After years sitting on the sidelines, search giant Google yesterday unveiled their much anticipated music service - Google Music. Armed with their own social networking service Google + and the Android marketplace (where they will offer millions of tracks for purchase) Google Music aims to go head to head with major music services currently on the market.

One exciting aspect of Google Music is the Artist Hub - which (similar to iTunes Ping) will give artist and bands the possibility to create their own artist page  though with one major difference - here artists will be able to and sell their music directly to fans via the Android Marketplace.

With the service being launched just yesterday it is early days but rest assured we have plans to be to distribute your music to Google Music in the near future.

A little while back we rolled out a new little feature on the Record Union site which enables you to add “buy links” to the music you have published. We have been getting quite a few emails from people asking about how to set these up so we thought we would do a post on what these do and how you can use them. So, here we go!

The purpose of these links

It can sometimes be tricky to seamlessly display your music, track previews and links your albums locations on a range of different music services directly on your website or other online locations. If you have experienced this then linking to your Record Union profile with the “find music here” info filled it could be a good solution for you.

How to add them

Firstly, log in and head over to your “manage content” page - when you click on one of your releases you will see some information displayed. At the bottom you will see some logos and fields where you can paste the URL location of your music on these services.

Obtaining the URL links is pretty straightforward.

For a browser based services like Amazon MP3 you would just search and locate your music on the service - once on your album you can then copy the URL in your browser and paste it into the field next to the Amazon logo on the Manage Content page.

For client based services like Spotify and iTunes you would do pretty much the same thing - however, as the URL is not displayed in these services like in a browser window you would instead right-click on your album and then “Copy HTTP Link” (Spotify) or “Copy Link” (iTunes) and like before paste this into the relevant field on the manage content page.

In conclusion

So, we hope this will be a good reference for those who have not used these buy links yet. This is the first of a range of features we plan to add. We always welcome any suggestions you may have for new functionality so don’t hesitate to get in touch with us if you have some to propose.

You all know about Nomy right? He is the guy who without a record label, management company or advanced studio has delivered digital hits to all corners of the globe. His most popular song “Cocaine” has been on the Spotify global toplist for over two years – at its peak achieving over 3 millions plays a month.  He is one of the Record Union success stories and proof of what indie artists can achieve in the brave new digital era.

So, it is with not just a little excitement that we announce Nomy´s return with a brand new song which already has the makings of a new Nomy hit. “A dream for the weaker” has only been out a few hours and his fans are are going nuts - the “shout box” on his website overflowing with praise.

Also featuring on the release are some new versions of Cocaine – one of these a pumped up U.S. Edit which he will be using to cajole his expanding US fanbase.

“A dream for the weaker” is released today on digital music services around the world.

Click here to find it on Spotify.

Yep that’s right folks! All of you who have accounts here at Record Union and are situated in the US have just received a VIP Invite to Spotify.

This was not only to cater to the high amount of requests we got about this but also because we thought it was a pretty neat thing to do.

We hope that by getting out these invites you will be able to familiarize yourself with Spotify and what it can offer - be this as a revenue generating tool, a promotional tool or just a great place for fans to be able to enjoy music.

If you are a registered U.S. user on Record Union and for some reason did not get an invite, send an email to invites(at)recordunion.com and we will sort one out for you.

Dear friends. Just a quick note to inform you that the Record Union website will be down for a few hours tomorrow. Our techies have been working on some updates and will be implementing these during this down time.  Once the updates are installed we will revive the website and tell you all about what we have done. Be well!

Dear artists, labels, music people and fellow humans. As a little “we are sorry” for the February reports being delayed this month we have paid out the March reports earlier than scheduled. You can see these payments and stats in your account page right now.

We know that getting your sales reports on time is important to you and hope this initiative will go some way to compensate for the inconvenience caused by the delays in last month’s reports.

From now on its business as usual though and we will return to our regular reporting schedule. If you need reminding of exactly what this involves you can get a full overview under the “Sales reporting” section on our FAQ page.

Today Amazon has announced the US launch of their anticipated new cloud service. Essentially this service enables music listeners to store their music library “in the cloud” (The Amazon Cloud Drive). Once here they can access it from a number of devices, without having to actually transfer the music between the devices themselves using wires and those annoying USB cables. Convenient eh? Whats more is that any purchases made from the Amazon Mp3 store will automatically land in your cloud.

Once uploaded into the Amazon Cloud drive the music can currently be accessed from the web (via the Cloud Player) and on Android devices (via the Cloud Player for Android).

So, what does this mean for your as a music creator? Well, when Cloud Drive users buy your music on Amazon Mp3 it will automatically be accessible from both their computer and their Android devices. They can also buy music from either of these locations without syncing the devices themselves. In a sense they wont be downloading it at all - it will just be made accessible in their cloud. This added convenience (and lets face it, convenience is everything) is expected to drive music sales from the Amazon Store.

You can find the official press release here.

Did you know that in addition to the sales stats shown on your account page, you can also get even more detailed information about your digital sales? Well, guess what, you can!

As the sales information we get from our partners contains a lot of information it is difficult to present all of this information on your account page (Trust us, we have tried). This is why there is also a CSV report available to you. This goes into more detail than the information on your account page and can be a valuable tool when analysing how your releases have been sold and streamed.

How to get it

You can download the CSV report on your “Account Page”. However, it will look a little weird when you open it for the first time. This is because you need to reformat it. For Excell and spreadsheet geeks this should be easy as pie, but for us normal people here is what you need to do:

1) Open the CSV file in Microsoft Excel.

2) Select all the information in the first column. (Tip: Click the top  of the column).

3) Click the “Data” toolbar and then “Text to columns”

4) A Wizard will be shown. On “delimiters” click “Semicolon” and then “Finish”.

The CSV files should now be displayed as a nice, readable table.

We hope that those of you who have not checked out your CSV will now be rushing to do so. Its a great tool and will be updated every month when we process sales reports. Any questions, contact support (at)recordunion.com. Happy time!

>

While some embrace the possibility to share their music freely via “illegitimate” channels, many find unauthorized file sharing a curse. However, protecting against the unauthorized dissemination of music is notoriously difficult and has caused some to give up altogether. Now, however, there are some pretty sophisticated ways of preventing music becoming available on channels not authorized by the owner. One of these is Muso TNT.

So, how does Muso TNT work? Well, Muso intelligently searches a constantly updated list of millions of websites which can potentially host or make available unauthorized content. They also work closely with file-sharing sites to ensure this content is removed quickly. What is especially useful is that it gives the flexibility to remove certain files while keeping others in place for promotional purposes.  This will result in making infringing files harder to find while also potentially boosting earnings by directing fans towards monetized channels.

For more information head over to the Muso TNT website, where they are currently also offering a 14 day trial.

|

It is with sadness that we inform you that from the 31st December LimeWire Store will no longer be operational. It is deeply regrettable that we will no longer be able to offer distribution to this innovative, forward looking music service and the closure of LimeWire store will surely be felt by many.

All outstanding royalties leading up until the closure in December will of course be paid out to artists according to our monthly reporting schedule.