A Fat Win at the DiMAS

Local darlings, entrepreneurs and media monkeys of the music industry, Alex Stacey and Chris Gorsuch of FatDrop found themselves amongst a sea of geeks who looked like Jesus, quite fitting considering they were in a church to pick up the “Break Through Business Award” at the Digital Media Awards (DiMAS) ceremony on Thursday 28th November.

Admittedly, it’s taken a while to get this post up. However the hangover nearly did last that long despite the lovely (though slightly shy of the predicted serving time) pies from Due South.

Wondering what the DiMAS this is all about?

“The DiMAS came about through the work of SCIP and Wired Sussex delivering the legendary Brighton and Hove Web Awards down the years. We recognised that the digital cluster in the south (and especially in Brighton) had become much more than the web agencies alone and we wanted to reflect that in these awards whilst maintaining that uniquely Brighton spirit which always made the Web Awards such an entertaining evening.”

Alex and Chris of FatDrop

The evening, like many networking nights in Brighton, consisted of the usual suspects in the digital word, including Twitter people meeting up ‘in real life’ for the first time, which can be very exciting (especially if your name is @prycie). But the blend of music and digital is what has led FatDrop a place on the Fusion walls and leaving the night clutching their award (I am sure I noticed a sly call to their mothers at one point too).

FatDrop provide record labels with a web application that enables them to get their artist’s promos into the right hands, digitally. A monthly subscription with no contract is pretty much all that is needed to get you going, and this offers labels the opportunity to self-promote without the need of pressing demo CDs whilst also complimenting their PR. We all know how easy it is to push a button (I write this multi-tasking, ferociously bidding on eBay) and to be able to click ‘download’ rather than actually putting on a CD can be considered a reflection of how the music industry desires a shift towards digital from the physical format – thus perfect for the lazy, web-savvy people that we have evolved into.

On their books at the moment are Brighton’s Skint Recordand the label of long-haired wonder Rob Da Bank, Sunday Best.

So considering this was a breakthrough award, I think that the horizon is looking decidedly peachy for the boys. Having been recently featured on the Guardians’ Elevator pitch and interviewed by the ultimate girl geek Jemima Kiss, they explain to her how they have grown 400% in the last year and have over 100 labels to look after.

We all have an affinity in Brighton for local talent, and since the city is so small, we find we are all bizarrely connected in someway or another, a discovery made when knocking back the fourth bottle of wine of the evening. Chris and Alex are bright and charming in a cool, aloof kinda way, and it could not be denied the best men won that evening.

Other highlights of the DiMAS awards included voting with glow sticks for a geeky animation award that was very fun and quirky, Kevin Carey’s incredibly moving speech on the web/usability and modern day attitudes, and finally, free goodie bags of sweets with popping candy. On rolled many a smart arses pretending the candy was MDMA and necking handfuls. It’s a shame that the chairs were not cleared at the end for a bit of a dance, something that made the mediocre DJing seem even more so. Or maybe we were all just a little bit conscious that Jesus doesn’t like drum and bass.