R&B Pop Artist J-Swagg Review

J-Swagg
R&B Pop, Los Angeles, USA

Artist Homepage: Reverbnation MySpace Jswagg Japan
Artist Downloads: Napster Amazon
Label: Platinum Trini Entertainment / Universal Music
Sounds Like: Fabolous, Akon, TI, Jay-Z, Pharrel

Review by: Oliver Springate - MyMusicSuccess.Com

J Swagg is the latest artist to be signed onto the Platinum T Entertainment roster, and is showing a lot of potential to blow big time in the near future, and already has a fan base supporting him from America, Europe and Asia. He was born in the Philippines, has some Spanish Ancestry, and moved to California when he was 12, where he has grown up from there onwards.

This slightly odd mix of cultural influences is said to have rubbed off on J Swagg’s music, bringing together a sound which is similar to many of today’s mainstream hip hop artists, but remains unique. With the sheer number of artists around today, it would be impossible to have a totally unique style, and J Swagg has managed to make sure that the one’s he sounds similar to are the ones who are dropping the big tunes.

He lists his main influences as TI, Jay-Z and Pharrel, and that’s not a bad group to have influencing you when you’re trying to succeed in hip hop, and with his own style thrown into the mix, you’ve got an artist with real potential.

J Swagg is showing the flickers of success that all those who have gone before him had in their early days. In fact, what J Swagg is putting out is probably way ahead of what his predecessors were doing at the same stage in their careers.

With music making a return to the focus on revenues from live shows, J Swagg is also positioning himself perfectly on this front. On stage he really comes alive, interacting with his fans and putting on a great show.

His songs so far include the singles Your Body and The Life, both of which are chilled songs with a slight electro feel, and give a sound similar to artists like Fabolous and Akon. They’re definitely worth a listen, and his upcoming highly anticipated album ‘The Warm Up’ is set to be a big one when it comes out. J Swagg is definitely going to be one of the artists who we’re hearing a lot about over the next year.

Hip Hop / Dancehall artist ABM starts Japanese web promotion with MyMusicSuccess

ABM

Hip Hop Dancehall Reggae, Los Angeles, USA

Artist Homepage: Reverbnation MySpace ABM Japan
Artist Downloads: iTunes Amazon
Label: Platinum Trini Entertainment / Universal Music
Sounds Like: Sean Paul, Bob Marley, Usher

Review by: Oliver Springate - MyMusicSuccess.Com

Remember the stir that Sean Paul created a few years back? Reggae music had gone silent for a few years, until the young Jamaican brought it slamming back onto the scene with a dance twist, and now after another few quiet years, there are murmurings of a new talent emerging on the popular Reggae scene.

Trinidadian artist ABM, signed to Platinum Trini Entertainment, and distributed through Universal Music, is storming into the game with his new single Wine Down. I really can’t get enough of this song, it’s a real feel-good song, perfect for the clubs and dancefloors, and brings through the feel of his laid back upbringing in the sunny Caribbean.

The percussion based beat is perfect for the song, and the female voice that complements the chorus is what first made me think of Sean Paul, being reminiscent of the great collaboration he did with Blu Cantrell. And that goes to show just what potential ABM has, those two were already established artists, whereas ABM is just starting out and he’s already producing killer tunes.

I’ve got to be honest, his other songs aren’t as punchy as wine down, and the beats aren’t the sort of things you’d hear at parties, but that’s not to say they’re bad by a long stretch. Wine Down is very a fusion of old style reggae music and the modern R&B music that ABM is surrounded by, whereas his other songs are more laid back reggae, clearly showing influence by artists like Bob Marley.

He also has a couple of chilled tracks, such as Missing You, which combines his style with that of artists such as Usher or Jaheim, to make a cool song with a strong meaning, offering us an insight into the man behind ABM.

Unlike the majority of other artists, ABM doesn’t just excel in the studio. Growing up he was extremely successful at basketball, football and athletics, and achieved a scholarship to Grambling State University, where a few years later he graduated with an engineering degree, making him truly multi-talented. Few people can profess to have musical, sporting and academic success.

And it gets even more unbelievable. ABM claims that he’s not in music for a career, and is making songs for himself and not for the charts. If that’s true, he’s got a great taste in music! ABM says that he has procrastinated about following his passion for music for too long, so lets just hope he doesn’t change his mind and go back to the day job, as this is too good to miss.

Wine Down is without a doubt one of the best songs I’ve heard this year, which I still can’t quite believe coming from such a new artist. I can barely imagine what we have in store from ABM over the coming years.

September Special: Music PR Publicity Blast for Just 29.00 Euros!

September is upon us and the dark days of the Fall are drawing in. So what better way to brighten up the day than MyMusicSuccess launching the "September Special".

Every month over the Fall season we'll be running a discount on one of our PR products, and we kick off in September with our One Shot Music Publicity Blast.

If you're looking to put out news of your latest music release or event, Indie One Shot Publicity gets your band news blasted out to music fans and industry professionals on the web.

You'll get a professional press release written and distributed to leading music industry newswires and music news websites. We'll also put your news into our leading music blog and newsletter.

Indie One Shot Publicity Gets You:

* Professional press release written by our industry journalists
* Your Press release fed to 35 music industry newswires and search engine news networks
* Your music news published on the MyMusicSuccess blog network
* Your music news featured in our subscriber newsletter with 'Recommended Artist' advertisement
* Your music news fed into our twitter music industry tagged news feeds

News Feed Coverage

* 35 leading major music industry newswires
* 40,000 RSS feeds, javascript feeds & html feeds on 3rd party websites.
* •Google Web Gadget
* •Opt-in daily mailing lists.
* •Google News
* •Google Search
* •Yahoo Search
* •MSN Search
* •Live Search
* •AOL Search
* •AltaVista Search
* •AllTheWeb Search
* •Netscape Search
* •Accoona Search
* Twitter
* Blogger
* Wordpress
* •& many many more

Head on over to http://www.mymusicsuccess.com to book your September Special now. Offer expires midnight CET 30th September 2009.

Sell digital band assets on your website with a new shop widget from Kiqlo.com

The team at MyMusicSuccess came across a new site this week that could prove very useful for the independent musician who wants to sell everything from MP3's to Screensavers, Band Desktops and other digital band merchandise directly from their website.

Kiqlo.Com is developing a portable 'Shop Widget' that you can integrate onto any website or social networking page that accepts widget code.

