Summer is here, and with it comes the nightlife, the buzz, the sounds, the lights, and with the reignited nightlife comes new music. Sounds to immerse ourselves in, new genres to discover. What is nightlife to you? Is it amidst a crowd of partygoers, lost in the music around you, or is it spent somewhere more refined, sipping expensive drinks and making lucrative connections? Or, maybe it’s something completely unique to you, and only you can express it and take us through your nightlife.
The music we listen to has changed tremendously since Balloon Party began, old favourites have grown distant, replaced by newer styles and hybrids, but one thing has remained a constant: the magic, the excitement, the vibe.
The most exciting time for a producer can be the time they spend exploring all these new and breaking genres, drawing inspiration from them to create something fresh and inspiring, and a big part of that is sharing that with others. The creative buzz from learning something new, the thrill of using your new knowledge in your work and hearing that sudden improvement, and pushing yourself further than you ever had before.
For Balloon Party 4 we’re looking for an album of moving, hard hitting music way ahead of it’s time. There is no restriction of genre, and you don’t have to look far to find what’s on the horizon. With breaking genres of EDM such as Future House, Hybrid Trap and Indie Electro, new styles influencing today’s Rock, Pop, and Metal, and with so many potential fusions possible, it doesn’t matter what genre you want to work in. Go out there and find something that inspires you. Explore your Chromatic Horizons.
How will Balloon Party 4: Chromatic Horizons work?
Balloon Party 4 will begin accepting finished submissions on January 6th 2016. Things are going to be working a little differently this time. Throughout the project we will have four ‘milestones’, wherein for six days, submissions will be open, and those received will be listened to by our group of tutors, and you will receive personal feedback from us on your track. Each milestone will have a focus point, so leading up to each you should have a fair idea of what aspects of the production for your track you should be concentrating on leading up to the milestone. We’ll also respond to questions you submit along with your track, and we aim to help you push forward with your track every step of the way!
Milestones aren’t mandatory, but they promise full, detailed feedback regularly throughout the project, and each milestone will give you a direction of how to move forward with your track. In the lead up to each milestone, we’ll be publishing focus articles on our website, featuring guest writers giving their advice and thoughts on each topic.
Of course, we still encourage you to get involved and ask others for their input - Balloon Party has always been about collaboration, working together to reach our potential, and just plain getting excited about each others cool as heck music! The milestones are not there to replace the community, but are there as a tool to help you focus, streamline the production process, build your confidence and help you create the best track you can!
Rules for Submission
- Explicit, Not Safe For Work (NSFW) submissions are discouraged.
- We will not accept tracks that have already been released. This includes full YouTube/SoundCloud uploads - however teasers of reasonable length can be released.
- Please try to keep submissions to a maximum of five minutes in length. If your track goes over this, have a 5 minute edit of the track, just in case!
- Please avoid blatant sampling of existing material - see FAQ for more details on this.
- Plagiarism will not be tolerated. We reserve the right to remove your track from the album without warning if we discover any form of plagiarism taking place.
- All submissions must NOT be posted in public when done; work-in-progresses and teasers are however encouraged.
- Please only use the new art assets for this album. We are moving in a new direction, and we want our appearance to reflect that! You are welcome to make derivatives of the new art assets for your teasers and so on.
Release
This is the first Balloon Party that we will be guaranteeing a physical release. These will initially be limited edition exclusives at conventions, and will later be publicly available for as long as supply remains. If you want to be sure you get yours, reserve and pick it up at the event!
Alongside the physical release, Chromatic Horizons will be releasing on iTunes and Beatport, as well as on our Bandcamp. Not only does this give people more options when it comes to getting hold of the album, but will also greatly increase our exposure, gets our musicians out there and gives us more potential to grow as a brand. We hope you’re as excited about this as we are.
BronyQuest
As we move forward as a project, so does the realm of performing musicians within and outside of the community. This year, we want to bring structure to the BronyQuest fundraiser portion of this project. From now, we will be working closely with conventions and events to give musicians the opportunity to perform to new audiences in venues across the globe.
A couple of points to note:
Contributing is not mandatory to be eligible for funding, and being on the album does not grant you first dibs on being funded. As stated, we will be working with conventions to organise performers. Your contribution should be all about the music and getting your name out there. We’re not a holiday fund.
