Today Record Union artist Nomy has taken over the Spotify client homepage. This massive takeover is to promote his latest album By the edge of God which is now out on Spotify. Those of you on Spotify Free may even hear some voice and banner ads about his new album which is set to be one of his biggest yet. If you are a premium user you can even take part in a competition Nomy is running from his homepage.

Nomy has appeared on the global Spotify toplist before with his hit album “Song or Suicide”  - we are excited to say the least to see what this homegrown DIY artist can achieve this time around! Go Nomy, go, go, go Nomy!

More great news! Record Union A&R Hans Selander has just informed us that Swedish rockers The Neverdies have won the Bandit Unsigned award this year, and have landed themselves a contract with Warner Music. They have also been scheduled to play at the Getaway Rock Festival and are proud owners of a sweet new stage equipment. We would like to congratulate the band, and though it will be sad to see you go, we wish you the best for the future!

Its official! Homegrown Record Union star Nomy has been nominated as “Innovator of the year” in the upcoming Grammy´s which will be held in Stockholm this January. Other nominees include the likes of Johnossi, IAMAMIWHOAMI, Magnus Weideskog and Robyn.

The official motivation behind his nomination is cited as his display of unique entrepreneurship, taking his home produced compositions to a global audience via the innovative use of digital channels. Also highlighted have been his dedicated use of social media to expand and strengthen his loyal fan base, the success of which has landed him on the top lists of major music services around the world.

What is clear is that Nomy has reached a level of success which is almost unheard of for independent artists - a success forged out of a shrewd and innovative use of the digital channels available to the new generation of web savvy musicians. This nomination is a clear indication that his achievements have not gone unnoticed by the more established music industry, and is a well deserved token of this recognition.

Nomy is stunned at this honour, and when we asked how he felt he said the following:

“I guess for bussines people this nomination is just peanuts, but for me this is one of the biggest things that has happened in my life - everything after this is just a bonus. This is unreal.“

From all of us here at Record Union: Congratulations Nomy. You deserve this.

A Haberdashery is a word which was used to denote a shop which sold a wide assortment of goods, from buttons, threads, bird cages to mouse traps, swords and other bits and bobs. That this also denotes a name for a musician is quite fitting, because within the music of Haberdashery one finds a similar charming variety of goods on offer - this time of sounds and styles. With fans rushing to get hold of his creations, we caught up with Haberdashery and took the opportunity to ask him a few questions about his music.

If your music was a painting, what would it depict?
It would depict a scene from an Oscar Wilde novel – with dark rich oil paints, but the walls of the room would be shimmering with the glow of translucent circuitry.

What has been your greatest success so far?
In 2010, Haberdashery is releasing 12 free promotional EPs that feature new remixes of previous work, as well as demo and production versions of songs that will come out in 2011. So far, over 7000 tracks have been downloaded.

What inspires you to create music?
I think I connect with music more than I do with any other experience. Music must be the most beautiful art form – and I think that it’s because we feel it so intimately. Our sense of sound is what first connects us with the world. I can say things with music and sound that I can’t with words or images.

Got any new releases coming up that we should know about?
Next year, the new Haberdashery album “Tonight The Angels” will feature something new: 10 singles – one for each song - with remixes and b-sides along the way. A new release every month, starting in January!

Click here to visit the official Haberdashery website. You can find Haberdashery on most online stores and service, including Spotify. Otherwise, we have prepared a little taster below.

-

As you may have heard, The Peoples Music Awards are now taking entries for this years awards cycle. We have been checking out some of the music being added and must say we are impressed so far with this years turn out. Among the more standard genres of pop, rock, dance and hip-hop we are also glad to see some more unusual offerings being entered into the “Off the beaten track” category.

One of these comes from Immundus, a fellow Record Union member who hopes to make an impact with his spine chilling, spooky, otherworldly compositions which fall somewhere within the dark/ghost ambient genre. We caught up with Immundus to find out more about his music and what he hopes to accomplish.

Firstly, for those who haven´t heard it, how would you describe your music?