Currently the widget cannot be used with MySpace as MySpace block any flash widget that links to an external page, however the owner and developer of Kiqlo Rosario Iannella told me that they have plans to develop a MySpace compatible shop within the next couple of weeks.

Kiqlo is a completely free service, and takes no cut from your sales. The platform has been in development now for around a year, however they already have over 1000 vendors selling over 11,000 items through the stores every day.

The service uses the PayPal payment engine, so its very simple to recieve payments by setting up an account with PayPal and linking it with your Kiqlo shop by just entering your PayPal ID into the Kiqlo system.

Although you are able to sell MP3's through the shop with the Kiqlo MP3 playlist shop, you can also earn extra revenue by creating and selling downloadable wallpapers, exclusive backstage photosets, your bands biography in an ebook, literally any digital asset you want to create to create a one stop portable shop for all your bands digital assets.

Customer service is second to none. When we signed up to the service at MyMusicSuccess, we couldnt sign in as we had just upgraded our FireFox browser to the latest version. I emailed Kiqlo and within an hour the problem had been fixed and I was up and running. Rosario Iannela the creator, owner and developer of Kiqlo is fully commited to his project, and similar helpful experiences are documented in the companies forums which is always encouraging to see.

If you are looking for a way to raise money for your band, selling digital assets from your band is a great way to offer your fans a low cost investment into your brand, and using Kiqlo to sell these items directly from your web pages and social networks is a no brainer.

Head over to http://www.kiqlo.com to sign up for your free account and start building your digital asset shop today!

Taylor Bright Takes US Teen Pop To Japan, And Starts Fall Campaign On XLTrax Radio

Philadelphia's latest teen pop rock sensation Taylor J Bright relaunched her Japanese website to support the ongoing promotion of her current iTunes hit single 'Striped Socks'.

Taylor is a songwriter, singer and actress who began her career on the stage. She has numerous professional theater credits including the 30th Anniversary National Tour of the Broadway hit Annie, Annie Warbucks, Carousel and 13 The Musical. Taylor has also appeared in several commercials and print advetising campaigns.

Taylor's music is well suited to the Japanese market, with a major part of the Japanese domestic music audience consisting of teenage demographics, this audience is also very technologically aware, and with Taylor's new Japanese web and mobile prescence Japanese fans will be able to visit her site, preview tracks and purchase MP3's directly from their mobile handsets, by far the most popular method of consuming digital music in Japan.

Taylor is making headway with her music career on an independent basis, an unusual story of success in a market dominated by major recording contracts and long standing teen brands like Disney, but her music stands up against her peers, and would fit easily into the iPod playlists of fans of Miley Cyrus, The Jonas Brothers and other similar pop rock glitterati.

With producer Kenny Lamb ('N Sync, Building 429) and engineer Chris Rowe (Taylor Swift, Jewel) on board her team, the forthcoming debut CD thats in production right now is sure to make an impression upon its release.

Taylor is about to start her fall radio campaign for 'Striped Socks' with MyMusicSuccess partner and leading online radio network Xltrax. She is currently in the studio recording an exclusive interview with the station, and you'll be able to hear the interview, alongside Taylors hit single, playing out wordlwide on the XlTrax network over the next few months.

To get your copy of Taylor Bright's new single 'Striped Socks' and see her brand new video check out the following websites.

http://taylorbright.musicsugoi.jp
http://www.taylorbright.com/
http://www.myspace.com/taylorjbright

Marketing Your Music – Why Pay As You Go Music Promotion Makes Sense For Independent Artists And Labels…

One of the biggest challenges for independent artists is getting their music marketed effectively on ever tightening budgets.

If you’re an independent artist without a record company helping you market your music, you have to ask yourself “what can I achieve on my own, and where are my skill gaps where I need some assistance to get the word out?”

Some of the biggest mistakes that many artists make when they have completed their latest musical masterpiece is to try to target a mass market by throwing out twitter shouts, emails and anything they can lay there hands on to whoever might listen.

Whilst this might initially get eyes on your site, nearly 80% of your effort will be wasted on targeting people who have no interest in your music. It’s not going to grow your audience, its definitely not going to increase sales or downloads and will leave you frustrated with your results.

It’s not enough to put up a widget on your website with a buy button and hope people will come by and purchase your track. It’s a proven fact that it will take 6 exposures to a given product before someone will even consider reaching for their credit card and buying something - your music is no different.

Think about it. listeners to your music will have needed to have heard of your music at least 6 times before from trusted sources, whether they’ve seen it in the music news, read a review, heard it on an online radio station, seen an ad, or perhaps had it recommended by a friend.

You need to treat your music in the same way as any other business treats the product they wish to sell. And that means researching who your target market is, where they hang out, what they read, what and who they respect. That’s specialist knowledge that you definitely need help with.

Of course when record companies were doing all of this work for artists, they hired in a PR and Promotion agency to make sense of the marketing of the artist’s music, and deducted the costs from the artists advance.

As we all know that model is no longer viable for most unsigned independent artists. Hiring in a PR or Promotion agency that uses the retainer fee business model is not within the reach of independent artists that need to pay for their promotion themselves.

This is why MyMusicSuccess runs on the Pay As You Go promotion business model.

We saw that a lot of independent bands could not access good PR without being asked to pay thousands up front with little real promise in return.

We’ve changed the whole ethos and thinking on how PR and Promotion should be delivered for unsigned independent artists and labels.

We see ourselves as part of the artists' team, however we believe that the artist should only pay for the work they need doing , not a retainer. So we're only here when you need the services delivered, and with Pay As You Go PR & Promotion, you buy only the services you need when you need them. It's becoming a very cost effective way of working in the current economy and is getting amazing results for our artists.

Hire in the right help to market your music, treat your music as a business and the customers will come your way.

6 Years On: The State Of Music Digital Distribution

Over the last few months we’ve been helping a number of our artists streamline their digital distribution strategies to help maximise their income from the sale of their MP3 downloads. It’s been an educational experience, and we’re coming out the other end with an interesting overview of the digital distribution landscape.

In the last 5-6 years we’ve seen music aggregation platforms and digital distribution expand in an extremely fast way, and musicians have an incredibly vast array of options to sell their music online.

As we’ve said many times on this blog, in the current music marketplace YOU are the record company, which means treating your music as a business, and choosing the right business partners to suit your style of working.

Back in the early days of digital distribution, there weren’t many choices if you wanted to sell music online via the large download stores. CDBaby were one of the first operators to deliver your tracks to iTunes and Amazon and increased their reach to many other stores over time. Tunecore also led the way in the early days with a quick and easy way to get your music into a similar playlist of online shops.

