Dear Beyond Music family,
 
The long-awaited moment has come to present the musical masterminds behind this year's Beyond Music Project and the producers of the Beyond Music album Vol.3: The amazing Michael League and Bill Laurance.

Michael League is a 4-time Grammy Award-winning, 5-time nominated multi-instrumentalist, producer, composer, arranger, songwriter, and label owner. He is the creator and bandleader of instrumental music ensemble Snarky Puppy and world music group Bokanté, founder of the record label and music curation source GroundUP Music, and artistic director of the GroundUP Music Festival.

Bill Laurance is a London-based, Grammy Award-winning pianist, multi-instrumentalist, composer and arranger, whose rise to fame with the world-renowned globetrotting, genre-defying group Snarky Puppy has paved the way for his solo career. He has released five solo albums to date and his music evokes a striking sense of time and place. Bill is also founder and CEO of record label Flint Music.

Snarky Puppy – Live at the Royal Albert Hall just won the 2021 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album.
 
Michael and Bill introduce themselves here and present to you the musical theme for Vol.3 that needs to be reflected in your collaborations and joint music pieces.
 
The submission period will start on 3rd May and will end on 15th August, 2021 at midnight CET.
 
These are the rules for Vol.3:
 

• Your collaborations must involve a minimum of three artists, of which at least two hail from a different cultural background.
   
• Each artist can be involved in a total of four submissions. The same combination of artists in a collaboration can upload a maximum of three music pieces.
   
• The musical theme must be reflected in your submissions.
   
• Any genre and any combination of genres is welcome. You are free to choose the style of music and whether you create a purely vocal or instrumental piece.
   
• Music submitted should be semi-professionally recorded.  

Michael and Bill will listen to all the submissions and select the 16 pieces of music that will appear on the Beyond Music album Vol.3. They will reproduce and mix the selected album tracks. As we have to assume that there will still be no worldwide freedom of travel in the autumn due to the effects of the pandemic, they will set up video conferences with each of the 16 winning artist teams to explain to them what they will be doing with your tracks. The artist teams will participate in the development process throughout the production and learn from the producers.
 
You can read the full procedure for Vol.3 again here.
 
We can't wait to listen to your submissions! Please let us know in case you have any questions about the musical theme.
 
With warm regards,
Regula & Konstanze