Drum roll, please! Record Union are proud to present our very first video. It is intended to introduce new people to the service, and communicate what Record Union are all about. We would like to thank Jeremy Irons & The Ratgang Malibus for letting us use their music for the video. Enjoy!

There are some interesting new services popping up surrounding the live circuit, one of these is Songkick.

From a gig goer perspective, Songkick is an online service that keeps you updated about upcoming concerts. Via the Songkick “Tracker” you can search for your favourite artists, venues and festivals and by tracking them keep updated on who is playing, where and when. You can even track your friends and know which gigs they intend to hit up, as well as the city you live in to keep informed about all the upcoming gigs going on there. You will be notified when new gigs are announced, and see a calender of all the concerts going on the coming weekend and in the future. One great feature is that as a gig goer you can upload photos and videos for the events you have attended, add reviews and even build a gigogprahy of past concerts and festivals you have been to.

Now, as an artist, band or promoter this service clearly has many benefits. It is straightforward to add your own events to Songkick and as yet you cannot create your own special artist profiles - just adding your concerts into the database will make it trackable to people using the service. If you are looking for a good way to coordinate your concerts with fans, attract new people, get reviews and raves about your gig and also have a place to for you our your fans collect videos and photos of you being a rockstar - then Songkick is a great place to do this.

Record Union would like to congratulate Troublemakers, whose album “Made in Sweden” was voted the best punk/hardcore album of 2009 at Manifestgalan over the weekend.  Manifestgalan is a prestigious award, handed out to the best independent releases from a range of Genres in Sweden each year. Made in Sweden is a masterful mix of classic Swedish punk rock and rock´n´roll, with all the trademark power, pace and attitude which makes music within this genre truly great. The band, and Hans Selander (The A&R who recruited them) are obviously extremely happy with the result.

You can listen to “Made in Sweden” on: Spotify, Deezer.

Yes, you can combine being true to music and selling yourself without selling out.

The normal blogg guy is up to his ears in pay outs and other Record Union business, that’s why me, Peter, is writing this one.
As an artist, designer, marketeer and salesman in general, I thought I could encourage all of you to sell yourself in a creative way. If you don’t sell your music and yourself no one will listen to you. Selling yourself and selling out is not the same thing.

Record Union is a first step. Selling your music through Record Union is done on your own terms, no one will tell you how to act and which channel you should do promotion. No one will tell you what record to but on your record, when to have your release date. All of this you will have to figure out yourself. The problem is, you are not that very good at it. Record companies are professionals in these matters, they have the valuable contacts with media. This is where your creativity comes in. You need to find ways to get to media and get to the people you want to listen to your music. Your own ways. The web is filled with promotion tricks but most of them are already done and if someone comes up with a good way to sell their music they really don’t want to share it on the web do you?

You need to sell yourself to be able to play your music. Make those uncomfortable phone calls. Make it your job to reach out. Unless you are the shit. But let’s face it, we are not the shit. We need to make ourselves and it’s hard work to do so.

Think of your band as a company. You need to build your brand, you need to get customers, you need to get the right customers, you need media and internet space to broaden your customer base. You need to tell the world that you are the shit, humble yet sincere. In your own way. From your heart. Not someone else’s.

P.

Peoples Music Store offer a unique way for listeners to purchase and explore music, and because of this provides some great promotion opportunities for artists. Today we will have a look at a few of them.

Unlike other stores, everyone can become a shopkeeper on Peoples Music Store - it is truly democratic. As a label, promoter, manager or just plain old music enthusiast you can (free of charge) create and design your own storefront and stock music existing on the service. If you have distributed music with Record Union, your music will be available in the stockroom. When people buy music from your store, you earn points which you can use towards buying more music.

As an artist, the trick is to find storekeepers who would be interested in stocking and even promoting your music. This shouldn’t be too difficult, as the store search function enables you to sort stores by genre and the diversity of stores is impressive. Most members of the storekeeper community are also passionate about music and generally open to listening to and adding new music to their store. Once you have contacted the store owner and introduced yourself, they may even write a review of your music or list it as a featured release. Like with bloggers, podcasts etc. its all about building relationships.

If you run your own label, you have the opportunity to build your own storefront and attract buyers to check out artists you are releasing. Directing fans from individual artists to your store is a good tactic, because there is every chance they will check music from other artists you have in your stockroom.

The truly wonderful thing about Peoples Music Store is that one quickly notices that it has a strong community behind it and really is effective in introducing listeners to new music, while also providing music enthusiasts an output for their passion. Listeners flock to stores they trust to find new sounds, and the storekeepers are eager to list the best music within their genre which may just as well be from indie/unsigned artists.

