Music Star Crowdsources Song Inspiration

Published Nov-02-14

Breakthrough:
The crowd flexes its creative muscles as successful singer-songwriter Jewel crowdsources inspiration for a new song.

Company:
ReThink Housing, United States

The Story:

Crowdsourcing pop songs has been a mini trend running through the music industry. In recent years, we've seen Coca-Cola and American Idol crowdsourcing a song for Carly Rae Jepsen and the Swedish DJ and producer Avicii produced a song based on audio samples sent in by members of the public.

The talent of the crowd is also evident in other areas of the music industry. For example, there are numerous crowdsourced videos and album covers out there, and fans have designed a poster for Rod Stewart and graphic art for Sir Paul McCartney. Song titles for new album tracks have even been crowdsourced via the Kickstarter website.

One of the latest musical stars to engage fans in a song writing exercise is Jewel. And it was all for a good cause.

The American singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer has sold more than 25 million albums worldwide, and in 2014, crowdsourced a song to support the ReThink public housing initiative. The cause is an issue close to her heart as the singer endured a homeless spell before she made it to the big time. She was working in a computer warehouse and was fired by her boss because she refused to sleep with him, subsequently ending up without a home for about a year.

The Call of the Crowd

Jewel says she always crowdsources song inspiration from what she sees around her, but for the ReThink track she adopted a formal approach. She held an open innovation contest that invited members of the public to share essays and poems about what home means to them.

The ReThink: Why Housing Matters Song Contest fired up the imaginations of amateur poets and songwriters from across the United States who put pen to paper and digits to keyboards. Their compositions were submitted to the contest via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

A combination of the judges' decisions and the public vote determined ten finalists, and the grand prize winner from among those ten. The judges based their conclusions on a submission's originality and creativity, its meaningful impact of housing/home based on personal experience and its positive and inspiring content.

Winning Composition

The grand winner was Silvia K for her composition entitled "Home to Me" that talks about home as a place of warmth and where she starts dreaming all her dreams. "The song speaks to the impact a home can have on the lives of individuals, families and communities," said Jewel.

Silvia’s prize was a trip to Los Angeles to meet Jewel and to attend an exclusive performance of the song.

The track is available for free via the ReThink Housing organisation's website.

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