Bench DJ Competition
CLOSED: This competition is closed
As Official Fashion Partner of this year’s Warehouse Project, Bench have got together with a lot of awesome people from the music industry to bring you the coolest DJ competition of the year.
With Warehouse Project, Mixcloud, the School of Audio Engineering (SAE) & Vestax, Bench are offering aspiring DJs everywhere an unbelievable prize:
PLAY at Warehouse Project to a packed crowd on New Year’s Eve. Bench will even throw in your travel & accommodation in Manchester and a pair of tickets for your mates! This year's NYE line-up is better than ever - with Mark Ronson, Annie Mac, Retro/Grade, Jaymo & Andy George and many more closing 2010 in style. The winner's name will also be published on the Warehouse Project's online calendar next to these huge names.
PERFORM at Bench events in 2011*
PRODUCE your own records as part of a six month course with SAE, worth £2,000
MIX with the latest production software (Ableton Live) and a VCM 600 DJ controller from Vestax, worth £1000
WEAR the latest Bench clothes
REMEMBER your experience with a professional photo shoot & filming of events
Five entrants will be shortlisted and become finalists, who will be invited to perform at an exclusive after-hours party within a Bench store in the bohemian Northern Quarter area of Manchester.
Special guest judges from the industry (TBA) will listen to the finalists play at the event, and will make their decision on the winner that night.
The whole event will be filmed and circulated online, providing great exposure for the finalists and the winner.
The finalists will also receive £50 worth of Bench clothes each.
Instructions:
- Upload a 30 minute mix to Mixcloud of the kind of music you would play at Warehouse Project
- Name the mix ‘Bench Warehouse Project Competition’ and tag it ‘Bench WHP comp’. If you fail to tag it correctly, your mix may be missed.
Judging:
- Entrants will be judged on factors including (but not limited to) number of plays, favourites, positive feedback, tune selection, originality and technical ability.
- DJs must gain over 100 plays be considered for the shortlist. We are looking for DJs who show commitment and are able to use the tools available on Mixcloud and across the web to promote themselves effectively.
- The final decision will be made by Bench, WHP & special guest judges (TBA).
- Play a New Years Eve set at WHP to a packed crowd, travel & accommodation in Manchester and a pair of tickets for your mates.
- Play at Bench Events in 2011*
- Six month course in electronic music production with SAE, worth around £2,000. Available in selected cities worldwide
- Vestax will provide a copy of Ableton Live DJ and production software, and a VCM 600 DJ controller
- Bench clothing for the five shortlisted entrants
- Professional photo shoot & filming of events
Prizes:
The competition closes on 19 November 2010, but we advise you to upload your mix well before the closing date to give yourself time to promote it and generate the required plays.
More information on our partners:
The Warehouse Project
Bench were there in the beginning, when the home of the Warehouse Project (WHP) was the shell of the soon to be demolished 3000 capacity Boddingtons Brewery. Bench also returned to partner the second event in a new venue - a 2000 capacity former air-raid shelter located beneath Manchester’s Piccadilly Train Station.
WHP was born in the autumn of 2006, when three event promoters embarked on a project that changed the face of Manchester’s club scene and had a huge effect on the UK and beyond.
Launching with the slogan ‘For twelve weeks this city is ours’ WHP set out to establish a ‘guerrilla’ style club that was to run every Friday and Saturday night for a three month period each year.
The plan was to stage over 30 unique stand-alone events each different in style, hosting such headliners as Public Enemy, 2manyDJs, Soulwax, Doves, Justice, Klaxons, Sasha, Roni Size and Erol Alkan, that brought a new twist to the festival and club /gig experience.
It was a huge risk and many thought it was not possible to sustain a 3000 capacity venue so intensively for that period of time. Attendance, however, was unparalleled, with over 100,000 people attending the various events over the twelve-week period.
Just as it was five years ago when they opened those gates to Boddingtons, The Warehouse Project remains a big experiment. One that continues to evolve quite naturally, never really knowing exactly what lies ahead.
