Amazon have recently launched a new service called Artist Central which is designed to help artists and labels promote their music on the Amazon store. As an artist or label you are now able to add extra content to your artist page(s), such as a biography, pictures and even upload MP3s to offer as free downloads and full length streaming. Other cool features include customizable store banners, a twitter feed and a space to embed your videos. Check the profile for Band of Horses for to see these in action.

Getting set up is pretty straightforward. It just a matter of claiming your profile, which you can do by signing in to Artist Central with your Amazon account. If you don’t already have an Amazon account, you can go ahead and create one for free. Claims are usually approved within a matter of days. Once the claim has gone through you can go ahead and use these new features to jazz up your profile. All in all, we think Amazon have provided a valuable set of tools which help you connect to listeners in a more dimensional way, ultimately helping you increase your sales and exposure via the Amazon Store. We wish you the best of luck.

We are pleased to inform you that we have just added some new features to the Record Union website. These are a few of many features that we have in mind to improve the Record Union experience which we will be adding in the near future. So, what is contained in this update?

Add links to your releases! - You can now add links which direct visitors to where your music is currently available for purchase/streaming online. These then show up on a brand new “Find music on…” menu under each release. These links can be added on “Manage content” page. Here´s one we made earlier.

Link to Twitter and YouTube - You can now add links to Twitter and YouTube on your profile.

Manage content -As requested it is now possible to see exactly what information you added to published tracks. This info will be displayed when you click on a published track on the “Submit Content” page.

These new links are another step towards making Record Union a useful place to direct fans and those interested in your music. Not satisfied with song previews, they can now select to find your music on their favourite stores and services, head over to YouTube to check your videos and Twitter to keep updated.

We always like to hear input from people using Record Union, so if you would like to suggest new features and functionality for us to look at, don’t hesitate to get in touch!

The Next Big Thing has been a roller-coaster of a competition so far, with 2200 artists and jurors pitting their musical prowess and expertise to earn their place in the finals. The battle has been fought online, with point hungry bands mobilising the force of their fans and musical appeal to win precious points, and offline, with live on stage clashes which have left audiences in cities around Sweden in a state of shock and awe.

10 bands and 10 jurors will reach the finals held in Stockholm (at Kungsträdgården) on the 10th and 11th of September, but with the last day of point gathering on Wednesday who will be there is still an open question. You can contribute to the hype by heading over to Snowfish and exploring the great music which is on offer, and if you are in Stockholm in the coming weeks, be sure to attend the finals!

1. An act of musical satiation; fulfillment; gratification.

Since the birth of Spotify all manner of community based web environments have been set up to gratify that undying urge to please other people with music you have generously sculpted into something called a playlist. We love them all, of course. However, there is one we love a little bit more than others (can we say that? - we just did) and its called Spotisfaction.

Spotisfaction is not so much a Spotify social networking site as a community driven spotify-music-wiki. A community of slightly eccentric but very knowledgeable music connoisseurs, we might add. Free of playlists created by corporate brands, it brings together in true web 3.0 style the collective wisdom of the people in a lovely kaleidoscope of news, reviews, articles and of course Spotisfaction playlists. All this combined with that slightly militant “we wont sell your stuff” attitude that we love from bloggers.

Anyways, do check it out - and why not submit your own news and reviews of your favourite independent bands while your at it?

You can set your release date on the “create a release” page, but please note that in order to make sure that our partners can list your release on time, a release date must be set at least 7 weeks in advance of publication on Record Union. If you would like our partners to list your music as soon as possible, then you still have the option of choosing “immediate delivery”.  If you have any questions about setting a release date, feel free to contact content(at)recordunion.com.

Manon Dave is an artist (producer/composer) on Record Union as well as a member of our A&R network. With the success of his releases so far he is currently in the process of producing an EP and album which will consists of his own instrumentals and feature vocals from various artists.

Some major names have already contributed to the album, including Pras (The Fugees), PJ Morton (India Arie, Musiq, Soulchild), A.R. Rahman (Slumdog Millionaire) with more big names to follow. Manon sees a great opportunity to include one or more Record Union artists in this release as a way to demonstrate how the Internet can bring together established names and upcoming independent artists to appear on one great album.

If any of you would like to be involved in this project please to respond to this post with links to music, otherwise drop Manon an email here: manondave(at)gmail.com).

Some fresh new tunes from the Union have been gathering up plays on Spotify these past weeks. Impressed with the quality of what we are hearing we thought we would share a few of these here on the blog.  Keep the music coming in peeps, we love it!

Six Litte Eggs by Otis (Genre:Hip Hop/Electronic)

Pick me up by Isak Strand & The Resin Band (Genre: Pop/Reggae)

Misunderstanding by Club Skills (Electronic/Dance)

Dissa Ipred by Mellony (Genre: Hip Hop/Reggae)

The bigger picture; Hope by Aim for the sunrise  (Rock/Hardcore/??)

Remember you can check out the top Record Union plays on Spotify via their label search. Type label:”record union” in the search bar and you will see a list of results.

You may recognize Manon Dave from his acclaimed remixes of hit songs such as Carry Out, Say it Right and Break the Ice. Now Manon has taken an altogether different direction with the release of “Streets were raining”, a brand new single which incorporates some classic Manonesque beats into the somber sound of US alternative outfit Pyramid.

This beautifull song made an impression even before it was out, topping the pre order charts on Play.com and recieving positive responses from fans and media alike. The reviewers over at Limewire call this single an “instant summertime classic” and with the single being scheduled to air on BBC Radio 1 in the coming weeks this is one to keep an eye on. The single is produced and released by Manon on his own label Parapsych Records. Check out the video below, or give it a whirl on Spotify.

Björn Rosenström has been entertaining Swedes with his witty folk ballads since his first album “Låtar som är sådär” took Sweden by storm back in 1996. Since then he has become something of a folk legend, bringing his entertaining folk-pop to venues and festivals all over the country.

We are pleased to announce that Björn is now back with a brand new album called “Swingersklubb in the radhuslänga” which features 10 previously unheard tracks. The new album was released by his own Record Union via Record union first on Spotify Premium, but is now racking up plays on Spotify free and available on stores and services all over the world.

The Next Big Thing competition is now in full swing! With lots of new artists and jury members joining each day, things are starting to heat up.

Recently announced was more info about the much anticipated Spotify Award. This award is given to artists/bands when they reach 3000 points in the competition. One part of this prize involves a chance to get your music up on Spotify via Record Union for free, but the Next Big Thing are also working closely with Spotify and other partners to provide some unique promotional opportunities for those who receive the award. The details of these will be announced soon.

As everyone knows, Spotify is a powerfull promotion channel and it will be exciting to see the exposure which can be generated for independent artists partaking in The Next Big Thing. However, you got to be in it to win it! Find out more about The Next Big Thing and how to enter here.