Gramrphone, Shure, And AWAL Team Up For HQ Live Streaming Series Titled: NextSoundSessions

19 January 2021 - Press release

Fans Can Listen and Interact with the Hottest Up-and-Coming Artists From the Comfort of Home using Gramrphone’s New Technology

Global leader in audio electronics Shure, in collaboration with UK based audio-streaming company Gramrphone and global music label AWAL, has launched a series of six weekly live shows for NextSoundSessions. With twenty four musicians streaming live from countries around the world, the limited series showcases the label’s best independent musicians.

Participating artists from AWAL include Kelli-Leigh, Tatiana DeMaria, Oscar Scheller, Sans Soucis, Godblesscomputers, maxime., Dhruv Visvanath, Diamond La Mafia, Marie Dahlstrom, Boy Willows, and Happi. Paul Hitchman, President of AWAL, said, “In these unprecedented times innovation is needed more than ever to help artists reach new audiences for their music. We are therefore delighted to partner with Shure and Gramrphone, who are both leaders in their fields, to bring new opportunities to AWAL’s community of artists.”

Gramrphone puts high quality audio at the forefront in this partnership with AWAL and Shure. By streaming high quality AAC audio direct from the source, be it a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) such as Ableton or Logic, an external interface or mixing desk, Gramrphone offers artists and fans the highest quality audio experience on the market. Artists all around the world want to take control of their live music, and fans everywhere want to join engaging live streams where they can actually hear and feel the music. COVID-19 has taken away live venues, and independent artists are struggling to maximise campaigns without performing and touring. Artists face technical difficulties when attempting to set up streaming tools and major social platforms offer poor quality audio streaming. Gramrphone was born to fix this; it is a DIY solution to enable every artist to stream without any technical barriers and to fill the need for fans to have access to exclusive live audio experiences wherever they are in the world, offering a frictionless experience without any cost.

By broadcasting their own live listening parties, radio shows or studio sessions, artists can take control over their content, their brand and their audience. Artists need a tool to manage their live music distribution, and by streaming directly to fans they can develop direct and indirect revenue opportunities. Every artist has loved how easy it is to embed the stream to their own website - they can direct fans to their own space where they can ticket shows, promote merchandise, get newsletter sign-ups, highlight their bandcamp, spotify, or patreon, and convert followers into fans.

We’re proud of how Gramrphone lowers the barrier for entry for fans and we’ve seen this in our shows with Indie label Pagal Haina, who are based in India. Because the stream is audio-only it uses much less data than video streams, making listening incredibly easy for fans in high density developing countries where internet connectivity may be an issue. And streams have high viral potential, as the stream link opens in any internet browser allowing everyone to join quickly and share, without any download or registration walls.

Being audio-only means Gramrphone is all about the music and we’ve seen this reflected in artists’ needs. John Legend is a great example - his Instagram Live at the beginning of lockdown was a touching moment, but it was low quality. A few months later his team contacted us to use Gramrphone which, because it was high quality, was their tool of choice for an exclusive live listening party with Industry Partners. Co-founder Graham Allen explains, “Music existed before video. When it comes to music, audio is the most important thing for most artists and listeners.” Audio-only means there’s less pressure on artists. They can talk on the mic, introduce tracks, perform live, and take questions from fans in the in-app chat, making sessions intimate and memorable. The recent success of Clubhouse further validates the audio only approach. Graham continues, “In an age where people want to reduce screen time we want to give listeners a lean back experience, where they can lock their phone or switch apps, plug into speakers, go for a run, cook dinner - but continue to listen. Nobody wants to watch a crappy live stream with misplaced lighting, bad audio and a cat walking across the screen - sometimes, we prefer the image we had in our head!”

The #NextSoundSessions will be streamed live on Shure’s website on the 21st and 28th of January, 2021. Episode Five will feature Fia Moon, Tim Chadwick, Emma Beko and the Ruen Brothers.