Now every music site and their proverbial dog are delivering to iTunes, Amazon and many more stores besides. Social media platform Watunes even delivers your tracks to the iTunes store for free, so how do you decide where to place your valuable catalogue of music?

One of the key questions you need to ask yourself before jumping into the first digital distribution partner agreement you come across is:

Who is the right partner to sell my music on behalf of my music business?

For new artists that are just starting out, you’ll have the luxury of surveying and testing out all the distribution services out there, both old and new.

For artists that started delivering their music to digital stores a few years ago you may be looking to streamline your distribution instead of having a large array of services delivering small amounts to you each month and taking their separate fees from this.

In our recent project streamlining the music inventory of one of our artists, we found out an awful lot about the current state of digital music aggregators, and the biggest issues we experienced with many of the companies involved was simply down to the way they deal with their customers.

During the project we encountered some surprising experiences with the various digital delivery services customer service departments, yours may be different of course, but for the benefit of those musicians that are looking to streamline their catalogue delivery we though we’d share our experiences with you.

We were given a brief by our client that they wanted to deliver all of their music to iTunes, Amazon and the other download stores through one cost effective source, as they were fed up receiving reports from several different companies each month, and also having to spend several separate fees to put up their album with each company when they released a new single or album.

The client had been making music for just over 5 years and over that time had delivered their music to download stores through CDBaby, TuneCore, and European distributors FEIYR.Com

We looked at the amount of money the client was spending to deliver their music to all of these services. CDBaby was still charging $35 per album, although this does get your CD on their store if you have a physical release, (albeit at a manufacturing and shipping cost to yourself), Tunecore were charging $19.95 per album per year for digital delivery, and FEIYR although a specialist dance distributor was costing around $20 per release if you chose all their stores.

We’ve been finding out a lot about the new digital delivery model at Watunes.Com who deliver tracks to the iTunes store for free. Their VIP service charges just $29.95 per year and covers all releases in that year, plus we received answers to our questions the same day when we contacted them.

So we chose Watunes as the sole provider for our client’s music, as we also had some advance information given to us about the imminent release of their social music platform with some groundbreaking new services for independent artists that will enable them to make some real cash from their music.

When we looked at the client’s portfolio on iTunes, it was evident that there were 3 to 4 different versions of each of their releases all at different prices in the iTunes store because of the different delivery platforms they were using. It’s confusing to the customer and makes the store look unprofessional so we set about putting that straight.

The first port of call was to get takedowns carried out at the client’s current distribution channels in order for us to then channel all their releases through Watunes.

Takedowns are basically requests to an aggregator asking them to stop selling your music at a particular store, and doing this really showed the poor level of customer care given by some of the more established digital distributors.

We first contacted CDBaby and asked for our clients releases to be pulled from all the digital stores. We got a response that asked us to confirm this, which we did, and… nothing. So we contacted them again…. Nothing... We are still waiting for communication from them, and by the looks of their forums and twitter pages so are many others.

It appears that CDBaby have now finally taken down after many weeks the requested tracks, but since that first email they haven’t responded to either our client or us, and our client continues to get no response from their helpline or email on this and other accounting issues. Not a recipe for success after their recent takeover by Discmakers.

Next stop Tunecore, once again contacting them proved very difficult. Once we did get a response, they did eventually remove the tracks, but it took a while for them to engage in communication with us. Why is it so difficult to look after your customers and afford them a timely response…

Lastly we contacted FEIYR.Com the German based dance distributor, who responded quickly, but stated that to remove tracks from their stores would cost 29.99 Euros per release. With 10 releases our client would have to pay nearly 300 Euros to have their tracks removed.

This indeed was stated in the terms and conditions small print of FEIYR.Com when our client signed up so there was little we could do to avoid the charges, but this really does drive home the message that you need to read the terms and conditions of your contracts with your digital distributor carefully. Don’t just click I AGREE, read the terms and conditions fully. It will save you money in the long term

We asked Watunes what would happen if in the future we decided to pull our tracks from the online stores. Their CEO Kevin Rivers replied within hours to our email saying that they don’t charge for takedowns, and if artists wished to move from Watunes in the future, they can only wish them good luck and make sure they attend to their request as soon as possible.

They also advised us that Apple take their artist down within 3 days if they receive a takedown request. All the other distributors told us it would take us at least a month for takedowns.

Watunes delivered our clients tracks very quickly and smoothly to the iTunes, Amazon and other download stores, and when we asked them to update a tricky publishing credit directly with iTunes, they responded to us within hours and had the change implemented within a few days. Our client was very happy with their customer service, and it seems we have connected them to a business partner that is committed to serving customers well.

All in all the experience left us wondering why companies such as CDBaby and Tunecore, that have built up a reputation as the leaders in their field pay such little respect to their customers, and in many cases just ignore them completely. Reading through various forums and twitter feeds (including the companies official forums and blogs) showed an enormous amount of other musicians experiencing the same frustrations.

In the current economic climate the only successful way to build your business is to engage with customers and look after them. Maybe its arrogance, maybe it’s just ever tightening margins. We think it’s just the personality of the company as a whole.

So what did we learn from our experiences that would offer good advice to artists looking for the best deal for distributing there music in the new digital music market?

Before joining a digital aggregator, make sure you do your homework and research the company well. Read as many experiences from other users as you can, ask other musicians their experiences, and check out what others are saying about the company on Twitter and other social networks.

Above all read the terms and conditions very carefully, and before you place your valuable music assets with a distributor, build up a relationship with them, get to know the company values and ethos.

Drop the CEO a line to see if they respond, speak to the staff via email or phone and see how they treat you. You should expect a full response to any questions you have within 24 hours, that’s not just courteous, its good business practice.

Really take some time to grill your business partner thoroughly about possible charges and get to know the company before you decide to go into partnership with them.

Choose your digital distribution business partner well, and you’ll enjoy a long and fruitful relationship with them for many years to come…

Jazz Diva Dena Taylor - Determined Vocalist Produces Masterpiece In The Face Of Adversity

Dena Taylor: Round Midnight CD Review

Jazz, Texas, USA

Artist Homepage: Reverbnation MySpace Facebook
Artist Downloads: iTunes Amazon CDBaby
Sounds Like: Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holliday, Cole Porter

Review by: Tara Isabella Burton - MyMusicSuccess.Com

Smoky, sexy, soft - the velvety voice of Dena Taylor dominates not just a corner of the room but indeed the entire wall of sound created by the "on" button of the stereo.