This year marks ‘5 Years of The Warehouse Project’, and Bench return as partners to celebrate another boundary pushing series of events taking place beneath the streets of Manchester.
http://www.thewarehouseproject.com/
Mixcloud
Mixcloud is the home for on-demand radio shows and DJ mixes online. The popular, easy to use service helps DJs and radio presenters/stations host their content and easily distribute it across the web (especially onto social networks and blogs). Mixcloud provides a unique experience to listeners and fans - one place to access tens of thousands of DJs with lots of great ways to search and discover music you like.
In the short year since launch, Mixcloud has attracted over 20,000 content partners from around the world (including the likes of the BBC, NME Radio, John Digweed, Paul Oakenfold and We Love Space) and half a million unique visitors every month. The company has also worked with some of the world's largest brands, including Nike, Blackberry, Red Bull and of course, Bench!
School of Audio Engineering (SAE)
SAE Institute was founded by in Sydney, Australia in 1976. Offering the first practical audio education, it now spans over 50 locations around the world offering a wide range of courses & qualifications.
With the Electronic Music Production course, students learn how to make their own records and perform live using laptops, keyboards, craft and design their own sounds, record vocals, use effects, and know their way around a studio and industry standard software such as Logic Pro 9 and Ableton Live 8.
Students also get access to the industry as SAE has links with various record labels and publishing companies, and with their new 'Producer Sessions' series, top producers will also give access to their workflows and how they create new tracks, and provide handy hints and tips.
SAE have working relationships with people such as BPM (the biggest music technology trade show in Europe), and the International Music Summit in Ibiza, headed by Pete Tong. SAE takes students to these events to experience how the industry works first hand.
Vestax
The Vestax Corporation is a company that keeps producing products with its uniqueness, foresight, and reliability for the people who do music actively from inputs to outputs of sounds. Vestax's mission is always to deliver products demanded by world's top class musicians, DJs, music creators, and fans that all desire to have reliable music instruments and equipment.
Vestax aims at producing premium products with the world's highest level of technologies to live up to clients' needs collected in its international sales division, sales outlets, and exhibitions that take place around the world. Vestax is not a company operating for itself only. The products are always developed from users' standpoints and what Vestax feels proud most is that the products represent a part of culture in music. They go on the market after a long process of repeated discussions with top musicians, trials and errors, and strict quality control on production lines.
For the future, Vestax continues to work on “sound products” from human analogs, digital to optical types fully manipulating technologies.
Terms and Conditions
*(subject to contracts)
Prize is non-transferrable and there is no cash alternative. Finalists will be required to play at a Bench event in order to be judged. Bench will release the date of this event after the finalists have been selected. Bench will contribute £100 per finalist toward the cost of travel & accommodation for this event in Manchester. Finalists will be expected to wear the Bench clothing received as part of the prize at this event, and to keep the music at certain duration as determined by Bench. The final decision lies with WHP, Bench & special guest judges (TBA) There will only be one winner. The winner will be expected to keep to a certain quality and quantity as specified by WHP at the WHP event. Bench will provide travel & accommodation on New Years Eve for the winner, up to a maximum spend determined by Bench. Bench will only pay for the winner of the competition. Playing at Bench events in 2011 is subject to contract with that specific event. Bench cannot guarantee the winner will play at 2011 events without consulting the contracts of its event partners. SAE courses are only available in selected cities internationally, in the event that the course is not practical for the winner to attend, SAE will provide a gift as compensation. The monetary value of this gift will be wholly determined by SAE. This will be selected by SAE and will be non-transferrable & without cash alternative. SAE’s decision is final. Vestax will provide a copy of Ableton Live DJ and production software, and a VCM 600 DJ controller as part of the prize. This prize is non-transferrable & without cash alternative. Vestax’s decision is final. Bench reserve the right to withdraw this competition at any time. Competition launches 4 October 2010, closing date 19 November 2010. Entrants must be 18 or over.
