Aug.28th, at The Northside Tavern, ANP Release OFF
from The Sundresses w/Oxford Cotton and The Chocolate Horse

She’s too sweet to brag, but the rest of All Night Party’s partners are surely not!

Congratulations to our very own Monika Royal, who has been selected by the Cincinnati Business Courier for the 2010 40 Under 40 class. We always knew she was a star, but now we know that she’s the creme de la creme of Cincinnati’s next generation of leaders and innovators (For those who don’t know what 40 Under 40 is here’s a link).

From the start it’s been our goal to create opportunity and demand for regional artists, by connecting them with fans.  If that were a job the rest of us could do, trust me, it would have been done ages ago.  We think we discovered the missing piece of that puzzle, and built our business around it.  Her name is Monika.  Last year she got a lot of bands paid fairly (usually very well in fact) and made new connections across the community.  She keeps the rest of us excited and focused, while managing our crazy expectations.  She’s the ideal link between the music and business communities, region wide.  A good thing, since that’s her job at The All Night Party

From your partners, and all of the artists you’ve helped: Rock on, Monika!

One of the best-kept secrets of The All Night Party is our band-centric sister site, bands.theallnightparty.com.  We’re always looking for more and better ways to connect bands to fans, but this month we’re kicking it old school – we’re focused on getting bands noticed in bricks-and-mortar retail stores.  Cincy’s blessed with a number of great music shops, all very supportive of local music.  Shake It, Everybody’s, Phil’s, and Mole’s are all well versed in the scene and heavily stock local artists.

We have some ideas to make this easier and more profitable for bands, but want to hear from artists and fans, not to mention folks who make a living selling music.  Join the conversation and add your thoughts to ours!

If you haven’t figured out by now, we’re a little different. Most companies brag about how much they made, but we’re far more proud of what we spent in our first year of operation.  Dig:  Last year we paid out more than 56% of our gross earnings to regional artists, mostly for music licenses.  True to our mission, Cincinnati artists benefited from new opportunities we worked hard to create. Here’s what we did:

• Partnered with the Cincinnati Museum Center for Pharohfest and introduced 4 great local bands to new young audiences.
• Worked with the Cincinnati Art Museum for ROAR, featuring Lions Rampant.
• At MPMF 2009, we coordinated daytime programming, hosted our debut ANP showcase, and had a community-wide merch table (the ANP SceneStore).
• Sponsored Kentucky Struts’ Todd Lipscomb to play at a benefit for the Cincinnati chapter of the American Red Cross
• Introduced local artists to the advertising community through the AdClub Cincinnati’s annual Media Auction.
• Launched a new performance/recording laboratory, holding our first UltraSession featuring The Guitars.

Unlike some out of town competitors glomming onto Cincy bands, we’ve never touched an artist’s publishing, or put our hands in their pockets before reaching into our own.  We invested real cash in every release, and pioneered musicated merch… affordable download-based releases delivered as buttons, t-shirts and posters.  Our projects:

• Partnered with  The Mockbee to stage the “Full Release” party, celebrating 4 new titles on one night,
• Worked with local labels Shake It and Phratry on their titles.
• Released the Sundresses, Motel and supported their Sandwich tour
• Released mallory’s long-awaited followup “Before it Grows”
• Released Fists of Love eponymous debut EP

In short, we’ve worked overtime to make music easier, cooler and more affordable.

But we were most excited by our wins in licensing.  Our plan was to enter the licensing market with a strong regional catalog this summer. Last November, months ahead of schedule, we were pitching standout local artists against big name stars like Phoenix and Tegan & Sara, for commercial placements.

After this surprise, we rushed the lawyers to finish the paperwork, and as the ink was still flowing, we closed our biggest deal: An original composition for an advertising agency in Chicago landed in a major advertising campaign.  By the time our one-year anniversary rolled around, we had paid out over $17,000 in licensing and session fees to local artists.  No other company in town can make that claim.  See why we believe in win-win scenarios?

