December 18, 2019
A new digital streaming platform dedicated to local music seeks local musicians and bands to include in its inaugural collection. Called Tracks , the music library and streaming platform is a collaboration between two Town departments, Chapel Hill Public Library and Chapel Hill Community Arts & Culture. Slated to launch in spring 2020, Tracks Music Library will deliver commercial-free, curated music from Chapel Hill area artists through a user-friendly digital platform. Local musicians and bands interested in being a part of the platform can submit 1-3 songs for consideration during the month of January at tracksmusiclibrary.org.
The platform will launch with fifty albums that represent the diverse musical acts that make up the local scene, from indie rock to bluegrass to hip hop to world music. Those albums and artists will be selected by a curatorial team from the Chapel Hill music landscape, including Kevin “Kaze” Thomas, owner of Vibehouse 405 and Local 506; Elinor Walker, station manager at WXYC; Steve Weiss, curator at UNC’s Southern Folklife Collection; and jazz vocalist and lyricist, Lois DeLoatch. Tracks will pay to license the selected music and make it available for free streaming via the platform.
Tracks aims to help local bands discover new audiences and to help local music lovers discover bands and musicians from Chapel Hill. Molly Luby, Special Projects Coordinator at Chapel Hill Public Library, says “Chapel Hill and the surrounding areas have long been a cradle for fledgling musical acts. The Tracks platform will showcase some of these unsigned artists and help them reach new listeners.” Chapel Hill will join a small national cadre of communities with similar projects, including Austin, Seattle, Nashville, and Pittsburgh.
If local musicians and bands are interested in submitting, take note of these important details:
- Musicians should reside in the Chapel Hill area, which includes Orange, Durham, Person, Alamance, and Chatham counties
- Musicians must hold the rights to the music they submit
- Music must have been produced in the last five years
- Musicians can submit up to 3 songs for consideration and will need a full length album (minimum of 5 songs) if selected
- The submission form will open January 1, 2020 and is available via the link: tracksmusiclibrary.org/submit
More information on the project can be found at tracksmusiclibrary.org. This project was supported by grant funds from the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) as administered by the State Library of North Carolina, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources (IMLS grant number LS-00-19-0034-19).
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