2011: Kuwait Music, key events in Kuwait’s music industry, and moving forward into 20126

2011 was amazing. period. From KM coming to life in dec 2010, to the multitude of events, bands, DJ’s and services that were connected in collaboration as a result, 2011 has been nothing short of fantastic. But as we prepare for a tougher and more exciting 2012, we look back at all the friendships, joys and memories 2011 gifted us.

1) Our very first post – Dec 04, 2010

On a quiet evening, in some unassuming coffee shop in Salmiyah, our very first post went online with the new site theme. It was about live auditions at Applebees in Fintas. The rest as they say, is history.

2) Jan 14, 2011: SELDA 5C2 become the first band to register their profile on Kuwait Music using the band registration form

Energetic and always ready to go, the awesome filipino band SELDA 5C2 become the first of over 90 band and DJ registrations on Kuwait Music. The registrations that followed were overwhelming for us, but well worth each and every moment spent on putting up their profiles.

3) Feb 12 – Kuwait Rock is cancelled. The Rock community vents their frustration on KM

An évent touted to be a humdinger, was as usual, cancelled at the 11th hour . Many musicians are upset and rightly so. Here is the post:

4) March 2011 – DJ mayhem hits the country

DJ Bruce, DJ Charly (world famous) and DJ Ghosh set the party scene alight with some big hitting profiles, music and events.

5) April 2011 – We officially launch ENGAGE, Kuwait’s first locally built music download portal to support local musicians

ENGAGE was cooking for a while and after some initial hiccups in development, we finally launched kuwaitmusicengage.com . The site provides a self serve platform for local musicians and music lovers to collaborate and build awareness amongst  each other.

6) May 2011 – The Mojolaters Blues Band are interviewed on public television

The Mojolaters Blues Band are interviewed by Al Watan TV in what became largely representative of local bands that play western music , getting mainstream attention. There may have been bands that did this before, but in 2011 this was a major leap.

7) June 2011 – Kuwait Music momentarily moves away from virtual , and has its first “physical” meet up with bands as Narine meets with Voice of the Soul and Bikes n Daps

Up to this point, we maintained pretty much, a virtual existence. We decided to break this and let Kuwait Music’s personality come in mingle. The meet up was a farewell for Bikes n Daps bassist Karim.

August 2011 – Kuwait Music partners with Al Yousifi, a major retailer to offer commercial value

Kuwait music partners with Al Yousifi to offer 25% off on all music equipment and instruments at their Salmiya store in what becomes a landmark collaboration for a offline/ online offer in Kuwait’s music industry.

9) October and November – A splurge of album releases to mark a successful summer for several bands

Several artists and bands including Freefall, Earsplit, Voice of the Soul , Eye Resist and Jelly Shot release their EP’s. For the first time in Kuwait’s Music industry have so many bands released professionally produced albums in the same period.

10) December 2011 – The core Conviction series rallies musicians, DJ’s and the like to speak. Speak like never before.

December’s Core Conviction series rallied powerhouse convictions from 11 passionate and opinionated musicians that brought the site back to life after a slow end to november. See them all here >

So, what’s in store for 2012?

In 2012, we plan to branch out into a more “relationship” based site and engage with bands, professional organizations, the media and more by conducting more interviews, documentaries, conducting events and continue to  promote more artists online.

Some of the juicy things to look forward to in the year:

• An ecommerce portal to buy used instruments online
• Finalize and publish the KM CD compilation, which set us back in 2011 due to logistics issues.
• Hold Kuwait Music’s first major “musician conference”, an open day workshop bringing together all the musicians, producers and DJ’s of Kuwait
• Officially launch www.dubai-music.com (in pilot mode for now) and qatar-music.com, Kuwait Music’s sister sites and the first indicator of our regional goals and expansion of the Music network.
• Foster and build official partnerships with companies like Al Dawliah, X-cite, Electrozan and Al Nazaer to promote and build awesome music  oriented campaigns in the country.
• Much more cool stuff, but that’ll remain secret for now

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