The jazz-tinged piano-ballads featured on Round Midnight, a selection from Taylor's latest album, combine a retro melancholy reminiscent of Ella Fitzgerald or Billie Holliday with a self-knowing wink and a nod - in all the tracks, particularly "Let's Face the Music and Dance"

it is clear that Taylor combines the power and passion of her deeper melodies - such as "Round Midnight," arguably the sample's best song - with a hip, even modern take on a classic Cole-Porter sound: the happening drumbeat of "Let's Face the Music..." or the slight world-music-sound of "That Old Black Magic" are but two examples of the edge that Taylor brings to the "standard" sound.

But it is Taylor's voice that dominates the sound most. A gorgeous, rich mahogany voice, it is showcased prominently on the album - perhaps too much so, the production can times can feel excessively focused on the vocals, which echo just a nanosecond longer than they need to - and with good reason. Taylor's talent is the real deal - an instrument as powerful as a jazz piano or saxophone in evoking the mournful yet sassy strains of jazz and blues so central to Round Midnight.

Taylor's road to success has been hard-won, even inspirational. After a difficult and traumatic childhood, Taylor spent twelve years abroad in the military, combining her years of service with a series of low-profile concert and event gigs, ultimately choosing marriage over her first record contract - a choice Taylor would later discover led to an unhappy marriage and an unfair postponement of her dreams. Upon leaving the military, Taylor found herself in a tragic car accident that left her with severe brain damage - it took her a full two years for Taylor to regain her powers of speech and motion.

Today, Taylor is following her dream by giving "voices to the voiceless" - a power she was once herself denied and lends her personal support to a number of good causes that support others who have endured adversity.

It is a testament to Taylor's talent, however, that her sound never seems "preachy." Rather, the adversity Taylor has faced lends her voice a hard, knowing edge - like that of a Gladys Knight at her prime- that gives her music a ripened maturity so many pop stars lack.

That she is able to combine this maturity with the infectious and youthful rhythm of songs like "That Old Black Magic" is further proof of her skill as both a performer and a musician.

Kandystand Hit The West Coast Dance Chart Ahead Of Shakira!

MyMusicSuccess artist Kandystand this week starts their ascent on the US West Coast Dance Chart with their latest single 'OYH - Open Your Heart'.

With great club support since its release in July 2009, the single has started at #46 on the US Soundworks DJ chart ahead of Shakira.

Open Your Heart is an electro tinged remix of the 80's Madonna classic, and is also receiving airplay in the US, Europe, and Australia. It is also featured on the Xltrax Radio network through the MyMusicSuccess XLRadioPromotion service.

Kandystand - OYH (Open Your Heart) is available for download at all online digital retailers or get your copy here

Soundworks Pool Top 50 Chart
compiled 5 August 2009

TC LC WoC
1 1 15 Katy Perry * Waking Up In Vegas * Capitol
2 3 15 Pussycat Dolls * Hush Hush, Hush Hush Remix * Interscope
3 2 21 David Guetta ft. Kelly Roland * When Love Takes Over *
Astralwerks
4 6 19 Livvi Franc * Now I'm That Bitch * Jive
5 4 27 Lady Gaga * Love Game Dave Aude Remix * Interscope
6 10 15 Chrisette Michele * Epiphany (I'm Leaving) * Def Jam
7 9 17 Lionel Richie * Just Go * Def Jam
8 26 10 Pink * Funhouse * LaFace
9 8 19 U2 * Magnificent Remixes * Island
10 13 17 Kaci Battaglia * Crazy Possessive Remixes * Curb
11 5 15 Jessica Jarrell * Armageddon * Mercury
12 33 10 Beyonce * Sweetdreams Remix * Columbia
13 7 21 Black Eyed Peas * Boom Boom Pow * Interscope
14 28 10 Ida Corr * Ride My Tempo Remix * Ultra
15 16 15 Lasgo * Gone * Robbins
16 25 15 Miami Starfish ft. Jermaine Stewart * Clothes Off! *
Groove Factory
17 36 10 La Roux * Bulletproof * Cherry Tree
18 14 19 Sharam ft. Kid Cudi * She Came Along * Ultra
19 24 10 Bill Bennett ft. Abigail * Forever Young * Big Rhythm
Studios
20 41 10 Naturi Naughton * Fame 09 * Lakeshore
21 15 29 Deborah Cox * Beautiful U R Remixes * Deco
22 23 19 Flo Rida * Sugar Disco Fries Remix * Atlantic
23 11 29 Gathania * Blame It On You Remix * Hard2Beat
24 29 15 Kristinia DeBarge * Goodbye * Island
25 32 10 Pet Shop Boys * Did You See Me * EMI
26 12 27 Depeche Mode * Wrong Remixes * Mute
27 27 17 Barton * Valentine * Netspheres
28 17 27 Pitbull * I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho) * Ultra
29 30 15 Freemasons ft. Sophie Ellis-Bextor * Heartbreak (Make Me
A Dancer) * Freemasons Music
30 31 17 Simply Red * Money's Too Tight To Mention '09 * Simplyred
Music
31 21 15 Perry Twins ft. Niki harris * Bad, Bad Boys * Perry TWin
Music
32 35 10 Whitney Houston * I Didn't Know My Own Strength Remix *
Arista
33 34 10 Bananarama * Love Comes * Fascination
34 NEW Cascada * Evacuate The Dancefloor * Robbins
35 22 17 Wynonna * Sing Remixes * Curb
36 40 10 Marcie ft. Mike Rizzo * Midnight * EsNtion
37 43 15 LaKisha Jones * Let's Go Celebrate * Elite
38 39 15 Mike Bordes ft. Angela S. * Don't Know What U Got * CDM
39 44 10 Raygun * Just Because * RCA
40 NEW Tiga * Beep Beep * DFA
41 NEW Alyson * Sticky Sticky * PM Media
42 50 10 Fedde Le Grand & Funkerman * Scared Of Me * Ultra
43 NEW Richard Vission & Static Revengers ft. Luciana * I LIke
That '09 * Meterhead
44 38 15 Ameerah * The Sound Of Missing You * Robbins
45 49 10 Noisettes * Don't Upset The Rhythm * Universal
46 NEW Kandystand * Open Your Heart * Team Hayward
47 NEW Shakira * She Wolf * Sony
48 NEW Sean Ensign * Fly Away * Titan Sounds
49 NEW DJG Project * If I Could Be You * Amathus Music
50 NEW Jenn Cuneta * I Want That Man * Bill Friar Ent
PICKS:
Anjulie * Love Songs * Concord
Madonna * Celebration * Warner Bros
Mariah Carey * Obsessed Remixes * Def Jam
Various * Ride With Me * Hartecast Music
Vanessa Williams * The Real Thing * Concord

