With her head firmly on earth Nat spent her week luring brand agencies to the sunny sands of Punta Christo, which slowly seems to be coming together. A quiet week in the office was rounded up with Nat chasing Alondra Bentley reviewers and tidying up a draft of a live music editorial for MusicTank. With Sam’s strongly scented return, something tells her the office won’t stay quiet much longer.

Dave got a whole lot of stuff done this week while Sam was away, including an op-ed piece destined for Billboard that’s been on the back burner for far too long, ghost-written for one of our clients. With one final job interview, phoning journalists who are never there, and heaps of admin, Dave is sure he’s been working hard but can’t quite remember what he’s done.

Knee deep in the quagmire of insurance policy Hugo struggled to push forward through masses of paper filled with endless quotes, ludicrous questions and relentless clauses. He maintained considerable control through the whole process only lashing out the one time at a particularly inept insurance salesman/broker/merchant of frustration after he scolded Hugo in an unintelligible accent for lack of insurance cover confusing him for the ‘business proprietor’. Hugo also spent considerable time researching the appalling state of Spanish piracy and the social media situation of some of the UK’s top festivals.

John on the other hand has mostly been contemplating the greatness of Kanye West’s Twitter stream, getting excited about seeing Kid Creole & The Coconuts play in a swimming pool on Friday and looking at property on Mallorca. Oh and of course doing lots and lots of really fun work.

One slightly amusing point for all came at the hands of the famed printer/computer company Hewlet Packard. In one small step towards our never ending quest to reduce our ecological footprint and become better people we at Name decided amongst other things to recycle our printer cartages. HP handily advised us that they can send us a recycling box to return our cartridge in and have it recycled. They sent the following (cartridge on left)… “(Us) and HP for a better environment”

Of course it is the end of the month this too which all you astute followers will know means, NAME MONTHLY MIXTAPE. You will all find a varied selection here reflecting the range of tastes here at Name. Feel free to subscribe so you will pick up on our aural treats every month or let us know if you have any suggestions.
Link to be found here.

Well thats it from the lavender office,
Wishing you all a good weekend and week ahead.

Name Team

“Electronic Music: A Business Report” by Kevin Watson for IMS

Available to download from www.internationalmusicsummit.com

26^th July 2010:- The Ibiza International Music Summit (IMS) today announced the publication of its first annual business report on the electronic music market.

The report was commissioned by the IMS and presented exclusively to delegates by Kevin Watson at the opening of IMS 2010 in May. It contains up-to-date statistics, analysis and insight on the key elements of the global electronic music industry, providing individuals and organisations from all areas of electronic music with a global end-to-end view of the industry.

It is the first time a report such as this has been made available on the electronic music industry. The publication supports the IMS in its wider mission to supply those working in the industry with a backbone of reliable business resources: an initiative which has included the establishment of an ambitious working group to develop an accurate and authoritative new DJ-related popularity index (planned for launch in 2010).

The IMS aims to be the most business-focussed and intelligent event in the electronic music calendar and has been called ‘the TED of electronic conferences’ in relation to the new ideas event which has just taken place in Oxford, England.

The report’s author, Kevin Watson, has drawn on a range of sources including official sales figures from the BPI and its international equivalents, data from social networking sites and chart companies, census data and trade and consumer press.

In the current climate of dance music taking over America, IMS compares Google search popularity, with DJs such as David Guetta and Tiësto not far behind major R’n’B and pop acts like Lady Gaga and the Black Eyed Peas, and ahead of the Kings of Leon. Both DJs have more Facebook followers than the Black Eyed Peas.

Ben Turner, co-founder of IMS said, “The IMS mission statement from year one was ‘Back To Business’ and its amazing to see what has happened to our industry in the last 12 months. It is clear with all the conversations people in the electronic world are having with brands, media companies, mainstream labels and investors, that there is a hunger to be associated with this genre. Yet when it comes to facts and figures, our industry tends to undersell itself.

This report is the start of an investment from the IMS side in providing some real data and whilst it falls short of being in anyway comprehensive, it is a starting point, the first step in finally explaining to the wider industry quite how popular this scene really is.”

