Music from the Devon Battle of the Bands winners’ is starting to be released and to stack up the streams, helped by the organisers MIDI, Devon Music Education Hub and R&K Systems.
The 2025 contest is being held this month, with four heats on 4th, 6th, 11th and 13th of February at Petroc College Barnstaple, KEVICC Totnes, Uffculme School Cullompton and Plympton Academy. The final will be held at Exeter Phoenix on Tuesday 25th February, is open to the public and tickets are £8; https://www.fatsoma.com/e/qp2ysilz/devon-schools-battle-of-the-bands-grand-final-2025
The 2025 Devon Battle of the Bands contest, now in its 3rd year, will once again call for young musicians at secondary schools up to the age of 18 to sign up and join in. As in previous years, there are prizes including free recording, mixing and mastering a song for release on streaming, radio and TV platforms.
“Mistakes”, the debut studio release from the 2023 Battle of the Bands winners The Upper Hand, came out across all streaming platforms on 22nd November last year and has already delighted listeners and clocked up nearly 3,000 streams.
The single is first of 5 songs recorded by Devon production company R&K Systems as their winners’ prize and was mixed and mastered by producer Lawrence Chaplin. Since winning the contest and working with the organisers, they were crowned “Devon’s Best New Artist” at the 2024 Devon Music Awards, supported the Barefoot Bandit & Mad Dog McCrea, played Sidmouth Folk Week, Goren and Poltimore Festivals and the Dublin Castle in Camden.
The 2024 Battle of the Bands winners, Leonard and the Zombies, Project Vanity, Absent Minds and ID, are currently being recorded by R&K Systems as their prizes. This is happening at the new state-of-the-art recording studio at the Exeter Music Hub’s Coombe Street premises in the city centre.
Six singles and 2 Eps from the 2024 Battle of the Bands winners will be released later this year. Organisers of the contest also work directly with the winners to help them establish their publishing, navigate distribution and help the promote their music with a well-proven release plan also including radio takeover shows, reviews, gigs and performance slots at music festivals across the South West. The method they use has been used to good effect, helping young bands get thousands of streams on Spotify and reach large audiences.
This builds on the last 2 years’ Battle of the Bands with providers in each area having been brought together by the Devon Music Education Hub, the Music In Devon Initiative and Devon production company R&K Systems. The organisers hope to attract an even greater number of young musicians and actively encourage them to get involved in the South West music ecosystem.
Young musicians up to 18 years of age wanting to take part needed a teacher from the school that band members attend to visit the Devon Music Education Hub’s website and apply by completing the online form by 27th January on their behalf; https://www.musiceducationhub.org/site/whats-on/battle-bands-2025/
“We were amazed by how many great young musicians signed up to get involved in the last two years’ contests. It’s great to see their music coming out and their legacy building, as our contest goes much further than just a trophy. We actively work with the winners to fund recording their music, help them register publishing, work with distributors to get them on Spotify and line up reviews, radio shows, gigs and festivals to help their music reach listeners. Bands we have worked with have all gone on to do really well, clocking up thousands of streams and reaching new audiences across the South West and beyond. The South West music ecosystem needs new talent and we’re hoping to help build tomorrow’s musical legends.” says David Knox of R&K Systems.