3 Steps To Making Guaranteed Music Sales On iTunes Using Twitter.

Post by Simon Adams: MyMusicSuccess.Com

So you have delivered your track to the iTunes stores, and your music is on their virtual shelves. Are you happy with the revenue you are generating from your downloads? Want to know how to guarantee sales of your track atiTunes using just Twitter as a lead generation source? Then read on…

Putting your track into the iTunes store through an aggregator merely makes it available for sale. That is very different from ‘selling’ your track. In one of my previous articles I give some good advice that you have to treat your band as a ‘start up’ business to make sure that it generates some money to support your musical activities. Whether you like it or not, if you want to make money out of music, you’ll have to start developing a sales strategy for your music at some point.

There are three steps to successfully selling your music to music fans who actually want to buy your music from iTunes.

1) Identify a person who regularly buys tracks from the iTunes store

It’s no good asking someone to buy your track from iTunes if they are not in the habit of buying music, or if they don’t use the iTunes store. So the first thing we need to do is find lots of people who actually use the iTunes platform to discover and more importantly regularly purchase music there.

There is a really simple way of doing this, using a very clever keyword search on Twitter.

Go to http://search.twitter.com and type in any or all of the following phrases:

Bought from iTunes
Bought on iTunes
Purchased from iTunes
Purchased on iTunes
Downloaded from iTunes

With any of these searches you will immediately see a whole list of people who regularly buy their tracks from iTunes; they actually put their hand in their pocket and buy the music. They are not interested in going onto file sharing networks or trawling the web for a free MP3, these are people who buy their music from a legitimate download store…


2) Identify the buyer’s musical taste

At this point whatever you do, don’t just follow everyone who buys from the iTunes store, you’ll waste both your and their time and effort; you need to hone down which of these people will be interested in buying YOUR music.

OK, so now we have identified someone who is committed to buying music, now we need to find out whether our style of music would be something they’d be interested in buying too.

Read each of the posts that you find using the twitter search; most of the tweets will mention the band name in the tweet






Now go off to your favourite search engines and search for the artist they purchased. In the case of our example tweet, searching for Erika David on Google brings up herMySpace page where she is described as R&B / Soul / Pop.

Does your music fit that genre? It does? Then it is very highly likely that djstephie, is going to listen to your music, and buy it from iTunes too if she likes it...


3) Build a relationship with your buyer; get them as a long term fan

OK so now we have identified the ideal person who is most likely to buy your music, and we have identified that they buy their music from the very place you have your music for sale. Now we must build a relationship with that person, don’t ask for the sale right away.

Follow the person on Twitter, drop them a message, ask them about what they do, engage in a chat with them about your music genre. Mention you are producing music in a similar style to what they are currently listening to. They are guaranteed to ask you for a link to your music, and when they do, give them the direct link to your iTunes store.

Repeat the process on each tweet you identify as a match to your music.

Congratulations, you are now officially the top music salesperson in your very own music company!

As you can see from the above steps, you’ll make more sales every day from your music by being efficient and working smarter only on potential fans that are likely to be interested in purchasing your music. These are your ideal fans and if you nurture them, they’ll buy everything you release on iTunes and champion your music to others too.

You can also use the same method for other download stores, try searching twitter for this phrase too and use the same 3 steps:

bought from amazon mp3

If you want to automate the search for potential buyers of your music, use the free Tweetlater service from http://www.tweetlater.com. This web application allows you to enter phrases to look for on twitter such as the ones I mention in step 1, and it will send you an email digest on a regular basis of the tweets it has found matching these phrases.

However all that will do is identify your ideal music buyer, you must invest the time in steps 2 and 3 to make it personal, and when you do that, you really leverage the power of direct contact to ‘close the deal’ and secure a lifelong fan.

MyMusicSuccess becomes the #1 Music Professional at RandRWorld.Com

MyMusicSuccess is proud to announce that it is the #1 professional on the popular music social network RandRWorld.Com

Thanks to the artists who rated our services we are now the most highly ranked professional music service provider on the network.

With more artists linking up with us every day we're continuing to grow, and help more independent artists worldwide spread the word about their music.

In addition to getting involved in helping up and coming new artists promote themselves, whether its online, on the radio or to the music industry, MyMusicSuccess is also placing regular educational blog postings into the network as an informative guide to the new music business.

Join our network at http://www.randrworld.com/mymusicsuccess

Getting paid for your gigs just became easier and safer with Gigpay.Com

Everyone who has ever played a live circuit of any kind has probably encountered the odd promoter that never pays up after the performance.

One of the main focuses in running a band as a going concern is that although you can have great fun getting out onstage and performing, if you are serious about keeping the band on the road and putting petrol in the tour van ( is everyone still using the ubiquitous transit van?) then you have to make sure you get paid.

If you've had a situation where promoters are wary of paying you as a new band upfront, and you're not sure if the venue will pay up after the gig, check out a great new financial service that solves this very problem.

GigPay.Com is a brand new service based in the UK, but available to many countries worldwide. and operates in six currencies, including the Japanese Yen. They offer bands and promoters a secure online 'escrow' style service to safeguard both parties.

For those who are not familiar with the term escrow, basically it is a term for a neutral third party holding money for two parties in the period whilst a deal or transaction is being made.

So in the case of GigPay.Com when you get booked for a gig, the promoter can lodge a payment with GigPay, safe in the knowledge that if you dont keep your side of the deal and show up he gets his money back. When you do show up and play that killer gig are guaranteed to get paid by GigPay after delivery. GigPay release all funds when both parties agree that the services have been delivered.

Agreeing with a promoter to use the Gigpay system takes any financial mistrust out of the equation and shows that the promoter is fully committed to working with you, and also displays a professional image from the band, showing that they are treating themselves as a serious music business. It's also more secure than locking your hundred dollar gig fee in the glove compartment, only to find your van broken into after the event and the nights spoils have disappeared

Having a GigPay account also gives you an online financial record of all your live work, so you'll spend less time trying to work out how much you actually made from your gigs, its all accounted for in one place in neat and tidy transactions.

Another useful service provided by GigPay is live performance contracts. You can avoid expensive legal costs and use their service to obtain agreements that cover items such as performer/hirer event insurance, sound systems and lighting, event merchandising, liability and much more.

