For the full skinny, Tom Robinson (a musician for three decades, and later a radio DJ)’s blog is well worth a read. Whilst it doesn’t address the issues involved with the major labels all having their own PR agencies consistently plugging the biggest commercial releases to radio (and getting the lion’s share of the station manager’s attention), a well crafted self-made promo CD which sounds up to snuff and looks the part will get you a long way. A snippet of Tom’s excellent advice:

But if you HAVE got a great record that’s perfect for radio, here’s the first thing you need to know. Record companies and pluggers (radio promotion companies) send out advance copies of new releases 4 to 8 weeks ahead of the record’s official release date.

These so-called ‘white labels’ are usually plain silver CD-R’s with the artist name and record title overprinted in black. They are sent in a clear plastic wallet together with the title and tracklisting printed in black on a plain white square of paper. A couple of plain white stickers on the outside give key information. A single A4 information sheet of biog and release information is usually tucked inside, but won’t affect whether the record gets played or not.

The decision to play it is based (almost) entirely on what the disc itself sounds like, but here’s the second thing you need to know: radio programme teams have to listen to 50-70 new CDs a week while also broadcasting a show every day. Since only 5 records on average in that pile of 50 will be remotely suitable for airplay, they’ll tend to listen to the professional-looking white label discs first.

Why? Because there’s a higher chance of finding those 5 records among the stuff sent by record companies and record pluggers. These people are serious about what they do and won’t waste other people’s time or their own money. At radio we may not like the record, but we know at least it’ll be of a certain minimum standard. And if we do like it, all the info we need will be readily to hand with release date and contact number clearly marked.

For the full article, see TomRobinson.com.

Other labels and distributors have to submit new music to iTunes… then wait for anything between one and three weeks whilst Apple approves the release. However, due to Revolver’s consistently superior level of quality and attention to detail when providing releases to Apple, the Big Fruit has approved our premium Content Provider status. Revolver is now able to deliver to iTunes for immediate display and sale on the iTunes Music Store. Until it’s formally christened, we’re calling it Instant iTunes.

So, if you have a Christmas single or need a last minute turnaround on an EP or album before a gig or tour, we can help where other distributors will fall through! Get in touch with a sample of your music to see what we can do for you.

On-demand services like Spotify and We7 will generate £696m for the global music industry in 2012 – a rise of 40%, new research has suggested. It means streaming music is the fastest-growing sector of the industry, overtaking downloads, which are due to see an increase of 8.5% this year.

CDs and vinyl still dominate the industry, accounting for 61% of all music sold worldwide. But sales of physical products dropped by 12% globally, and 30% in the UK. The research was carried out by industry watcher Strategy Analytics, which noted a marked contraction in the UK music market during the first six months of 2012.

Not all’s rosy though…

Total spending on music will fall by £190m, or 16%, in the UK this year it predicted, compared to 2.6% globally.

“The extent of the decline took us a bit by surprise,” said Ed Barton, the company’s director of digital media. The lack of new material from pop and rock’s biggest stars could be responsible for the drop-off, he added.

“The quality of the release slate was simply not desirable enough to drive the levels of spending we’ve seen in previous years,” he told the BBC.

What does this mean for artists? Nothing new – except keep striving for the highest quality work you can possibly achieve (as if you need any encouragement). And once you have your music ready to go, work with a company like Revolver who can ensure your music reaches every single store, digital platform and online marketplace worth knowing about. Maximum reach, minimum effort.

And remember these wise words from Strategy Analytics: they forecast spending on digital music, including downloads, streaming and mobile – will overtake physical (CD, etc) in 2015, both in the UK and worldwide. That’s a big format shift, and you need to be on top of that as an artist if you want to continue earning good coin. That’s not to say CDs are being abandoned en masse though — Revolver still presses CDs of all its new releases — but digital and mobile is more important than ever before, and it’s showing no signs of stopping.

However, as royalty payments have increased, Daniel Ek’s company has been forced to reduce the amount of money it allows to leave its coffers, a sure sign that the intrusive interstitial advertising hasn’t proved as effective as they’d liked. More recently, tie-ins with Facebook (much to the chagrin of new users, who found they couldn’t untangle their Facebook and Spotify credentials) and the limitation of plays per song (three per song forever) on the free tier have seen the service haemorrhaging customers… Not necessarily a bad thing if they weren’t net revenue providers.

Now though, in a move sure to leave many puzzling as to what new features they are announcing, Spotify are going big with a livestreamed worldwide press conference and announcement at their ‘event’ on November the 30th at 9am EST (2pm UK time) — see Mashable for more details. They’re either going to either announce something gobsmackingly groundbreaking or something disappointingly iterative. [Wild prediction of the week: A Spotify-branded SIM for your mobile phone, or even a fully-branded Android handset, akin to the new Codename 'Buffy' Facebook Android phone! --Ed]

Spotify needs to work hard to maintain what sliver of market share it has in the States; marketing and launch promotions aside (where three- and six-month premium accounts were dispensed en masse to new customers through marketing partnerships and giveaways) the service already faced some stiff competition from incumbents such as Pandora, Rhapsody, Rdio, MOG, Napster, Slacker etc… We’ll be following the news as it develops on the 30th!

Also, in Revolver Digital news, we’re excited to let slip that we’ll have a big announcement which’ll be of great interest to our existing digital artists (and potential new artists); tune in to our site or Twitter around the end of the month when we’ll be able to announce more details.

