loannou. “That's been our story - over something that's already do a campaign with a zero dollar Either timing or the lack of devel- on the deal and the deal fell a little bit ofsUCCéss mixed in with proven and hasthe sales to do it.” budget opment dollars from the record through at the last minute.” some struggle. it‘s sort of the success story of “That will be the entire focus of labels left them wanting. loannou said it's a reflection of “We saw it for ourselves that the Burlington-based indie band the campaign starting on May 1." ,.g__ a P, .__.. l‘l.4lvlr'l {Jr-L. 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