It's always important to address these issues before you agree to a gig, so you don't end up with the venue suing you if your bass player's guitar strap breaks mid set and ends up bouncing onto the in house engineers mixing desk, taking a few channel strips with it (odd as it may seem I've actually seen that happen..)

GigPay are charging just $1.40 on a per contract fee (yes one dollar forty cents) and even if you have a legal representative already, you could save some money and time by using GigPay's standard contracts as a starting basis for a custom contract with a music lawyer.

It's free to sign up to the GigPay service, so you can sign up for an account, have a look around the service without any commitment and get a feel for their services.

Gigpay's fee structure is also very reasonable, starting at around 4% on transactions up to £200 GBP to just around 0.6% if you are in a slightly larger league and getting paid £45,000 GBP per gig. Given you are getting cost effective contract advice, increasing the security of your payments, and effectively getting online accounting for your live work this seems a pretty good deal. their fee structure is transparently documented on their website so there really are no hidden surprises with this company.

Importantly it also means as a 'pay as you go' service it fits in perfectly with the business model of your 'micro music business'; you only pay for services when you get paid. A perfect service to ensure you actually make a profit on your musical endeavors.

If you are on the road at any level, from a 20 buck deal in your local bar to a well paid festival headline, I'd recommend you take a look at the GigPay service to safeguard and streamline your revenue stream from live performances.

Check out full details at their website http://www.gigpay.com.

Keep your CD production costs low with the new Watunes Amazon CD On Demand Service & Amazon MP3

We received news today from online digital aggregator Watunes that they have just partnered with Amazon to provide CD on Demand for artists using their service.

The service provides an excellent opportunity for artists to sell physical CDs through Amazon directly to the public, without any upfront pressing costs. Only when the customer buys the product is the CD produced and shipped directly to the customer, removing the need for artists to invest in CD stock themselves.

Customers who are using the Watunes free digital distribution service will be able to access the CD on Demand for a one time $10 sign up fee per album, but Watunes VIP members will be able to access the service for free. Seeing how it only costs thirty dollars a year to sign up to the VIP service, if you are expecting to deliver three releases or more to online stores it would probably make sense to join the VIP program.

By using the CD on Demand service, you'll also have your releases placed into the Amazon MP3 store, so you'll have a complete prescence to millions of Amazon customers instantly. Finally the Watunes / Amazon link up will offer free proof copies of your CD on Demand forever, which also helps artists lower the cost of entry into CD manafacture.

So why even bother with physical CD when download sales are booming?

Well quite a lot of people still actually like to own the product they are buying. You can create your own cover art with Watunes CD on Demand, so there is an opportunity to add value if you can offer superb cover art on your product. Also as you have little or no cost of entry into this service, it makes sense to maximise the income streams from every source, let the customers decide how they want to buy your music, CD or download - now your customers can have a choice.

Many artists are currently using CD companies like CDBaby to deliver physical stock to customers, and whilst there is no doubt that over the last 5 to 6 years CDBaby has been a market leader in independent CD distribution, their service is looking a little out of date. At $35 per album, thats a big chunk of money for the average independent artist, and it can take sometime to recoup that investment for small bands.

Whilst you can use their discmakers service to produce stock for the CDBaby store, you still have to pay upfront to press the stock. As a micro business it just doesnt make sense for most independent artists to invest upfront. Businesses big or small all work on the basis of keeping costs low and profits high, and as an independent artist, that should be your priority too to make sure you actually make some money from your music at the end of the day.

I know artists who have invested hundreds of dollars in pressing up a few hundred CDs and still have stock sitting in their basement. It's money that could be in their pocket right now, especially in the current economic climate.

The Watunes CD On Demand service pays you 40% of each CD sold, and that may seem a huge chunk that is paid for using the service, but looking at the reality, if you had to press the CD upfront you may save some money in the long term, but it's your cash at risk if the CD doesnt sell. It's economies of scale, individual CDs cost more to print up per unit than 1000, however if you think of it this way, if you sell no CDs theres no loss to be incurred, if you do sell a CD, you get 40% of a sale you would have otherwise never made. Really it's a no brainer, and in the long run will bring a better return than investing in stock.

If you want to put out physical CDs of your music with no investment or upfront fees, I can't think of a better risk free method than using this new service from Watunes.

Visit their website at http://www.watunes.com for more information.

Independent Artists - The New Music Business - Its Your Business

As the new world of independent music progresses, artists are quickly realising operating on their own without the support of a record company means that they are having to learn, implement, or hire in a whole range of new specialist skills to get their music off the starting block.

Releasing a track, whether it’s on your own website or through a digital distributor is very easy now, but can also be fraught with pitfalls if you haven’t approached it from a business perspective.

My first advice to any artist who wants to succeed on their own is treat your music as your own start up business from the word go, and operate everything as your own music production company. If you want to sustain a long term independent career in music, this is the single most important piece of advice you will ever read.

When record labels sign a track, they will generally deal with things like registering your track with royalty collection agencies, clearing samples you may have used in your track, tracking down publishers to make sure any cover versions are attributed to the right songwriter, prepare marketing for the track, getting press and publicity, and promoting it to radio and DJs to name just a few things.

Artist now have the power to bypass the record label and release tracks themselves, however the one thing that is absolutely critical to your success as an indie is also having the knowledge of the business areas of the music industry in some depth so you can avoid legal pitfalls.

The repercussions of putting out a track with an un-cleared sample, or not registering the publisher of a cover song, even for promotional purposes, and yes, even on your MySpace page, could wipe out your track for good. Rights owners and record labels will and do go after independent labels and regularly ask sites like iTunes, MySpace and YouTube to take down copyright infringements, and not only are you fighting a battle, you may also be sued for the infringement you have already carried out, and no they won’t take ignorance as a defence. As it’s your business the risk sits wholly with you, no one else.

Personally I don’t think that it’s a productive tactic for the rights owners, they could certainly do better by offering partnerships with talented independent artists that use their material, instead of going straight for litigation but that’s a whole other article in itself…

To support your music, educate yourself on the areas of the music business you feel you are weakest in, whether it’s legal, financial, or marketing, and make sure you get good advice and partnerships for your new ‘record business’.

If there is something that no matter how many books and articles you read on the subject you still find baffling or downright boring, then outsource it. Yes it will cost you money to pay someone to do it for you, but the investment will pay off in the long term, and you’ll get better results by contracting someone in who is passionate about their specialist skills. In the world of virtual working, you can also choose your supplier carefully to get the most cost effective partner.

