The deadline for submissions to the New York Songwriters’ Circle’s annual Songwriting Contest is now October 10th. For over 18 years such notable artists as Vanessa Carlton, Norah Jones and Avril Lavigne have all been a part of this competition. The contest gives performers the rare opportunity to perform their music live in front of top music industry professionals and excited music fans as part of the New York Songwriters Circle’s ongoing showcases series in Philadelphia (at World Café Live), Boston (at Johnny D’s in Somerville), and the legendary Bitter End in New York’s Greenwich Village. To submit your music visit www.songwriters-circle.com.

Music Connection’s new feature article, Masters of Mastering, gives artists unique insight into the special expertise of the mastering engineer and how it can be applied to upcoming projects. This one-of-a-kind roundtable discussion features four prominent mastering professionals whose credits include John Lennon, Incubus, Black Eyed Peas, Jewel and many more. It’s all in the current issue of MC. See the digital version HERE.

Powerhouse House Music Studios along with Powerhouse Music Lessons is inviting the music community to see their expanded facilities. Powerhouse Music Lessons offers in-house and online music instruction to people interested in vocal coaching, singing lessons, piano, guitar, bass, drums as well as brass and string instruments. They offer a band program for students and accept members from the community who are interested in a structured approach to playing well with others. Powerhouse is inviting the public to its location at 19520 Nordhoff St. Suites #1* and #11 in Northridge, California, and tour the facilities or just visit the website at PowerhouseMusicLessons.com.

In response to the $700 billion Wall Street bailout currently being considered by Congress, the Farm Aid Board of Directors Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young and Dave Matthews sent an open letter to Congressional leaders urging them to redirect funds to farm communities and working men and women, where they can be better used to address the country's economic, environment, energy and health crises. "The proposed $700 billion bailout asks taxpayers to foot the bill without giving them the opportunity to share in any gains that might result," Willie Nelson said. To read the open letter, please visit www.farmaid.org/lettertocongress.

HomeWalk is United Way’s annual 5K family walk to raise awareness and resources to end homelessness in Los Angeles County. Thanks to the half a million dollars raised by last year’s walk, over 2,300 homeless people will move off the streets and into permanent housing over the next 12 months. Rachel Lynn is a member of Music Connection’s artist network AMP, and she did the walk last year - she took a video of the walk and then edited a song of hers to the video - they liked it so much they put a link to her video on their website. She has also created an indie musician team for this year’s event. This is your opportunity to do something about the overwhelming crisis of homelessness. Join in on Saturday, November 15th at Exposition Park, in Los Angeles. To find out more, see HERE.

The worlds only convention focusing on guitar and bass amplification, the AMP show held at the Airtel Plaza Hotel in Van Nuys, CA, features 40+ private demo rooms. Manufacturers include Fender, Marshall, Vox, Carvin, Fuchs, Egnater, Rivera, and much more. Performances include sets by Marc Ford, Carl Verheyen, Raj Phanse, and Travis Larsen. The event will take place Oct 4-5 from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Public admission is $20.00 per day at the door only. For schedule of events and performances, visit the web site at www.ampshow.com. Contact Loni Specter Productions at loni@ampshow.com.

U.S. performing right organization Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) will host an insightful Q&A with Donovan on Friday, October 3 at Utopia Studios (35 Pineland Road, Melville , NY 11747 ). Moderated by BMI Vice President, Film/TV Relations, Doreen Ringer-Ross, the discussion will commence at 2 p.m. The Q&A is one of many events surrounding the annual Woodstock Film Festival held in upstate New York, which also features independent films, panels, concerts and other special events. The Woodstock Film Festival runs October 1-5; for more information, visit www.woodstockfilmfestival.com.

