Major Aussie artists 5 Seconds of Summer, Alison Wonderland, 360 and The Rubens didn’t start out as huge bloody successes – not quite, anyway.
As is the case with 99.9% of massive musicians, they started at the bottom (now they’re ‘ere), playing in venues the size of Harry Potter‘s cupboard under the stairs, before eventually being discovered by acts who are as big as they are now.
If you want to know how long it can take you to reach superstardom level, might I just remind you that one of 360’s earliest releases was featured on Myspace‘s top 20 Videos playlist? Myspace, you guys. The social media site that became obsolete before some of you were even born (probably).
Regardless, it takes a tonne of grafting and some downright flukes to make it big, and part of that groundwork is being taken under the wing of bigger performers.
5SOS were going about their business being all popular on Youtube and whatnot until they ended up flying bang on to the radar of One Direction. They went on to open for the uber-famous UK group on their ridic popular Take Me Home tour and the rest, as they say, is history.
After the release of their runaway self-titled debut album, The Rubens scored an opening slot for The Boss in 2013, which undoubtedly not only gave them some serious exposure but also, think about that street cred.
In the same year as The Rubens were touring with The Boss, Alison Wonderland was dropping her debut single and acting as the support act for the Pompeii hitmakers. You know, as you do. Nothing to see here folks.
Anywho, the moral of the story is that emerging artists of a new generation are being given the same chance as these mega music acts.
Alison Wonderland, 5SOS, The Rubens and 360 are all partnering with EXTRA® Gum, Universal Music Australia and YouTube to run the EXTRA® Support Acts program.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es-_QC3MCmE
This new program has paired 16 of Australia’s up-and-coming artists with one of the 4 x aforementioned music royalty, based on music genre. They’ll promote and support the emerging artists by replacing the ads that run before their videos to digital support act slots.
For example, if you bloody froth Alison Wonderland, her Youtube ads will be replaced with one of the four emerging artists belonging to her genre, so I mean, you’re bound to be adding to your music library.
Music lovers can cast their own votes on EXTRA®‘s Support Acts hub on YouTube, and naturally, the artists with the most views, likes and comments will come out victorious.
The four winners will cop mentoring from the artists they supported in the YouTube pre-roll ads, will receive a studio session with their new mentor and will perform at the 2018 Universal Music ARIA Week showcase where they’ll be showing off to the music bigwigs.
Voting is open between August 16 – September 30, with winners announced mid-October.
Get involved HERE.
