As you may have heard Europe’s favorite streaming service Spotify has now opened its doors to listeners in the United States. As a resident of the US you can choose between two subscriptions models “Premium” and “Unlimited” – Spotify Free accounts are currently invite only.

This launch in the US is creates nothing but opportunity, both for those of you who already have your music on Spotify - but also also for us here at Record Union.

More people tuning in to discover and share music on Spotify mean more potential listeners within a few clicks of yours! As you know, Spotify is a great promotional tool and with more people tuning in there is even bigger potential to reach out to new listeners and boost your plays.

This is also exciting new for us here at Record Union. If the launch of in Europe was anything to go by, there will be a storm of new artists and labels wanting to get their music in the Spotify catalog. As one of the recommended routes for indie artists and labels onto Spotify we at Record Union are gearing ourselves up to receive them with open arms.

Being there from the beginning we have seen many examples of the way in which Spotify has helped independent artists reach out to new audiences in ways never thought possible – with the launch of Spotify in the United States we are looking forward to seeing this continue.

So, now that we have squeezed our little digital baby out into the weird and wonderful world that is the Internet, we here at Record Union HQ are wondering what you think of it? It’s taken a lot longer than 9 months to grow inside the computers of our developers, feeding off long nights, fighting off bugs and worrying us to the point of insanity, but hopefully you are all enjoying it!

Are there features you think we have missed? Elements you like? Something we don’t know about yet that would help you? Is it being temperamental and misbehaving? Has it been sick on your shoulder?

Let us know what you think so far and we will do our best to make sure it grows up to be big, strong and helpful… just leave us a comment below.

Dear Friends,

Record Union is proud to announce that a BETA version has now been launched! Yes, that´s right, we are now LIVE! We welcome all artists who wish to digitally distribute their music to visit www.recordunion.com, create a profile and upload their tracks! And for all you music enthusiasts, we welcome you to go and sign up for the A&R role!

This is a pinnacle moment for Record Union, and the beginning of our mission to democratize the access to digital distribution. We hope that our offer to artists, with no start up fee or maintenance costs, will encourage all aspiring artists to take advantage of the distribution possibilities the Internet offers. We believe that this will not only benefit artists, but also listeners. By giving the opportunity to all artists to distribute their music globally, listeners will have the chance to discover and appreciate music which has been hitherto unheard!

We have done our utmost to make sure the site is functioning smoothly, but if you encounter any problems please contact us on beta@recordunion.com and we will do our best to fix it as soon as possible. Please bear in mind that this is a BETA version, and that over the next few weeks we will be making adjustments to the website. If you have any other feedback or suggestions for how to improve the website, we would be glad to hear from you!

Heads up! This is the first post of the Dog Blog, wohoo! (wild clapping and raucous hooting). Thats right my friends, the Dog Blog is live! wahhhhh! (vicarious fainting and exaggerated gesticulation).  Now, the first thing to cover (for those who may be curious) is why this is called the “Dog” blog. Well, you may have met Hefner, the Record Union pug and mastermind of our web service. This is his blog; hence, the “dog” blog. However, since Hefner is very busy these days securing DSP contracts, schmoozing with the music industry elites, flirting with Pugesses and smoking large cigars, his ideas will be mediated via the Record Union blog team. We are a collection of hyper intelligent and well informed music enthusiasts originating from planet Zarathustra (next to Arkintoofle Minor). The direction of this blog will change over time, but we assure you it will be interesting, informative and maybe even a little bit headucational. But fear not, there will also be plenty of stuff to make you chuckle too!