We would like to thank all the artists who sent us their application to play at the P&L Showcase this year. Both Record Union and the A&R network were extremely impressed by the quality of the entries we received, which made it very difficult to chose the final line up. However, we have now arrived at our decision. The 3 bands chosen by Record Union and our A&R network to play at Peace & Love this year are:

Boris Valdes

Boris lives in Malmö and passes most of his days in his studio in möllevången. He plays sweeping acoustic melodies, his distinctive voice penetrating each song with emotion and depth. His chosen instrument is the guitar.

www.myspace.com/boriskitchen

Uppsala based electro duo Lissi Dancefloor Disaster consist of Johan Tilli and Josefin Lindh. LDD create electronic pop with an attitude. With LDD, contagious dance-punk meets attractive electronic soundscapes and wonderful upbeat rhythms.

www.myspace.com/lissidancefloordisaster

Frantic Sunday was formed in Uppsala, Sweden, September 2008. The band members are: Tomas Karlsson vocals and organ, Ola Renman bass, Joel Yngvesson guitar and Henrik Nilsson drums. Their beating pop music is highly expressive and organic, influenced by bands such as Razorlight, The Strokes and Yo La Tengo,

www.myspace.com/franticsunday

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!

Hi everyone! Below you will find a list of all the places you can find Record Union online, come join us! Become our friend on MySpace and network with our 1200+ artists and fans. Become a fan of Hefner on Facebook, and be pals with the top dog at Record Union. Get instant news updates from Record Union by following us on Twitter. Subscribe to the Record Union YouTube channel and soon you can view all the best videos from artists releasing their music on Record Union, as well as our faves. You can aso join our group on Last FM and see whats on our Last FM playlist!

Greetings! today we thought we would post some fun end-of-week videos. Firstly, as the following clip demonstrates, you dont need to go to the music shop to purchase new instruments, no no. Next time you are in need of a flute, ocarina or trumpet (or pretty much any other wind instruments) - head down to your local grocers. The following video should get you started:

Now, not all of us are blessed with the superp rythmn of an experienced drummer, nor the nimble agility of a concert pianist. But this shouldn´t stop you from recording a little tune using both, as Lasse Gjertsen demonstrates:

Hello everyone! You may have seen a slight lapse in the amount of entries on the Dog Blog recently. This is not because we are fed up and want to stop communicating with our lovely readers. Not at all! the reason is that we have been really busy! But with what? you may ask.

Our main focus over the past weeks has been testing the new website (to launch soon) which will feature our distribution service. We have have been going through every aspect of the new website on a collection of different operating systems and web browsers searching for bugs which may effect its user friendliness and general functioning. This, for those who have been involved with BETA testing before will appreciate, is quite a job! Beyond this, since we circulated the news about our collaboration with Peace and Love this year, we have received a sea emails from bands and artists wishing to perform at the festival, which is great! We have been eagerly listening to all the music we have received, reading press releases, band biographies and sending out replies to all the artists who have contacted us.

When we launch the distribution function you will see the Dog Blog take on a new life. In correspondence with our A&R network, we will update the Dog Blog daily with the best new music being released by artists on Record Union. We have some superb artists lined up and look forward to giving listeners the lowdown on great new independent music from all over the world!

Dear friends. Record Union is pleased to announce that we will be collaborating with the Peace & Love festival this summer, selecting artists to perform at infamous P&L Showcase. Peace & Love is the second largest music festival in Sweden, drawing tens of thousands to the cosy Swedish city of Borlänge to enjoy 5 days of music and festivities.  The festival runs from the 22-27 June, and this year´s line up is looking as good as ever, with a diverse selection of quality acts taking the stage.

The P&L Showcase expresses Peace and Love´s commitment to nurturing up and coming independent and unsigned talent. This year, three organisations are collaborating with Peace and Love to fill the P&L showcase scene with the best upcoming artists in Sweden – Record Union is honoured to be one of these organisations. We are looking forward to giving 3 artists the chance to take the stage and show their stuff in front of thousands of eager festival goers.

We call on all bands wanting to hit the indie stage at Peace and Love this year to contact us at the following email address: peaceandlove@recordunion.com. Please cite the motivation for why you would you would like to be chosen for this opportunity, and provide a link to your myspace page or website. Record Union will evaluate each application in correspondence with our A&R network, and announce our selection at the beginning of June.  For all the rest of you, see you at the festival!

You may know Hefner as the friendly guide on recordunion.com. He is in fact much more than this: top dog, guru, philanthropist and music extordinaire - he is the Record Union totem. Now we are pleased to announce that Hefner has found time in his busy schedule of working, eating and sleeping to paw in his details on Facebook. Yes, that´s right, Hefner has a facebook profile! He will be updating his friends on all the latest developments at Record Union, as well as posting some of his favourite links. If you would like to keep updated on the latest developments at Record Union, feel free to join Hefner on face book at the following link.

For many, it is common knowledge the “music industry” is “evil”, cares as much for artists as a lion does a dying gazelle, and that record labels, especially the majors, are synonymous with the four horsemen – or may even be a direct machination of the unspoken one himself. Exploitative, manipulative, conniving, devious, deceiving – they are not to be trusted. And Record Contracts, well, if Record Labels embody the devil – then Record Contracts are that which chains an artists immortal soul to the netherworld. This is clearly an exaggeration, they can´t be that bad – I mean, they at least make artists rich and famous. Well, famous maybe – but rich? Is this another common sublimation which needs evaluation?

The above one sided polemic finds support in an excellent article written by a rather well respected and renowned veteran of the music industry. Except he, Steve Albini, likens the process of signing a major Record Deal, with “a trench, about four feet wide and five feet deep, maybe sixty yards long, filled with runny, decaying shit”. On one side of the trench is a “faceless industry lackey holding a fountain pen” and the other, a collection of eager artists wanting to sign the contract. The lackey shouts “go” and the in they plunge, scrambling and fighting to reach the other side.
Now think what you will about the Label structure, but before you make up your mind, read this article!

The Problem With Music by Steve Albini

This article will give new insights into the traditional A&R structure, the Deal Signing process as well as factual evidence proving how many Record Deals just dont pay out. Read it! Espcially if you are one of those who measures success as synonymous with being signed by a major label.

It is easy to forget that even before an artists music has been able to describe itself, people must hear about it. This is Derek Sivers (founder of CD baby) talking about the importance of artists being able to talk about their music. Before your music is able to do the talking, you have to use words in order to invoke curisostiy about your art - and these words better be invocative, titilating and  well thought out. Bear this in mind when you are asked: “so, what kind of music do YOU do?”.

Today we thought we would post a great shred that a member of the Record Union team found recently on YouTube. We have enjoying it all week. Hope you like it as much as we do!