- end -
Notes for editors

The report is available to download as a pdf priced at €50 from:

http://www.internationalmusicsummit.com/html/businessReport.html

Report contents

• Electronic music share of album sales by key territories

• Global audience exposure of most popular electronic tracks

• Global popularity of electronic music DJs and live acts compared to rock and pop acts

• Social networking – size and engagement of fan base of leading DJs and live acts on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter

• Relative penetration of clubs and festivals and size of potential market by country

• Total electronic music festival capacity by country

• Industry overview for UK, USA and France

About the International Music Summit

Founded in 2008 by BBC Radio 1 DJ Pete Tong along with partners Ben Turner, Danny Whittle, Mark Netto and Simeon Friend, the International Music Summit has rapidly established itself as the pre-eminent business event for those working within the electronic music community.

A place to do business, network and learn, the past three years have seen a host of music industry executives, DJs and artists descend on the white island for what has become one of the biggest dates in the electronic music calendar.

2010 was the summit’s most successful year to date as the event commandeered the entire Five Star Ibiza Gran Hotel in Ibiza Town and played host to a significant delegation of industry executives from the US, drawn by the resurgence of electronic music in the States.

Respected for the high level of debate, the quality of the panels and the emphasis of getting business done, the International Music Summit has finally provided the electronic music industry with an event representative of its importance to the global music market.

Ted Cohen, Tag Strategic “IMS is probably the most exhilarating conference I’ve ever participated in. The level of the dialogue, the fantastic location and the MUSIC combine to make this the must-attend annual event. Ibiza and IMS are an amazing pairing.”

http://www.internationalmusicsummit.com/

The arrival of a new high-backed leather office chair made clear to all that all office chairs were not created equal. The surprising benevolence of some was starkly contrasted by thinly veiled envy of others. As in most instances the issue was solved by a mix pilfering from the lofty heights of authority and the placating allusion to leather office chairs for all.

Much of both Sam and Dave’s week was taken up by planning and holding interviews for the new job. Among the hypothetical challenges set to the interviewees was a question on how to market a particular new album. The album, which began as being “incidentally, not very good”, by the end of the second day of interviews, had become “atrocious” and “a creative disaster”: how on earth were these poor candidates going to pick up the pieces? Conversely, a situation hypothetically giving each candidate political influence over the music industry, somehow after seeing a dozen or so candidates came to grant absolute totalitarian power to change everything we hold dear. Such are the ravages of trying to fit all this in around an already busy week’s work.

As we all watched Sam leave the office for the sunny shores of Croatia we were more than aware that we hadn’t quite left us in the lurch. He declared to all that he would “leave his computer behind” as he was in need of a break, apparently his new Iphone 4 has enough computing power to more than keep tabs on the office goings on. In fact John, our de facto/temporary big cheese, was said to have heard an air hostess in the background of one of his conversations pleading with him, “I’m sorry sir, could you please turn off your phone. The flight is leaving”.

Once the banal tasks of filing receipts and updating stat records has been done, most of Nat’s week was dedicated to the telephone, you wouldn’t think it’d be this hard to convince people to jet off to sunny Adriatic coast for a music festival in the drab month of September, but it seems that way; Still plugging away trying to find brands to fly out to the sold out Outlook. Whilst also making sure everyone knows about Ekstravaganza 5 tonight at Corsica Studios, cocktails, BBQ, and the finest cosmic disco, techno tunes is there anything better on a Friday night?

Hugo was very pleased to get involved in nuts and bolts of a PR company from drafting press releases to brainstorming social media solutions for PR campaigns the learning curve doesn’t seem to flattening out any time soon, be he wouldn’t have it any other way.

The week for Mr Power (as he’s insisted we call him for the remaining couple of days) has mostly been spent getting the final bits and bobs in place for this weekend’s Soundwave Festival in Croatia, cursing his now unfathomable decision not to actually go out there and consoling himself with the fact that Corsica Studios summer party tonight should be almost as fun as a weekend on the Adriatic. When not busying himself with client work he’s been celebrating four years of his blog’s existence and poring over around half a dozen books on good social media practice to keep himself razor sharp…

So that sums up another week here at the UK’s most hardworking PR company, wishing everyone a good weekend and week ahead. Especially Sam who shouldn’t worry as we haven’t changed the locks…at all.

Till next time,

The Name team

With 3 months to go before the 2010 Oxjam Festival, a record 2600 volunteers have already signed up to stage their own fund raising events. Held in towns and cities across the UK, Oxjam encourages promoters and music fans to stage a club night or gig to raise funds for Oxfam.

