Talenthouse

Target Group Musicians, Producers, Songwriters

Selection Criteria Invite your friends and fans to vote on your work. Submissions with the most votes are automatically included in the final selection round. Ryan Leslie will determine the final selection.

Submission requirements You have 5 minutes to showcase yourself making an instrumental or a full song on video

Step 1: Upload your final submission to You Tube
Step 2: Use the You Tube URL for your video to upload to Talenthouse

Ryan Leslie is an American record producer, multi-instrumentalist, rapper, entrepreneur, and singer. Founder of the media company NextSelection Lifestyle Group, Leslie has produced singles for a number of artists in a variety of genres ranging from R&B/Hip-Hop to Pop to Gospel.

At the age of 14, Leslie scored a 1600 on his SATs a perfect score. In 1993 he applied to four University of California campuses as well as Stanford, Yale and Harvard. In his application essays he explained his interest in matriculating from his junior year in high school without having earned a diploma. He was accepted to all except Yale. He ultimately decided to attend Harvard University. At the age of 19, Leslie graduated from Harvard with a degree in Government, concentrating in Political Science and Macroeconomics. During his commencement ceremonies, Ryan delivered the prestigious Harvard Oration.

During his freshmen year at Harvard, Leslie devoted many hours per week to creating and developing music in a studio basement on campus. He taught himself basic production skills and also developed a musical style. As the semesters progressed, Leslie spent more and more time in the school's studio molding his craft. He also performed many events around campus and was a part of the school's all male a cappella group The Krokodiloes. Due to the conflict with music and school, Ryan was put on academic probation three times during his college career. He has said in many interviews that during those college years, he became accustomed to getting 2 to 3 hours of sleep per night. To earn disposable income during these years, Leslie sold instrumentals to local artists in the Boston area.

After graduating college, Leslie stayed in Boston to remain a part of its music scene. He took on community service jobs to help support himself and would spend nights in the recording studio working on his music. Eventually, Leslie moved back home with his parents in Phoenix where he convinced them to take out a loan for a production studio so that he could pursue music full-time. He vowed to his family that he would pay back the $15,000 loan one day, even if it meant going to back to school and getting a job. For the next several months, Leslie worked towards developing a distinct sound. During this period, Ryan has said that he ate and slept very little. In the summer of 2003, Ryan landed a production internship with producer Younglord. He has said in interviews that he considers this 30-day internship the jump-start of his career in the music industry. Within the first week, Leslie produced the song Keep Giving Your Love To Me that would later be performed by Beyonce for the Bad Boys II Soundtrack. The soundtrack was supervised by Sean Diddy Combs, who was impressed by Leslies production style and offered him a management contract upon meeting him.

Under the management of Combs, Ryan worked on various Bad Boy projects including releases from Loon, Cheri Dennis, B5, New Edition and Danity Kane. During that time, Leslie also co-produced a record for Britney Spears. Also in 2003, Leslie was introduced by his then attorney Ed Woods to Tommy Mottola. Mottola soon became a mentor of Ryans and offered him a publishing deal with Aspen Songs and a recording contract with Casablanca, Mottola's imprint distributed by Universal Music Group. Under the mentorship of Mottola and Combs, Ryan signed then-aspiring model Cassie Ventura to his imprint, NextSelection in 2005.

In late 2003, Leslie began recording his debut album entitled Just Right, and released two singles: "The Way That U Move Girl" and "Used 2 Be" (with Fabolous). The album was never officially released due to creative differences between Leslie and his record label.
Leslie returned to the studio in 2006 to record a new debut album. The lead single, "Diamond Girl", was released in December 2007. The video for Diamond Girl was premiered on BETs 106 & Park, and released on Leslies YouTube channel with a special behind the scenes clip. In November 2007, he released a video for a song named "I-R-I-N-A" that was produced in-house and released through his YouTube channel as well.

His second single, "Addiction," features pop singer and protege Cassie with a rap cameo from long-time collaborator, rapper Fabolous. The song was officially released in August 2008. Of the two music videos made for the song, the "Making of 'Addiction'" clip became Leslie's most popular video on YouTube, with more than 1.6 million views.
His third single,"How It Was Supposed To Be," also has two music videos: a rock version and a military take on the song, Leslie's directorial debut and co-directed by model Tyson Beckford. The single was released March 23, 2009. After many setbacks, his self-titled album, Ryan Leslie, was finally released on February 10, 2009. Leslie wrote, arranged, produced, and performed every song on his album. Notable instrumentalists on his debut set include Tommy Mottola, Tom "T-Bone" Wolk, and Brent Paschke.

