News Alert |

Eleven young Ballarat music acts will take their music careers to the next level after being accepted into Sonika’s brand new music industry development program, SONIKA Records. 

Sonika, the Youth Services’ FReeZA committee, has selected a handful of young Ballarat musicians and bands to develop their music business skills. 

Sonika will take the acts to Collingwood over two days in July to each record an original single in the same Melbourne studio, Kool Skools, that kick-started the music careers of Delta Goodrem and Missy Higgins.  

Successful applicants include: 

Lotus Eyes - indie folk/pop  Leftfield Luxury - noise rock  Milla Williams - indie pop  Roopan - hiphop/rap  Cody Michaels – country  E Slate – rap  Shon Dunn - guitar and vox, occasional loop pedal  Meraki Minds - indie pop  Tilly and Charlotte - relaxed pop/indie/acoustic  Jade Moran - pop rock  Paige Perry - acoustic folk 

 This program will enable the selected participants to:  

record an original song in a professional recording studio   have a promotional photo shoot, and   gain industry and performance experience.  

All recordings will be compiled onto a SONIKA Records album. The album will be released for sale to the public at an album launch party featuring performances from participating artists. Ballarat live music venues and booking agents will also receive a copy of the album, which will help them consider these acts at future live music events.  

Each song will also be entered into a wider competition with councils and schools, with an ARIA-style awards night set to be held later this year.  

On the bus to the studio, participants will explore music industry tips on marketing and networking, booking gigs, self-management, performance planning and more.  

Musicians and bands will be able to use their recording to upload to Triple J Unearthed, iTunes, Spotify, Soundcloud. This is an amazing opportunity to get some extremely valuable resources for free!  

This new music industry program is replacing the Push Start Comp/Battle of the Bands.