By taking on board that by releasing your music independently you are in fact starting a business, you’ll set yourself a firm footing for it’s success, and by taking the decision to fully commit to treating your music as a professional product, you’ll find that making it a success will be a much more painless and easier process.

Onyero Spices Up The Dance Floor With His New Blend Of RnB and Dance

Onyero

Dance / Hip Hop / RnB, London, England, Europe

Artist Homepage: http://www.onyero-online.com
Onyero In Japan: http://onyero.musicsugoi.jp
Social Networks: Facebook Myspace Reverbnation

Artist Downloads: iTunes eMusic Shockhound Amazon
Review by: Oliver Springate: MyMusicSuccess.Com

An artist who claims to specialize in dance, RnB and hip hop must have a lot of practicing to do, but none quite so much as Onyero, who combines those genres with his influences from the Far East, Asia, Africa and South America. This talented artist quite literally blends music from all corners of the globe.

The way his songs sound, and his unusual voice, make Onyero sounds similar to French rapper Mc Solaar, but once you listen to his songs you’ll see that there is as much to separate them as there is connecting them. Onyero’s sound really is unique, and that’s become a bit of a cliché in music, but in this case it’s true.

His first single has just been released, and true to form, Onyero has produced a track that is hip hop, sounds RnB, and has a Latin style beat. Sounds a strange combination, but the song is becoming a real hit. It’s had great critical reviews, and is becoming really popular across Europe. And it’s no wonder it’s doing well. Despite Onyero being an upcoming and relatively unknown artist, he worked on the single with former Sony producer Paul Sapiera.

The single goes by the name ‘Your Porno Star’. Not the best thing to buy for your grandmother this Christmas, but the stand-out title has almost certainly been partly responsible for helping this song get heard. It’s been released in three versions, the original mix, the dance mix, and the funky house mix. It’s fair to say that the remixes aren’t quite up to the standard of the original mix, but that’s no bad thing, as Your Porno Star is a really catchy song.

It’s one of those tunes you think is alright first time you hear it, and it grows on you, sounding better each time. I expect that for Onyero, it’s a taste of things to come.

On the stage, his audiences say that he really comes alive, bringing his music to the crowd with an energetic display of his unique style. With more and more revenue in music coming from live shows, this skill will be invaluable for this upcoming performer.

If you like RnB, hip hop or dance music, Onyero is definitely one to watch. If you haven’t heard Your Porno Star before, brace yourself for the explicit lyrics, and get yourself a copy.

Japan Music Market News: International Repetoire 20% of domestic product, downloads up 20%

Figures released yesterday by the RIAJ (Recording Industry Association Of Japan) shows that the international CD albums form 20% of the japanese music market. Link: http://www.riaj.or.jp/e/data/monthly/2009/200906.html

Although the total overall sales of physical product is declining, a trend across the music industry worldwide, it is encouraging to see that year on year music downloads are up 20% in the Japanese market. The biggest market for downloads in Japan is through mobile handsets. Link: http://www.riaj.or.jp/e/data/download/2009.html

If you are looking to access the Japanese music market with your international release, visit our Japan Music Promotion Services page at http://www.musicsugoi.jp

MyMusicSuccess Becomes An Official Mi2N Industry Newswire

MyMusicSuccess.Com today became an official newswire of leading music industry press agency Mi2N.com

The announcement forges a strong music press & publicity partnership between the two sites, enabling MyMusicSuccess clients to expand the reach of their news stories to more media outlets through the extensive worldwide coverage of Mi2N media partners , as well as bringing up to the minute breaking news on all the latest music industry developments including band news, latest releases, music technology updates, radio and video news, music business announcements, and much more to the MyMusicSuccess.Com network.

Mi2N (Music Industry News Network) is the largest online daily newswire serving the music industry. Since 1998, Mi2N has kept professionals worlwide informed on the latest developments shaping their sector by covering nearly every facet of the industry, from new business models and technological innovations to up-&-coming artists and emerging trends. Simulatneously, it has become a leading PR resource for major and independent music companies around the world

MyMusicSuccess.Com co-founder Simon Adams said today "This is a great partnership, and we are proud to be linking up with the Music PR industry leader, Mi2N CEO Eric de Fontenay and his team really know how to work the PR circuit for independent artists, and the newswire is going to add immense value to the artists who use our promotional services."

You can keep up to date with all the latest breaking music industry news at http://mymusicsuccess.mi2n.com/. Dont forget to subscribe to the RSS feeds, and you'll never miss a music industry announcement again.

Star in the next music video from Kandystand at their newly launched VIP Experiences Store.

The Kandystand VIP Experiences Store Is Open! Book Your Place To Star In their Next Music Video at their website.

Celebrating 5 years producing the hottest dance music, Kandystand are now offering our fans the opportunity to book a place to star in the next music video for Open Your Heart at the Kandystand VIP Experiences store.

The video is to be shot in Paris, France. They have also put together some very special box sets and limited edition packs of their music, these are strictly on a first come first served basis, there will never be any produced again so once they are gone they are gone!

Also at midnight BST (UK Time) 20th July 2009 the latest Kandystand single OYH (Open Your Heart) will be released on Junodownload.com marking the band's 7th release over 5 years. Check out the Juno site to get your copy of this hot hot single...

Alan Lauris 'Second Life' Remix by DJ Alodis

Recently reviewed artist Alan Lauris teamed up recently with leading dance music producer DJ Alodis to put a new spin on his new single 'Second Life'.

DJ Alodis has produced an electro dance mix of the singer / songwriters original track, taken from his album 'Different Frequency'.

Alan has made this track the free download of the month for July, so if you feel like shaking your booty to this you still have a few days to head on over to alanlauris.com and grab your free copy...

Get Free Music Review Content On Your Website From MyMusicSuccess.Com

If you are looking for great new free independent music review content for your website or blog, it's now available in the form of a brand new 'Artist Review' widget from MyMusicSuccess.Com.

By copying and pasting the widget code on your site, you'll receive fresh content automatically from top review writers, who cover the latest and best bands in Pop, Rock, Country, Dance, Jazz, and many more genres.

Every time a new artist review appears on the MyMusicSuccess site the widget will be updated automatically on every site it appears on out on the internet, and users will be able to simply click on the artist's picture to be taken to the MyMusicSuccess artist feature, where the viewer will be able to read about the music and click through to digital download stores to buy the tracks.