Six Degrees Records and Batanga.com have teamed up to offer the “Batanga Hispanic Heritage Sampler,” free on iTunes until Oct. 21st.  The month-long promotion serves to highlight Latin music in the U.S. during this celebrated month for residents whose culture and traditions trace their roots to Spain, Mexico and the Spanish-speaking nations of Central and South America as well as the Caribbean. The sampler features ten songs from Six Degrees Records’ all-star Latin/Brazilian roster including the GRAMMY recognized Spanish Harlem Orchestra, CéU, Ojos de Brujo and newcomers Pacifika and Beto Villares among others. Download the sampler at www.itunes.com/batanga.

In honor of discharged military personnel returning from service in Iraq, Afghanistan or here in the States, Music Connection wants to thank you for your service and welcome your return to the music scene with a free one-year subscription to the best musician's magazine in the world, Music Connection go to www.musicconnection.com and click on the “page peel” in the upper right hand corner.

Guitar legend Slash will be doing an exclusive meet & greet at the Sam Ash Music store in Hollywood, CA located at 7360 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA on Tuesday, October 7th, 2008. He will be celebrating the release of the new Gibson USA and Epiphone Slash Signature Les Paul model guitars. This special event takes place at the Sam Ash Music Store located at 7360 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA. Slash is scheduled to appear from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM. For more information call (323) 850-1050. For further information: www.samashmusic.com.

The people at www.TheBeatGame.com are offering a competition: “If you rap or know somebody who does, tell them to go check out the site to get 15 FREE beats and a shot at $10,000 cash. If you were an artist that pre-registered for the contest you can go to the site and start submitting your song now.” Organizers say they have made a lot of changes to the contest and the site, including some new sponsors. See www.TheBeatGame.com.

The third annual L.A. Weekly Detour Festival hits Downtown L.A. on Sat., Oct. 4th. The diverse festival showcases over 25 international rock and dance acts on four outdoor stages, vendors and art installations spread across six city blocks near City Hall. Confirmed bands include The Mars Volta and Gypsy-punk collective Gogol Bordello. The Musicians Institute will have a booth where festival goers can enter a raffle for ESP and Schecter guitars, headphones, microphones, skateboards and more (MI’s own Travis Johnson, drummer for punk legends The Dickies, will be at the booth during the early afternoon). For festival information check out detour.laweekly.com/ info.html.

First, you must be a member of “AMP.” Amp is always a totally free service. Tour AMP now and click the “Review” menu item for more details:musicconnection.com/amp

Blind Pig Records has announced the signing of Big James & the Chicago Playboys, a brass band that combines blues, soul, R&B and funk into a rollicking, horn-drenched stage party. The bandleader and trombone player, Big James Montgomery, who also serves as singer, songwriter, and producer for the group, sports a voice as big as his girth. This year he received his second Blues Music Award nomination as “Horn Instrumentalist” and the title track from his last solo effort, Thank God I Got The Blues, will be featured in the upcoming movie Cleaner, starring Samuel L. Jackson and Eva Mendes. Contact Debra Regur at pigpress@blindpigrecords.com or 415-550-6484.

Disc Makers has launched Elite Artist Services, a new division geared at making it easy for artists on major labels and major indies to leave their labels and generate substantial income associated with selling CDs and downloads directly. Elite offers a complete team and infrastructure, including graphic design; mastering; disc manufacturing and packaging; download sales through the artist’s website and major sites like iTunes; CD distribution through Sony RED; product warehousing; website development; digital and print marketing; and more. There are no long-term contracts and the artist retains complete control over  music and rights. For more, visit www.EliteArtistServices.com.

Elliot Cavicchi from Oceanside, CA, has won the Vendetta V160R Combo from Music Connection magazine and The Axe Shop. Cavicchi was the lucky winner as part of MC’s “Friday Freebie” contest as every Friday Music Connection partners up with one of our many advertisers to give away a musical product to a lucky musical person. There’s still time to enter this week’s Friday Freebie, so go to www.musicconnection.com and look up in the right hand corner.