Helping Oxjam reach that record number has been leading UK ticket agency WeGotTickets, a supporter of the charity for several years and who has encouraged more than 600 of their own customers to sign up to run Oxjam events.

Those volunteers will now receive training and advice in event promotion and management from Oxjam, with WeGotTickets creating a ‘How To…’ guide for first time promoters to ensure that their events run as smoothly as possible. For the third year running WeGotTickets will also be the preferred ticket vendor for the Oxjam festival providing wannabe promoters an easy way to sell advance tickets no matter how small their event.

Launched in 2006, the festival has seen more than 36,000 musicians play to an audience of over 750,000 people at almost 3,000 Oxjam events, raising in excess of £1 million to fight poverty around the world.

2009 was the festival’s biggest year to date with the likes of Editors, Basement Jaxx and Fatboy Slim playing special one off events at Oxfam stores and the staging of the first Oxjam city takeovers. On one day alone last year more than 2,000 musicians filled over 150 venues in more than 20 cities, from Cardiff to London, Aberdeen to Bath.

Said Steven Endersby, WeGotTickets “We’ve been really privileged to work as Oxjam’s ticketing partner since the 2008 festival. Our customers have responded brilliantly each year- snapping up loads of tickets, particularly to last year’s launch shows and takeover events, whilst donating thousands of pounds at the same time. Now we’ve given them the opportunity to get involved directly and organise their own Oxjam event, and to see over 600 of our customers volunteer is something we’re really proud of.

We hoped when we were putting this together that our unique position within the ticketing market, working mainly with small to medium sized independent venues and promoters, would mean that our customers are exactly the type of pro-active, socially aware people that would want to get involved, and  we’re delighted to see so many of them volunteer.”

Stuart Fowkes from Oxjam said:

“With an extraordinary number of people – from first-time promoters to seasoned pros – signing up to put on a show for Oxjam, we’re well on course for a record year. The more shows that take place, the more money will be raised to help us fight poverty. We’ve already raised more than £1 million through Oxjam, so anything’s possible this year.

We Got Tickets are the perfect ticketing partner for us, as they make it easy for anyone to try their hand at promoting a gig, safe in the knowledge that they have an excellent, hassle-free ticketing system backing them up.”

”

- end –

About Oxjam

Oxjam is the festival with a difference: all the fundraising music events are put on by ordinary people - from large-scale festivals to local sponsored busks. Since the launch of Oxjam in 2006, more than 36,000 musicians have taken part in almost 3,000 Oxjam events nationwide, raising over £1 million for Oxfam’s work to end poverty.

www.oxfam.org.uk/oxjam

Photos, audio clips and videos of a wide range of celebrities supporting Oxjam are available from www.oxfam.org.uk/oxjam/press.

About WeGotTickets

WeGotTickets is the leading ticketing agency in the UK for small to medium sized venues and promoters and currently works with over 3000 such organisations.

WeGotTickets has made it possible for promoters of all manner of events to benefit from advance ticket sales and now sells more than 500,000 tickets a year for a wide range of events; from art events and underground restaurants, to traditional live music shows. Indeed to cater for the growing demand for comedy tickets the company recently launched WeGotComedy.com, the UK’s only dedicated online ticket portal for comedy events.

Since its launch WeGotTickets has consistently pushed for innovation, transparency and best practice across the ticketing industry, with many of the company’s ideas becoming standard industry practice.

The company’s 10% maximum ticket commission rate has helped to lower fees across the business, whilst its pioneering paperless ticketing system has been a major factor in reducing the live music industry’s carbon footprint. The company has also been involved in numerous initiatives to help develop the grassroots live music industry and in 2009 launched an online forum where the company’s clients can network and share resources and knowledge in private.

Over the years WeGotTickets has been proud to work on a number of special campaigns with charities such as Oxjam, Childline and Warchild, and regularly donates a percentage of their booking fees back to these groups. In 2009 the company launched a unique feature allowing ticket buyers to quickly and easily make a donation to a featured charity whilst purchasing tickets.

