Tunebreaker gong for Niamh Collins and Headboxx

Dunshaughlin singer Niamh Collins and her band HeadboXX won the inaugural Tunebreaker award at the weekend in Dublin. The Tunebreaker award is a music award aimed at unsigned and truly independent arts. Set up by music industry professional John Toone, the award aims to encourage and recognise the new industry which is forming from bands and fans. The award is open to all artists and bands in Ireland and Great Britain. Tunebreaker is about "elevating marginalised artists to the next level" with a focus on transparency. Anyone in the world can vote and the prize is £10,000. TuneBreaker uses the innovative TuneBreaker SLV (sales led voting) method. The SLV method starts with artists initially uploading two original recordings in the form of MP3s. These recordings are placed in to the SLV system and for each MP3 sold the net profit is shared equally between artist and TuneBreaker and one vote is awarded. The TuneBreaker Live Chart automatically shows positions and how many votes between each artist in the top 100. The top 100 is critiqued by a music industry panel and their top 50 is represented to the fans to vote for the winner. John Toone is a music industry professional with over 20 years experience. The unpaid, music industry panel selecting the top 50 shortlist include Aoife Woodlock (Other Voices, The Jack Daniels Set), Dylan Haskins (RTE broadcaster, manager and promoter), Paul Kinder (MD, Cooking Vinyl Publishing), and Paul Kramer (HitSheet and champion of emerging artists). Nick Seymour of Crowded House is a big fan, and has said: "Niamh Collins' unbridled talent will draw you into her parallel universe and make you want to blissfully form human pyramids." Ronan O Snodaigh, Kila, said: "If your looking for direction on how to up life the soul check out Niamh Collins and HeadboXX." Others in contention for the top gong were Anne Harrington from Dunsany who finished third and Ed Darragh from Tara who was ninth.