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It’s back-to-back wins for the New York, London and Amsterdam based audio house Wave Studios, as the company won the Ryan Barkan Award for Best in Show at the 2020 AMP Awards with its work on Smirnoff’s “Infamous Since 1864” spot. The winner was revealed during a virtual presentation that took place earlier tonight online. 

The industry’s only non-profit juried competition honoring excellence in music and sound for brands across all media, the AMP Awards focuses exclusively on the unique contributions made by creators and producers of music and sound. The show is sponsored by the Association of Music Producers (AMP) and it is judged by leading professionals from advertising agencies  record labels, music publishers and music production companies.

Created by 72andSunny and directed by Rupert Sanders of MJZ, “Infamous Since 1864” dramatically recreates how the brand’s founder fled Russia and transformed it into one of the world’s preeminent vodkas. Wave Studio’s Aaron Reynolds mixed and provided sound design for the spot, which was edited by Neil Smith at Work Editorial. Music was by Philip Kay of KOM (Kay/Oswarek Music Co.). 

In addition to being crowned with the Ryan Barkan Award for Best in Show, “Infamous Since 1864” also earned Wave Studios the award for Outstanding Mix. Facebook’s spot, created by its in-house agency, titled “Kazoo: With the International Kazoo Players Association and Big Freedia,” won multiple AMP Awards. It nabbed Best Artist + Brand Collaboration for Kobalt Music and it won in the Outstanding Adaptation/Arrangement category for Squeak E. Clean Studios.

A spot for Facebook, created by its in-house agency and titled “Kazoo: With the International Kazoo Players Association and Big Freedia,” won multiple AMP Awards: Kobalt Music won with this spot in the category of Best Artist + Brand Collaboration, while Squeak E. Clean Studios won in the category of Outstanding Adaptation/Arrangement.

All of the 2020 AMP Awards winners can be seen here.  The full winners list includes the following:

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Walker
Chanel Miller
“I Am With You”

BEST USE OF LICENSED PRE-EXISTING RECORDING
Groove Guild
Volkswagen
“Hello Light”

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
Mophonics
World of Warcraft
“A Toast to 15 Years”

OUTSTANDING ADAPTATION/ARRANGEMENT
Squeak E. Clean Studios
Facebook
“Kazoo: With the International Kazoo Players Association and Big Freedia”

BEST SOUND DESIGN
Sound Lounge
Change the Ref
“GunDependence Day”

OUTSTANDING MIX
Wave Studios
Smirnoff
“Infamous Since 1864”

BEST ARTIST + BRAND COLLABORATION
Kobalt Music
Facebook
“Kazoo: With the International Kazoo Players Association and Big Freedia”

BEST USE OF MUSIC AND SOUND IN EXPERIENTIAL/EVENTS
Antfood
Empire State Realty Trust
“Empire State Building Sonic Redesign”

BEST USE OF MUSIC AND SOUND IN NEW MEDIA MARKETING
Pollen Music Group
Magic Leap
“Out There”

RYAN BARKAN AWARD FOR BEST IN SHOW
Wave Studios
Smirnoff
“Infamous Since 1864”

All of the 2020 AMP Awards winners can be seen at https://amp.awardcore.com/winners/index.php?type=amp

After the pandemic forced the cancellation of live events across the country, the AMP Awards committee chose to move its rambunctious awards presentation, billed as ‘the loudest show in the industry,’ to an online platform. “We felt the work that our industry had created last year deserved, now more than ever, to be honored and celebrated,” says Georg Bissen, National President of the Association of Music Producers and Owner of MetaTechnik in New York.

“We owe a debt of gratitude to all of the volunteers at AMP who helped make our virtual show possible, and to our Show Chair, Jay Russell, Chief Creative Officer of GSD&M, who led our Curatorial Committee,” he continues. “Without their efforts, and the generous support of our sponsors, our presentation wouldn’t have been possible.” 

In determining the Best in Show, the AMP Curatorial Committee met via Zoom to finalize the category winners and ensure they met their respective category criteria. Among these they identified the Smirnoff spot as rising above, not just for its mix, but for its music and sound design in support of the story. The Best in Show this year was dedicated to Ryan Barkan, the late music supervisor at Droga5.

In keeping with its emphasis on music, the AMP Awards audience was also treated to a very special guest performance from Grammy nominated singer, producer and rapper Aloe Blacc. Appearing courtesy of his label BMG, he performed two songs: “My Way,” from his forthcoming album titled “All Love Everything,” due out October 2, 2020, and a stripped down version of his EDM anthem “Wake Me Up,” which was a worldwide hit garnering more than 20 Number 1s around the world. Blacc calls his brand of music AIM, which stands for Aspirational, Inspirational and Motivational. He truly embodied every ounce of that spirit in this exclusive AMP Awards performance, captured earlier this month at Playa Studios / Mophonics L.A.

The virtual show opened with a positive and encouraging message from the AMP board that addressed the challenging nature all of us are facing today with the global pandemic and the board voiced support for all of the peaceful protestors demonstrating for social justice reform. AMP also shared a video from the noted composer Bobby Lopez, who described the work of the Musicians Foundation, the non-profit group that assists musicians in need. AMP members are urged to make donations to the foundation, and can do so on a special AMP donation page located at https://www.musiciansfoundation.org/AMP/.

Sponsors for this year’s AMP Awards helped make the competition and the virtual show a reality. Heading this list is FGMK Insurance, a leader in providing coverage to AMP members. 

Also supporting the AMP Awards are Musicbed, Reservoir Media, ABKCO Music, Concord Music Publishing, Manage Ad Music, APM Music and West One Music. Production support for the virtual AMP show was generously provided by Cosmo Street, Mophonics and Ataboy Studios, and media support was provided by LBB, SHOOTonline and Source │Slate │Shots.

The AMP Awards virtual show was edited by Joshua Berger at Cosmo Street and featured an animated opening and category winner and finalist slides created by Ataboy Studios. Original music for the show opening was composed and recorded at Mophonics. Additional music, sound and final mix was provided by MetaTechnik.

For more information on AMP, visit www.ampnow.com, or visit its Facebook page here. To view past winners of the AMP Awards, go to www.amp-awards.com. 

About AMP
The Association of Music Producers (www.ampnow.com) was founded in 1997 for the purpose of educating its members, as well as the production, advertising and media communities, on all facets of music production, from creation to final use. A national organization, it has chapters in New York and Los Angeles and member representation in cities across the country. From business matters such as production guidelines, composer royalties and music rights agreements to educational seminars, fund-raising events and the industry’s most respected celebration of excellence – The AMP Awards – AMP has turned up the volume on the things that matter most.