Montreux Jazz Festival has announced a UK and European partnership with TikTok for the festival’s new music initiative, MJF Spotlight.
Launched in 2021, MJF Spotlight was created by Montreux Jazz Festival to support emerging artists and new music in the form of original content creation and live performances.
As part of the partnership with TikTok, MJF Spotlight will be releasing a series of live performances under the name The Road To Montreux. Additionally, TikTok has been named an official partner for the 2022 edition of the Montreux Jazz Festival and will be bringing its creators and talent to the event in Lake Geneva this summer.
As part of MJF Spotlight, The Road To Montreux will feature six live showcases from rising starts throughout the year that will be livestreamed via TikTok and on Montreux’s own channels.
TikTok will collaborate with Montreux Jazz Festival’s talent team to identify rising stars in the music industry, providing them with a platform to reach new audiences. The live showcases will be filmed in Zurich, with stops in Berlin, Hamburg, and London, before ending at the 2022 edition of the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. Additionally, Montreux will be offering artists from MJF Spotlight the opportunity to perform on the MJF Spotlight stage at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2022.
MJF Spotlight showcases music from across a broad spectrum of music genres including pop, electro, rock, hip-hop, jazz, R&B and more. Each month, MJF Spotlight supports one specially selected artist with exclusive digital content and live shows internationally.
Previous MJF Spotlight artists include Priya Ragu (pictured), who released two live music videos from her performance at the festival in 2021, as well as a two-track live EP which was released via DSPs.
MJF Spotlight is part of Montreux’s mission to diversify and perpetuate the festival’s exposure through its subsidiary media company Montreux Media Ventures. Launched in 2019, Montreux Media Ventures was created to evolve the festival from an annual event into a company sustainable in itself by creating high quality content all year round.
Nick Bonard, CEO of Montreux Media Ventures, said: “Like TikTok, we are passionate about music. Leveraging the Festival’s legacy of supporting young artists, MJF Spotlight offers new talent a physical and digital platform to showcase their music to new audiences. Together, TikTok and MJF Spotlight can supercharge the process of artist discovery through entertaining and engaging content. We are very excited to find new artists to highlight through MJF Spotlight this year.”
Michael Kümmerle, head of music operations Germany, Austria and Switzerland at TikTok, said: “Artist discovery starts on TikTok and at Montreux Jazz Festival. Same as for MJF our passion is enabling emerging artists of any genre take their music and passion to the next level. We cannot wait to see how the next rising stars will be unleashing the interactive potential of TikTok Live or create entertaining content to inspire new and existing fans.”
From July 1-16, Montreux Jazz Festival will return to the Lake Geneva shoreline for its 56th edition, showcasing some of the biggest names in music and the best emerging talent.
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