The Second Annual West Beach Music & Arts Festival will take place Sept. 12-14 in Santa Barbara, CA, with an all-star line-up that includes Ziggy Marley, Jason Mraz, Natasha Bedingfield, George Clinton & Parliament/Funkadelic with special guest Lili Haydn and Big Head Todd & the Monsters. The event will include OASIS — the electronica village — and the Sand Box, a kid-friendly music and activities area featuring the blues/rock band Jambo, students from the School of Rock and Ziggy Marley and Lili Haydn performing afternoon acoustic sets. Three-day festival passes are available for $115 or buy single day tickets for $35-$55. Tickets and info are at www.westbeachfestival.com.

Guitar maker Dean Zelinsky has unveiled his new company — DBZ Guitars LLC — and website. Zelinsky says he will have personal control over DBZ Guitars design, direction and quality. The website, currently revealing only a glimpse of the new line, also includes the “DBZ Guitar Forum” where Zelinsky will be interacting with his fans online. Zelinsky says rare exotic woods, laser technology and proprietary graphics applications will be essential to DBZ Guitars’ new look., and has partnered with Diamond Amplification owner Jeff Diamant , (who is now also President and COO of DBZ Guitars). For more, visitDBZGuitars.com. For info on Diamond Amps, visit diamondamplification.com.

Where will you get this one-of-a-kind information? In the new Music Connection magazine, of course. In this article, singers of all stripes chime in with tips that will help any singer to develop, protect and perfect the voice. Meanwhile, MC’s latest Vocal Coaches Directory delivers names, phone number, e-mail addresses and websites of professional instructors from all over the U.S. See www.musicconnection.com.

Singer/songwriter and sought-after producer Mikal Blue (co-writer & producer of Colbie Caillat’s platinum CD Coco and a solo artist in his own right) will play a special show at the Hotel Café in Hollywood on September 30th at 10 pm. Currently playing sold-out shows for an extended summer residency at Room 5 in Hollywood, Blue has been joined by a host of his friends and cohorts on stage. Recent drop-in guests include Ms. Caillat, Jason Reeves, Tyrone Wells (Universal Republic), Angel Taylor (Aware), Kevin Hammond, Angela Wood, Clint Crighton, and Hope (Atlantic). He is currently promoting the “Code Blue” contest on www.webceleb.com in which musicians may submit their songs or lyrics to be judged online by fellow WebCeleb users. Eight finalists with the most votes online will be selected and then judged by Mikal Blue and immergent Records. The winner will be flown to Blue’s Revolver Studios to have their song personally produced by Blue.

Jack White has commented for the first time on his upcoming James Bond theme song, “Another Way To Die.” The track, written, produced & performed by White and featuring Alicia Keys, is the first duet theme song in Bond movie history. The film, “Quantum Of Solace,” will be released theatrically in November. White says: “Alicia put some electric energy into her breath that cemented itself into the magnetic tape. I drummed for her voice and she mimicked the guitar tones, then we joined our voices and screamed and moaned about these characters in the film and their isolation, having no one to trust, not even themselves. Maybe we became them for a few minutes. The Memphis Horns were there to help us out, along with some of Nashville's finest. Might be the first analog Bond theme in twenty years, I don't know.  We wanted to push soul into those tapes, and join the family of Barry, Bassey, Connery and Craig."

Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI), the music performing right organization, earned more than $901 million in revenues for its 2008 fiscal year, including its subsidiary Landmark Digital Services, LLCTM. This is the first time any copyright organization has topped the $900 million mark for music performance revenues, and represents a 7.2 percent increase from the previous fiscal year. The company also announced that it set a historic high in royalty distributions, and will disperse more than $786 million to the songwriters, composers and copyright owners it represents, an eight percent increase over the prior fiscal year. With more than 375,000 songwriters, composers and music publisher affiliates, BMI is the world's largest music copyright organization. BMI's New Media revenues increased to a total of $15 million. Thanks to growth in the mobile, social networking and website categories, BMI now licenses more than 6,500 digital media properties, an increase of more than 50 percent over the prior year. International revenues were also an especially bright spot, accounting for $238 million, or more than 26 percent of BMI's revenues. Find more detail atwww.bmi.com.