Started in Oxford in the early noughties, the company was set up as a result of the founders being unable to sell advance tickets for one of their concerts at a venue that lacked a box office. Originally selling through their music merchandise website www.OxfordMusic.net, the WeGotTickets online box office was fully launched in 2002, selling tickets for The Zodiac (now O2 Academy) in Oxford and other venues.

www.wegottickets.com

Canadian independents Arts&Crafts and Dine Alone are among the latest signings to Essential’s growing roster of labels relying on the London based company for distribution and marketing services.

Arts&Crafts, whose arrangement with Essential covers distribution and services across Europe, is the home to established artists including Jason Collett and new signings Dan Mangan and Zeus. Collett’s Rat A Tat Tat, his fourth album for the label, will be released in September alongside Zeus’s debut Say Us. Mangan recently played an inspired set at Glastonbury’s John Peel stage; his album Nice Nice Very Nice will see its European release in October.

Dine Alone has signed a services and distribution deal with Essential covering the UK and Ireland. They have just released the latest album from Hot Hot Heat, and the band will be touring the UK later in the year. New Canadian bands Parlovr and Wooden Sky will be releasing new recordings on the label though Essential in the near future. Parlovr generated considerable buzz at SXSW this year and on their recent French tour. From Dine Alone Essential will also be acquiring catalogue from Moneen and Attack In Black.

A services deal for Europe has also been inked with the management of alternative metalers Helmet, who will be releasing albums on the Work Song Incorporated label.

Earlier this week…

The company inked a Europe-wide services deal with leading US independent label Vagrant. The first project under the new agreement is indie-pop/rock Broken Social Scene collaborators Stars whose album The Five Ghosts was released across Europe on 21st June. The band, who were previously signed to City Slang (Co-operative) for Europe, have already received heavy rotation across Germany for lead single “Fixed”, with a slew of forthcoming press coverage supporting the UK build.

The deal sees Essential pick up catalogue from the Hold Steady, Alkaline Trio, Get Up Kids as well as international new releases for Vagrant.

This side of the pond, a new worldwide services deal between Essential and Cheap Thrills will see Essential release singles and albums from among others Fake Blood, the producer behind the underground club classic “Mars”, and house pioneers Hervé, Jack Beats and Reset!.

Essential will release Fake Blood’s forthcoming single “I Think I Like It” on 8th August on Cheap Thrills. Already a top-ten hit in Belgium following its inclusion on the Fix Your Accent EP in 2009, expectations are high for a repeat its earlier chart performance, and the track has already been selected as Scott Mill’s record of the week (5th July – 11th July). Fake Blood’s debut album will be released in February 2011, with debut albums by Hervé and Jack Beats following in the spring.

A separate services deal inked directly with Fake Blood will see Essential release singles every month from August on Fake Blood’s own label, Blood Music. Dedicated to nurturing new DJ talent, the releases will all include Fake Blood edits, and some of the top dance names including the likes of Diplo.

Next up, the long-awaited first album from Peter Hook’s Freebass project, It’s a Beautiful Life, after rumours dating from as far back as 2005, is finally to see a wide-scale release, following a worldwide services agreement just signed between Essential and Hook’s Hacienda Records label.

Featuring Hook (New Order/Joy Division), Andy Rourke (The Smiths) and Gary “Mani” Mountfield (Stone Roses/Primal Scream) all on bass, the album and debut EP Two Worlds Collide will be given a full physical and digital release across the world later this year. The services deal will see further albums released by Essential on the Hacienda label, details tba.

The company is also readying up a two major single releases for urban producer DaVinChe. The next two singles for the fast-rising producer, already known for his work with Kano and Tinchy Stryder, will feature vocals from two internationally renowned pop singers. The singles are slated for September and October release on DaVinChe’s own Dirty Canvas label, which is funded by Shamrock Partners. Essential will follow the singles with the worldwide Autumn release of the classically trained composer’s debut album Open Minded.

Summing up Essential-Music’s business model, the company’s founder Mike Chadwick said, “It’s an exciting time for us, our model certainly fits the current climate within the industry and being able to offer a range of services from sales and distribution through to full project management means we are exceedingly well placed to progress in the future.”

About Essential

Essential Music & Marketing has been redefining the roles of distributor and record label since its inception in 2003 by Mike Chadwick, former MD Vital Distribution and Martin Goldschmidt, owner of Cooking Vinyl Records.