On Monday the 6^th of June, Apple’s keynote at their World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC 2011) had many positive things to announce: OSX Lion, with its $29.99 price tag, its array of new and improved features and cloud download to every customer’s compatible Mac after purchase (ala Steam). At the same time iOS version 5 for mobile devices (the beta of which has already been jailbroken less than 24 hours after release), and their revamped mobileMe cloud service – dubbed iCloud – finally arrives on the scene to add another layer of integration to the mac user’s ecosystem.

Of all the hundreds of new ‘features’ introduced, most are unremarkable or arguably not very innovative (at least when using some of the things Apple have devised in the past decade as a benchmark!). If anything, they are just an amalgamation of features previously available elsewhere, except now in an Apple-mandated, fully synchronised, pain-free fashion. All you need to enjoy? An Apple device.

However, the real announcement (the one occupying most of the acres of print and online coverage, and the one also keeping the independent music sector on tenterhooks) has been Apple’s music service. Precious little was revealed prior to the WWDC keynote (in typical Apple fashion), but here is the précis for those who didn’t catch the keynote live:

1. One of the new cloud-based features has been dubbed “iTunes in the Cloud”
   • Service offers customers ability to buy once, download many times (up to 10)
   • Automatic synchronisation and permanent storage of their purchases online is included for no extra cost, all controlled from their account
   • Customers can manually sync over prior purchases to their other devices
   • If customer buys a track on their iPhone, it will also appear on their other devices.
2. The Complete My Album feature is implemented into the Cloud service, with the same features as before.
   • Seamless cloud functionality (apparently), again tracks sync to all devices

But the “One More Thing” was the real kicker… iTunes Match.

Now we’re not one to strum our own guitar [all the time, anyway -Ed], but the new album from Mancunian musos The Statements follows in the vein of great music from Manchester: solid songwriting, well-balanced, professional playing and all in all a thoroughly enjoyable listen. Our ears pricked up when we first heard it – and we highly recommend you now go and check it out too.

The Statements’ debut album, Stand Divided, is available now digitally exclusively through Revolver.

320kbps MP3s of Revolver Records, Heavy Metal Records and Revolver Digital artists, all in one convenient place, instantly downloadable… And for less than they cost on iTunes. Bargain or what?

Head over to Digital.RevolverRecords.com and start your virtual cratedigging sesh today!

There are still thousands of aspiring guitar bands under the radar – but it does not feel like many are threatening to grab the public’s attention. The disillusionment can be traced back to record labels chasing quick hits rather than acts with longevity, according to BBC 6 Music DJ Steve Lamacq.

“In this current climate, people are signing bands who have got one or two good tracks, hoping they can make one good album,” he says. “And inevitably a lot of these bands are going to come and go. You end up ruining the sense of trust between tastemaker and audience, or record label and audience, or even musical genre and audience. If you stop believing in a certain sort of music, it’s going to take a lot for you to come back.”

Lamacq is 6 Music’s arbiter-in-chief of good new guitar music, and has been casting a critical ear over new bands since hosting Radio 1′s Evening Session in the heady days of Britpop. If Radiohead emerged with their debut album today, it would be “unthinkable” that their long-term prospects would be recognised, he believes.

“It’s the short term-ism coming home to roost, and that’s a problem for the music industry and the media. But it’s a problem that they’ve created for themselves in a lot of cases.”

There are still thousands of aspiring guitar bands under the radar – but it does not feel like many are threatening to grab the public’s attention. The disillusionment can be traced back to record labels chasing quick hits rather than acts with longevity, according to BBC 6 Music DJ Steve Lamacq.

“In this current climate, people are signing bands who have got one or two good tracks, hoping they can make one good album,” he says. “And inevitably a lot of these bands are going to come and go. You end up ruining the sense of trust between tastemaker and audience, or record label and audience, or even musical genre and audience.

“If you stop believing in a certain sort of music, it’s going to take a lot for you to come back.”

Lamacq is 6 Music’s arbiter-in-chief of good new guitar music, and has been casting a critical ear over new bands since hosting Radio 1′s Evening Session in the heady days of Britpop. If Radiohead emerged with their debut album today, it would be “unthinkable” that their long-term prospects would be recognised, he believes.

“It’s the short term-ism coming home to roost, and that’s a problem for the music industry and the media. But it’s a problem that they’ve created for themselves in a lot of cases.”

At the same time, Florence + The Machine received a welcome boost – and potentially finally “made it” in the States – thanks to an inclusion on the MTV VMAs back in September (hat-tip: DMN) which begins, “it’s harder than ever for bands to break through these days, and gradual fan-building is one way to slowly cut through the clutter. But despite endless post-Anderson musings and re-musings, big media remains a potent and powerful springboard.”

What’s eyebrow-raising about this article are the sales figures before and after the VMA ‘bump’:

(again, hat-tip: DMW)

Thisshows just how quickly you can garner interest – and sales! – after even the most unpredictable of media appearances. Having good music to back you up definitely helps but you will see more interest almost irrespectively. So why aren’t you on iTunes already? We can help you get a real presence on the important stores like iTunes, Amazon, 7Digital, Spotify, mFlow, Rhapsody, Thumbplay, VidZone, Limewire, TuneTribe etc., and we don’t charge a fortune (in fact, hardly anything at all). If you’re interested, why not send us an email and say hello?

Finally, Florence + The Machine are currently available through all reputable digital music stores. If you’ve not listened to them as of yet, go listen – you might just like them. (Not an official endorsement though, mind! – Ed)