Milestones
Here are the milestones and their dates. On each milestone date, submissions will open for six days, and will close at midnight on the seventh day. Tracks submitted during this time will receive a response shortly after from our team. Each milestone has a focus, which should give you a decent idea of where you should be focusing your efforts on your track leading up to each stage. If you want us to look over a different aspect of your track, you will be able to let us know when you submit your track.
July 29th 2015 - This is where we begin.
October 21st 2015 - First Milestone (+12 weeks)
Composition & Arrangement Focus
December 2nd 2015 - Second Milestone (+6 weeks)
Sound Design & Mixing Focus
January 6th 2016 - Third Milestone (+5 weeks) (SUBMISSIONS OPEN)
Composition & Arrangement 2, Production Focus
February 3rd 2016 - Fourth Milestone (+4 weeks)
Sound Design & Mixing 2, Mastering Focus
February 17th 2016 - FInal Deadline (+2 weeks)
Final Critique
All tracks submitted for the final deadline are eligible for a final piece of feedback, whether or not they are accepted. This is entirely optional and only those who request the feedback will receive it.
Release Date: March 5th 2016
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FAQ:
What happened to the pony stuff? Is Balloon Party not pony-related anymore?
We feel that we need to start moving away from what is considered a tradition with Balloon Party, which up until this point has been basing the album on a character from the show, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. We feel that, for a number of people, this constraint to such a long-standing concept has led to writer’s block, because while on paper you may start with a strong idea, as you begin writing, that material may be unusable, restrictive, or may simply no longer fuel inspiration. However that’s not to say we discourage it entirely, you are free to draw influences from what appeals to you the most.
What genre can I make?
You can give us anything you like, but we want you to show us what your idea of the future of the sounds of nightlife could be. Some examples we like and think you could look into and perhaps expand upon include:
Future Bass, Hybrid Trap, Deep House, Future House, Indie Electro, Minimal DnB, Future Funk, Indie Rock, Electronic Rock/Hybrid, Experimental Rock/Metal, Hard Dance, Crossbreed, Trancecore, and Nintendocore.
How many tracks are we allowed to submit?
You are free to submit as many as you want, and you can collaborate as much as you want. Just remember; quality over quantity.
Can I submit something that’s already been released?
Tracks for Balloon Party 4 should be for Balloon Party 4 only. We’re looking to create an album of completely original content, not a compilation of existing releases.
Is there a limit to how long my track can be?
Yes. We ask that you keep your tracks to a 5 minute maximum. If your track goes over this, we will try to accommodate it, but please make a radio edit of the track to keep it within 5 minutes just in case.
What are the rules about sampling?
With past Balloon Party albums, we have been extremely lenient on the grounds of sampling existing material. However, due to the recent increase in the severity of legal consequences, we want to discourage blatant use of easily distinguishable audio. That said, we understand that sampling is an integral part of many styles and production practices, therefore, sampling of existing material should be done as such to be considered transformative, and thus deemed an integral part of an original musical works. Of course, plagiarism should be entirely avoided and will not be tolerated. We reserve the right to remove your track from the album without warning if we discover any form of plagiarism taking place.
What if I need help with a different stage than where the current milestone is?
Remember that you have a whole community of musicians to show your music to! The milestones are there to steer the project, but what you do in the meantime is totally up to you. If you submit your track but wish for us to focus on a different aspect of your submission, you will have the chance to as a comment alongside your submission.
Do I have to submit for feedback?
Nope! You can submit at only one stage, all of them, or none at all. It is entirely optional and totally your decision! Not participating in the milestones will not affect how we judge your track for publication on the final album.
Is this being run by the same people?
A mix of old and new! Lavender Harmony and Silva Hound have joined the team this time around, shaping BP4 into what it will become. However, many of the old team are still around, and it’s a joint effort.
Which con(s) are participants eligible to be funded for via BronyQuest?
We’ll be releasing official information on conventions for both Europe and the USA soon, so keep an ear to the ground and we’ll get in touch closer to the time. You’ll know about it well before, though.
How do I apply for funding through BronyQuest?
Please navigate up to the section titled ‘BronyQuest’ in this post for further information.
I’m an artist/writer/web designer/etc, can I volunteer to help Balloon Party?
Totally! Send us an email to [email protected] with your portfolio and contact information and we’ll get in touch!
Are you a kid or a squid?
We prefer the term Inkling.
OMG POLKA PLOT!!!