If Peoples Music Store is new to you then you should have a closer look. Whether an artist or label, we think it is definitely a channel you should consider utilizing in your promotion campaign. Peoples Music Store also have a number of social networking tools to increase the viral effectiveness of your efforts.

Today we are pleased to announce that Manchester based indie rock outfit The Words release their first UK chart registered single “FAG“. FAG is a very catchy song, incorporating the lively hooks, powerful vocals and quality delivery which are trademark of the The Words sound. Record Union are proud sponsors of this release, and hope it´s success will match the awesome talent and dedication of the band behind it.

The Words draw on a variety of influences ranging from The Strokes, Kings of Leon & Arctic Monkeys through to Elvis, The Beatles, David Bowie and Motown, the band have managed to produce their own unique upbeat, feel good sound which gets people singing along whilst also hitting hard in all the right places.

“FAG” is that kind of song which you will keep coming back to - catchy is doesn’t describe in accurately, morish is a little better, addictive might be going a little far, but not much. Give FAG a listen on the widget below, as well as the second song on the EP “I just wanna Dance”.

“FAG” is available on all major online stores, such as iTunes, TuneTribe and Amazon and. If you are in the UK, you can order the track via SMS here.

The era of the mega hit is gone - niche is the new mainstream. Find your niche and rule it - or better, create one and own it. In this interesting discussion with Ariel Hyatt of Cyber PR, Derek Sivers talks about an important feature of the online music environment vital to understand if one is to make headway marketing music online.

There is no doubt that 2009 it has been an exciting year for Record Union. In May Record Union set out with the bold ambition: to democratize the access to digital distribution. By putting comprehensive digital distribution within the reach of all artists, our aim was to set out to strengthen independent music all around the world. The overwhelming enthusiasm and support we have received is making this ambition a reality, and we look towards 2010 with the same eagerness and ambition with which we set out.

The launch of a music service is never without its challenges, but thanks to the feedback, constructive criticism, and above all, the patience of our users we were able to overcome many of these. We promise that we will work even harder in 2010 to build and improve our service.We have some great new partnerships lined up, and will be adding new functionality to the website which we are certain you will all appreciate.

We would like to thank all those who support our vision and are part of Record Union; all the artists, the A&Rs, our trusted partners and of course all of those who love music as much as we do. Without you, we would not have made it this far.

We wish you a great end of 2009, and the best of luck in the year to come.

Liberate the music.

Performing live is one of the great joys of being a musician. However, it is important to think of a gig not just as a way of entertaining an audience for a little while and having fun, but as an opportunity to market yourself and reach out to new fans. Handing out a simple flyer is one important step for getting the most out of your live performances.

The Point
Promotion is all about developing relationships with listeners. During and after a successful live performance you are in a good position to move from a superficial and temporary relationship with potential fans, to a deeper long term one. This is up to you. Providing they can even remember your name, only a small percentage of the audience will take it upon themselves to find you online and listen more to your music. Make it easy for them. Hand out flyers.

What to communicate
A flyer can contain a single piece of information, or lots of information. It can be elaborately designed, or just a simple piece of paper with a bit of text on it. The key is that it gives the recipient more info about you and a way to access your music. Depending on your existing marketing strategy, here are a few things you might consider putting on your flyer:

•    Online locations: Your link to MySpace, Facebook, Imeem etc. or just your website
•    Where to access your music: Communicating that your music is available for free streaming on services such as Spotify or Deezer is a great way to increase the appreciation for your music. Before people buy your music, its best they can listen to it over and over and make it part of their music repertoire. Streaming services have the added bonus if sharability and peer recommendation.
•    Mailing list: “Keep updated! Sign up to our mailing list and receive a free track” is a good way to incentivize people to sign up to your mailing list. Once on your list, they are in the loop and you can further develop your relationship with them.

Tips

•    Maximize the effect of your flyers by thinking about when you hand them out. One method is to announce before the last song that flyers are being handed out, and getting some friends to hand them out in the crowd.
•    Alternatively, do it yourself. Straight after a gig, move around the crowd and hand out the flyers. This gives you the opportunity to converse with listeners, receive compliments and answer questions.
•    Be creative on what you put on your flyer. Hosting a merch give away or another kind of competition? Advertise in on your flyers and you may find more participants.

Record Union, and of course Hefner, would like to wish a merry Christmas to all those celebrating.