While working as producer Leslie went on to create NextSelection Lifestyle Group, his music-media company . Ryan signed his first artist, Cassie in 2005. Under Ryans guidance, Cassie went on to become one of the fastest rising R&B acts that year. Her breakout smash "Me & U" (written and produced by Leslie) spent 20 weeks on the Top 40 and went on to reach number three on the Billboard Hot 100, selling over a million digital units. Me & U also went on to become one of the biggest records in the history of Atlantic Records.

What is a Creative Invite? Established and respected artists launch Creative Invites (CI's) through Talenthouse to find and support new talent. An CI challenges our artistic community to submit ideas or concepts for a new, creative and typically collaborative artistic endeavour that is sponsored by our established artists. CI's are as diverse as the Talenthouse community itself and span everything from recording new tracks with well known musicians, to designing new fashion lines for renowned designers, to auditioning for film or television projects.

How do I participate in an Creative Invite? All artists are invited to peruse our CI page to find projects that appeal to them. When you find an CI that you want to submit your work for, click on that specific CI page. From there, simply click 'Submit' and follow the instructions.

Who is eligible to participate? Anyone. If you are a member of the Talenthouse community, you are eligible to submit your work to any CI.

How is the winner selected? The Talenthouse community votes for their favorite submissions to any particular CI. The finalists are those who receive the highest number of votes. Typically, the artists who hosted the CI will select the winning artist from these finalists. In other instances, the hosting artist may look beyond these finalists to the entire pool of submitted work to find the winner.

How many artists enter? The number of participants for any given CI varies and depends on the interest of the project in the community. There is no maximum or minimum number of entries for an CI.

Is there always a winner? Typically, there will be a winner for each CI. However, if none of the submissions meet the hosting artist's expectations or project vision, no winner will be selected.

How many times can I enter? You can only submit your work to a particular CI one time. There is no limit to the number of CI's you can participate in.

Will I get paid if I win? Talenthouse does not provide any monetary compensation to CI winners. If the project has any financial component, the terms of that arrangement will be negotiated and agreed upon by and between the hosting artist and the CI winner.

What will I get if I don't win? All CI submissions are available for viewing by the entire Talenthouse community. Because the Talenthouse community consists not only of undiscovered talent but also of industry leaders and established artists, each submission grants you the unique opportunity of global exposure for your work and talent.

Do you own the intellectual property rights to my artwork? Talenthouse's mission is to liberate all artists. Thus, Talenthouse does not retain any ownership rights to your artwork except a very limited right to use certain materials on its website and in its marketing documentation (see, the Terms of Use). As part of the Creative Invite process, the host of the Creative Invite may request additional ownership rights in your artwork as a pre-requisite to winning the Creative Invite. The host may also seek to work with you outside of the Creative Invite process. In any event, the rules for each Creative Invite are different and you should read them carefully before participating. The property rights a host obtains from the winner are set forth in the rules.

How long will Talenthouse publish my submission? Submissions become part of the project and as such will remain on your profile for as long as you maintain one. Should you delete your profile, Talenthouse will continue to publish your submissions in connection with the CI for up to twelve months.

After the CI is over, will the Talenthouse community still be able to view my work? Yes. Your submitted work will be viewable on your profile and also, should Talenthouse choose to use it, could be viewed on other locations on the Talenthouse site.

Can I launch my own CI, even if I'm not an established artist? Anyone and everyone can suggest an idea for an CI. Talenthouse will review your ideas. If your suggested CI is in tune with Talenthouse's mission and vision, we will publish it on the site.

How do I launch my own CI? Presently our website has a 'Suggest' button for CI's. Clicking on this button will allow you to suggest an idea or concept for a CI. Once submitted, Talenthouse will review your ideas. If your suggested CI is in tune with Talenthouse's mission and vision, we will publish it on the site. Additionally, we are developing an automated feature whereby all artists will be able to submit and sponsor their own CI.