But we saved the best for last…while we were very fortunate last year, we enter our second year more organized, experienced and prepared.  Last year the best opportunities found us.  This year, we’re hunting the opportunities and our success has left us hungry for more.  Our library is growing daily, as are our contacts in advertising and the creative community.  Our schedule is stuffed with as many releases as we can support, which is driving our push into music promotion. We never stop…we’re here to connect bands and fans.

A lot of companies talk about being artist friendly, but often those relationships are one-way.  You’re expected to give away your music and sell your soul cheap.  We think that’s crazy, and are working hard to change it, by offering the region’s best artists a real partnership, where resources flow both ways.  We’re proud to put money where our heart is: back in the pockets of the people who make the music we love.

So thanks and cheers to the Cincinnati music scene.  We thank our community for it’s warm welcome and we’re working hard to build even more opportunity. Viva 2010!

Why should downtown, Northside, and Newport have all the fun?  The All Night Party is teaming up with MPMF and CincySounds to bring the indie noise to the ‘burbs, to introduce the region’s best bands to the nation’s best fans.

This month’s edition pairs multi-CEA Winning, 4X SXSW invitees and All Night Party recording artists, The Sundresses, with one of the region’s hottest young bands, The Josh Dorsey Blues Revival (also CEA winners!). The party’s at The Play By Play Cafe, which is becoming noted as the venue for great music in the north end of town.

This series matters.  Cincinnati loves it’s stars, even in tough times (the Bengals sold out Paul Brown Stadium through dark years, while Opening Day is a local holiday no matter the Red’s prospects).  Fortunately for area music fans this is a golden age – Bands like The Sundresses, Wussy, Bad Veins, The Lions Rampant, Foxy Shazam and Freekbass are getting love in all the right places, and building followings around the world.  MPMF and MusicNow are becoming local institutions, with national reputations.

The CincySounds series connects great bands with great fans, and will bring them where you live.  If you live in Montgomery, Sycamore Twp, Indian Hill, Silverton, Deer Park, Pleasant Ridge or all points north and central, this show’s for you!

Ever since we launched people have been asking all of us about this new venture, The All Night Party.  This Sunday, January 10 at 7PM founding partners Brad Loans and Dave Davis are interviewed by Chelsea VandeDrink on 91.7 WVXU‘s Around Cincinnati.

We continue to be pleased and amazed by the community we live in.  Around Cincinnati and it’s long-time host Lee Hay are a local arts institution, and always on top of the entire scene (not just music, but literature, poetry, dance, and visual arts).  And Chelsea not only works on-air, but is one of the area’s top engineers, working at Corbett Studios (located in the broadcast center housing WGUC, WVXU and WCET), and has been one of our first call’s for advice on tech, and community-building projects in recording since she moved to Cincinnati from St. Louis.  It’s wonderful to be recognized on Around Cincinnati less than 6 months after our public launch!

Check out the first broadcast interview about our company on Sunday 1/10/10 at 7PM on WVXU.

As we enter the new decade, we at The All Night Party would like to thank all the bands, fans, and Cincy musical community for welcoming us so warmly into the business.  We’re inventing a new role, and a new kind of label, so we continue to be amazed at the support we’ve received.

It would be impossible to list everyone whose helped us out over the past year, because so many have contributed to our success.  Whether we asked for it or not, the musical community’s been there for us from the start.  Please know we’re grateful to be part of this community, and thankful for theopportunities that arose to to serve you over the past year.  We’ll work hard in 2010 to justify your faith in us, and return the many favors we’ve been granted.

There are a ton of shows tonight – if you hook up with the Grasshopper Juice party bus you don’t even have to choose (it runs between clubs!), so there’s no excuse not to catch a great band this New Years Eve.  Our calendar lists some of our faves, but that’s the tip of an amazing musical iceberg.  Just have fun (and be safe).

See you in 2010.  We’re definitely ready!

from The All Night Party…

• John Curley
• Dave Davis
• Jack Dennis
• Brian Niesz
• Mayor Makenzie Place
• Tim Riordan
• Monika Roberts
• Brad Loans Schnittger