ADM’s 12th annual Battle of the Bands begins!

ADM’s annual Battle of the Bands has begun. The competition welcomes all Estonian musicians who wish to create new, interesting, and unique music. Our mission with this project is to help support this kind of music by sharing it with the wider public. The competition winner’s music will be released on vinyl and it will also be distributed on global streaming platforms.

Deadline: 20.09.2020!

The Battle of the Bands competition got started in 2009 and it grew out of Riho Pihelpuu’s – the CEO at ADM – love for music: “Every Christmas for the past 12 years, we have helped talented artists bring new and interesting music to the fans out there. This time includes our last year’s project, Viljandi Culture Academy’s student Kelly Vask, OOPUS the year before her, Kristjan Randalu and Vaiko Eplik in 2011 and many other musicians who are quite well-known today. I am very happy that we have been able to contribute to the growth of Estonia’s music scene and I am excited about the new projects coming this autumn and I am looking forward to gifting it to ADM’s friends and partners for Christmas.”

OOPUS, who won the competition in 2018, said that as a band who is just starting out, the biggest challenge is figuring out where to even get started with distributing your music, “ADM’s competition is like an accelerator – in a good way – and it forced us to get out of our comfort zone and finalise the work we had done in a very short amount of time. Of course, we did all of it with the help and guidance of experts in the field.”

We will be accepting demo materials from all Battle of the Bands participants until September 20. We will then select one submission as the winner by the beginning of October at the latest, who we will then help get out of the rehearsal room and to the fans. And that’s when we will start releasing your music!

Erki Pärnoja, who won the competition in 2016, says that the cooperation with ADM helped him to believe in himself and gave him a boost to keep going, “Although I had already been active as a musician for many years, I was still at the beginning of my journey when it came to releasing and performing my music. I was so incredibly happy and grateful that the people at ADM found something in my music, which helped it to stand out. That album was and still is very important to me!”

To help an artist, a band, or some other type of brand new project get off the ground even faster, we will also be sharing their music with Estonia’s most important key contacts in IT, digital and marketing via Spotify’s and Apple Music’s digital streaming platforms as well as in the form of a vinyl record, which we will help to produce.

OOPUS also gave three recommendations to the participants at ADM’s Battle of the Bands,

“First, you will meet the wonderful people at ADM (“network” is the keyword here!). Second, your music will reach people whom you will have never heard of until they get in touch with you (this happened to us and it was such an unexpected and awesome surprise!). And third – if you have been dreaming for a long time, then now is the time to get to work and you will have gained the best company to help you out with their team – truly!”

The results of ADM’s 2020 Battle of the Bands will be announced by mid-October at the latest.

The competition’s previous years’ winners include Sander Mölder, Erki Pärnoja, Kristjan Randalu and Vaiko Eplik, Ajavares, OOPUS and many others.