Artists are rotated randomly in the main window, with every artist featured in the Thumbnail bar, so users can scroll through all artists and view more.

Look out for the MyMusicSuccess featured artist widget coming to a music site near you soon!

The Common Denominator Of Success

In a great essay by E.M. Gray titled "The Common Denominator Of Success", he contends that one common denominator of all succesful people is not hard work, good luck, or great communications skills, though those are all important.

The one habit that transcends all others is discipline.

Successful people do what the average person doesn't like to do. They probably dont like to do these tasks either, but their purpose and goals drive them on. They exercise their most valuable muscle called discipline.

Gary Player, one of golf's greatest atheletes, is a great role model for the discipline necessary to build resilience and achieve musical success..

Once when being interviewed, Player said, "Throughout my career, people have said to me, 'I'd give anything to hit a golf ball like you'". Gary, who has always been known for being polite and dignified, said that on one particularly tough day, his politeness failed him when a spectator repeated that statement. Gary said he lost his cool and responded, "No you wouldn't! You would love to hit a golf ball like me if it was easy! Do you know what you have to go through to hit a golf ball the way I do? You've got to get up every morning at five o'clock, go out to the range, and hit 1,000 balls. Your hands start bleeding; then you walk back to the clubhouse, wash the blood off, slap on bandages, and then go out and hit another 1000 balls. That's what it takes to hit a golf ball the way I do."

Gary player was resilient enough to endure hardship day after day, because his courage and discipline formed an attitude that would not quit.

Maxmus: Nu Jazz Project Brings Artists Together From Across The Globe

Max Makin : Maxmus

Nu Jazz / Instrumental Luzern, Switzerland, Europe

Artist Homepage: http://www.maxmus.ch Reverbnation
Artist Downloads:iTunes

Sounds Like: Elektrotwist, St. Germain,

Review by: Tara Isabella Burton - MyMusicSuccess.Com

Guitars echo, the sound growing and vanishing much like ripples in a pond. Drums hint at their presence in the background. Shrieks, whispers, and scratching disks all appear and then disappear.

The soundscapes created by Maxmus, the Luzern-based collective music group headed by guitarist Max Makin are extraordinary in the way they manage to combine ambient sound - the sort of chill-out music you might hear in a particularly trendy Parisian lounge bar - with a slightly eerie, even otherwordly vibe and even a bit of straightforward, accomplished jazz.

Maxmus's instrumentals are multi-layered, complex, but at the same time utterly listenable; this is not the screeching and crackling of Aphex Twin or other similar electronic bands. Rather, Maxmus's music is more akin to the work of Elektrotwist and the classic St. Germain, two European bands that manage to combine instrumental electronica with a classic Paris-jazz sound.

Of the songs sampled in the review, "Hexagon" is by far the more accessible. Featuring the wailing of a tenor saxophone, played by David Angel, "Hexagon" wordlessly evokes 1920 synthesized into 2010 - as the dominant sax appears to have passed through many stages of reverb and flange and whistles and scratches threaten the simplicity of the sound in the background.

"Deadline" is also listenable, with a sleek and sexy sound combining keyboard, drums (Andy Mejuto, thanked in the liner notes as "music personified" is behind the programming and keys on ths one) and various sampling with a slightly exotic melody reminiscent of something further East. Neither is exactly danceable, but both seem to inspire at the least a gentle swaying in line for a cocktail at the bar.

Less straightforward is the more experimental soundscape series, entitled "Elements." Combining various sampling created by Verena Sollinger and featuring singers Estella Benedetti and Mary Wunderlin and the bass clarinet talents of Christoph Erb.

Slower and more fragmented than the other pieces, "Elements" is something of a Proustian mix: moments of sound that appear briefly, and vanish, and then are echoed again - memory "flashbacks" of sound. Whether it's entirely successful is debatable.

It's interesting on an intellectual level, and certainly haunting, but certainly less "listenable." That said, Max cites his arrangement as a nod to his "own momentary perception of it." If capturing such momentary fragments is indeed his goal, then Maxmus succeeds admirably.

Watunes delivers daily iTunes trending reports, a first for an independent digital distributor.

One of the biggest problems independent artist face with digital distribution is gaining feedback from the online stores about how their releases are selling.

Normally it can take up to 3 months for some distributors to feedback their reports, but not any longer...

Leading online digital distributor Watunes, announced today that they will be making a new daily iTunes trending report service available to all their customers.

It was announced by Watunes CEO Kevin Rivers on the company's blog today.

"Wow what a day! Been creating and developing here and there for WaTunes New Experience, it's becoming a handful...No I'm just kidding. Anyways, we got some very great announcements.

As of today, WaTunes is among the first offer iTunes Daily Trending Reports to both Free Users and VIPs for just $1.99 per report. Now you'll be able to see how your sales are doing on a day-to-day basis. No longer do you have to wait a week or even a month to see your sales.

So how do you get started?

Simple. Login to your WaTunes account at http://www.watunes.com click on our new 'Sales/Trend Report' page which will take you to the sales page. Finally submit your $1.99 fee and request to receive your iTunes Daily Trending Report from up to 7 days. So for example, today is July 17th, you can request your Trending Report from as early as July 10th. So why wait? Request your daily reports and see how your sales are doing on a day-to-day today!"

Jafeezie Hits The Japanese Domestic Market With MyMusicSuccess.Com

Jafeezie, the US Rap artist from Cedar Hill, Texas is the latest artist to target the Japanese domestic market through the Japanese music promotional services of MyMusicSuccess.Com.

Visit can visit Jafeezie's Japanese web and mobile site at the following URL http://jafeezie.musicsugoi.jp/

Jafeezie's CD 'Hustle Or Die' can now be downloaded by Japanese consumers from their computer or mobile phone directly from their localised digital stores. Translation of the web page means that Japanese consumers will feel more comfortable finding out about the artists music as it is much more targeted to their needs than an english language website

According to the Recording Industry Association of Japan over 90% of music fans in the region use their mobile phones to download single tracks from the digital online music services.

The number of digital music sales is increasing at the rate of over 200% a year, thanks mainly to the easy accesibility of technology in the asian region.

MyMusicSuccess recently launched it's MusicSugoi (Awesome Music!) Japanese Promotion service, which includes a japanese language mobile website with links to your iTune and other digital stores where Japanese fans can buy your music.

If you are not in the rapidly expanding Japanese music market, the MusicSugoi service can get your music direct to Japanese consumers. For more information check out http://www.musicsugoi.jp