TALENTFILTER ARTIST MEIKO SIGNS WITH MYSPACE RECORDS/DGC!

Los Angeles-based artist Meiko, the first musician we'd blogged about on TALENTfilter (all the way back in February 2007), has signed with MySpace Records/DGC, who will release her debut album later this summer in partnership with Lucky Ear Music (Meiko's own indie label). The much-buzzed-about singer-songwriter’s recent self-release was a #1 folk album on iTunes, with over 200,000 song downloads, regular airplay on tastemaker KCRW-FM, and had key placements in prime-time TV shows including the Emmy Award-winning "Grey's Anatomy."

Meiko was the focus of intense label interest with most of the US-based majors for the past 12 months and finally signed with Luke Wood (Interscope/DGC Records) and Jon Pikus (Senior Director of A&R, MySpace Records). Meiko's attorney Howard Sadowsky handled the negotiating.

In a blog posting on MySpace page, Meiko writes, "I went with these guys because I felt most comfortable with the people there, and also... I feel like I will be given the creative freedom I need to flourish. My reasoning for going with a label instead of staying independent was pretty simple by the end of it all... I wanna get my music to as many people that will listen. Having a label backing me will give me a better chance to reach the headphones of that girl in a tiny town (like me back when)..."

Meiko's self-titled debut will be released through Lucky Ear/MySpace/DGC. The album will be remixed and remastered, and will include re-recorded versions of fan favorites along with a brand-new track, "Boys With Girlfriends".

Meiko is still available for publishing, but we're pretty sure she'll be holding out on doing a pub deal for a while...

Congrats to Meiko and the team!