Apple recently announced and the are offering iTunes in 12 additional European countries - putting the total number of territories which have access to iTunes at 35. Here are the new territories which have been added:

• Bulgaria
• Cyprus
• Czech Republic
• Estonia
• Hungary
• Latvia
• Lithuania
• Malta
• Poland
• Romania
• Slovakia
• Slovenia

If you chose to distribute your music to iTunes worldwide via Record Union (i.e. chose all territories when you published your release) then your music will automatically become available to listeners in these countries. If you did not choose to distribute worldwide but would like your music to become available on any or all of the above please get in touch with our content team and we will sort this out for you.

Quick fact: did you know that iTunes has to date sold over 15 billion songs?

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.

As many of you are aware, iTunes has recently launched Ping - a social network for music. This exciting addition to the iTunes repertoire offers a range of social networking features for both artists and there fans and introduces a whole new dynamic into the iTunes experience. See here for a full overview of these new features.

To get set up with ping requires help from your distributor and we would like to inform you that we will be able to help you get set up with these profiles in the future. Like iTunes our goal is to make it possible for all artists to be part of ping. There is obviously a high demand for these profiles so to express your interest in getting one please send an email to content(at)recordunion.com and we will put you on the list.

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!

Many of us will have heard about the Twitter song, but the SEO song probably draws a blank. The “SEO song” is part of a campaign by the Creare Group to raise awareness about illegitimate and black hat Search Engine Optimisation techniques - and what better way to launch a campaign than with a little musical composition! Record Union is pleased to play our part in combating rogue SEO optimisers by distributing this song a few days ago, which will be available online in the coming weeks. The song is by Charlie & The Martyrs, and is accompanied by a rather fun video, which you can view below.

Hello people! Two and a half weeks after our “trial run” we are happy to say that you can now purchase the music of Motherpearl on iTunes, Amazon, Peoples Music Store, Rhapsody and soon many others. The Gothenberg based band are, as you can imagine, really happy about the news, as is Record Union. Time for champagne perhaps? Not QUITE yet…there is still much to be done! We are eagerly awating the beta launch of our distribution platform, which will be up and running shortly. However, this news is still a call for celebration!