- The mysterious side of life, paranormal, ghostly presences and heavy and Haunting atmospheric music with the intention to recreate what is inside all of us an connects us, one way or another.

What have you tried to accomplish with your sound?

- In my sound I try to recreate daily atmospheres mainly based out of fear, paranormal experiences, heavy atmospheres and ghostly figures among many others. I personally have experienced these and I know there are many millions around the globe that have had the same experiences. To be able to add this feelings and recreate them into music, sharing it with those who has experienced the same and can relate to this sounds, is amazing.

What´s your strategy for getting those votes?

- I really don’t use “strategy” to get votes, I feel people should be able to vote if they like and support without me having to push them so much to do so. Basically, I post the awards and my presence on these awards on the news section and official site and from there on blogs and my social networks to create awareness of what “Immundus” is up to, so the news are available anywhere where the fans also are, which means they have the opportunity to check out and vote if they want to and pass the word to others.

What do you hope to achieve by partaking in this years award?

- I see this awards a a great way to connect with other artists and create new networks within the music industry, also these are the first awards I ever been involved in, so is quite exciting, just to be among all these great artists is already a honour. I also see this as a great way to expose not only my music, but also this genre of music that I feel it deserves more credit than many gives for.

And what will you do if you win?

-hahaha! naaa …I don’t know, I really don’t have a clue, I guess I should think about this one for a while longer;)

You can find Immundus on the Peoples Music Awards here. Check out his music and by all means vote! Otherwise, find him on Spotify here or visit his website.

DJ Count Effectz has been moving Sydney dancefloors with his eclectic dance/house productions since early 2008. Since then he has been releasing via labels in the US, the Netherlands and most recently founded his own Record Label Effectz Recordings. Spawned from backroom clubs his high powered sound provides a kaleidoscope journey through different (and sometimes quite bizarre) progressive sequences. This is a DJ exploring a range of different sounds, yet there is definitely a distinct style and approach to his music which many will find appealing. We caught up the the Count wanting to know more about his music.

If your music was a painting, what would it depict?
Picture a thousand different colours thrown at one canvas, no one can describe how good it is.

What have you tried to accomplish with your sound?
Something new, tasteful and most of all ‘EAR PLEASING’.

Who would you most like to headline a show with?
Definitely Afrojack or Deadmau5

What is the next step for you?
Aiming for my first tour and from what I have been producing, it is now time to show people my sound live in action.

Read more about Count Effectz and check out his many remixes on his blog. Otherwise, you can find his music on most online stores and services, including Spotify.

This outfit of Swedish Hip-Hopper´s are a mysterious bunch. Jumping around on stage wearing balaclavas and orange jumpsuits they don’t strike you as your average musicians. They are, well, something else altogether.  Intrigued, we caught up with VERKstaden and threw a few questions their way with the hope of finding out a little more more about them - here is how it turned out:

If your music was a painting, what would it depict?
- A dark alley filled with famous superhero villains drinking milk, everyone is wearing black clothes except for one, he is wearing purple clothes and he is drinking orange juice.

What makes you stand out from the crowd?
First of all we stand on the stage, and by doing that, we don’t stand with the crowd, we stand out from it… Secondly, we are completely anonymous and no one knows really how many members VERKstaden has.

Who would you most like to headline a show with?
- Vanilla Ice… I just feel bad for him and if we headline a show with him,… at least he gets booked…

What is the next step for you?
-    To send you this. For more information visit our blog.

Click here to listen to VERKstaden on Spotify.

That’s right folks! You can now sign up for this years Peoples Music Awards. Last year proved to be bigger and better than ever, with thousands of artist participating in what is becoming an established competition within independent music.

The Peoples Music Awards are the worlds first and only unsigned music awards, and as an artist or band, the benefits are clear . Entering awards gives you an excellent platform to reach out to new fans around the world, with music hungry listeners flocking to the TPMA website to give their verdict on the artists who have entered. You will also receive valuable feedback on the songs you have submitted from an influential panel of industry experts. This combination of a jury panel and the peoples vote is what makes this competition unique.

For more information about the awards and enter into this years competition, head over to The Peoples Music Awards website.

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.

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.