Founded to offer all-in-one marketing and distribution services to select North American independent labels seeking to release across the UK and Europe, Essential now also work with self-releasing artists and independent labels from across the UK and beyond.

Services include physical and digital sales and distribution and a burgeoning package of product management activities ranging from overall strategy, targeting featured artists and sourcing remixes through to recruitment of 3rd party specialists and digital marketing.
Labels and artists with service deals with Essential include Ou Est Le Swimming Pool, Noisia, Zinc, Cheap Thrills, New West, Vagrant Records, Ed Harcourt.

Labels distributed by Essential include Cooking Vinyl, Stones Throw, Surrender All, Big Teeth, Fat Possum, R&S.

Essential is part of the Cooking Vinyl group, which comprises of Cooking Vinyl Records, Essential Music & Marketing and Cooking Vinyl Music Publishing, which is run by Paul Kinder, a former director at Chrysalis.

www.essential-music.com

FUGA’s latest signings include Epitaph Europe, Defected, Anjunabeats, ST Holdings, Eros International, Phonetic Recordings, Toucan Cove, Night Drive Music, Agenda Music, System Recordings, Keyprom, Freddie Records, Sundesire Records and Muti Music.

These signings cement FUGAs position as the number one choice for independent labels and distributors looking to automate and control their digital deliveries.

Representing artists such as Bob Sinclair, The Prodigy, Tensnake, Bad Religion, Tom Waits, Offspring, Above and Beyond, Paul Harris (Dirty Vegas), Dave Seaman and Dirty Vegas, these labels will now have full control of their digital catalogue from just one simple online interface.

FUGA has also recently renewed service agreements with clients Nettwerk Music Group, CNR Records and Blackhole Recordings.

Able to deliver to more than 300 digital services at the push of a button, including iTunes, Spotify, Beatport, Amazon and MySpace - FUGA can also deliver content directly to:

Promotional sites: FATDrop, Soundcloud and Music2Radio
Video Streaming services: YouTube, Muzu and MyVideo
Royalty systems: Royalty Share and The Officer.
Anti-piracy services: Link Busters (Link-busters scans the internet for your content and will take appropriate action to remove any infringements.)

FUGA has also recently integrated with the back office solution Backlashsolutions – meaning labels can export their metadata from Backlashsolutions into FUGA and metadata from FUGA into Backlashsolutions.

FUGA’s comprehensive suite of features means that labels and distributors are increasingly turning to FUGA to fully manage their digital operation - from maintaining the metadata of their catalogues through to delivery of their content to a diverse range of services such as online retailers, promotional sites, royalty Systems, anti-piracy services and video streaming sites.

Rebecca Driessen - COO FUGA: “We are incredibly pleased to welcome these clients to the FUGA network and are committed to supporting their ongoing digital requirements. Our intention is to continue to add services and features to FUGA that will save labels and distributors using FUGA considerable operational costs and that will simplify their digital workflow.”

Andrew Parkinson – Director, ST Holdings: “S.T. Holdings is looking forward to working FUGA. They have a thorough understanding of independent music distributors and their needs”

Lynda Phoenix – Digital Manager, Defected Records: ”We required a digital delivery system to service some niche dance stores. The FUGA system offers a quick and effective solution, the technology has helped us to adapt to the ever changing digital music industry”

Øystein Efterdal – Owner, Agenda Music: “The days before we used FUGA were a real headache, especially since the digital industry is so young and there is still no standard on how to deliver content to the stores. Now we are using FUGA we can expand our digital delivery partners, find new connections, integrate with our own systems and have control of our content at anytime”

-    end –

About FUGA
FUGA is a unique online platform that has been custom developed to suit the real world requirements of record labels, distributors, aggregators and artist management companies - enabling them to manage and deliver their digital catalogue from a central location.
Using the platform’s simple online user interface, content owners can easily maintain their catalogue’s metadata, make new compilations from already uploaded items, instantly deliver content to any online service they have an agreement with and access up-to-the minute data on where their content has been delivered.

FUGA is connected to more than three hundred online services such as iTunes, Spotify, Beatport, Amazon MySpace and Rhapsody. Content providers can also use FUGA to export their metadata to royalty systems, promotional services and anti-piracy services.
FUGA is owned by Netherlands based technology company Independent IP.

For more and information and to take a tour please visit www.fuga.me

One of the UK’s leading music pr agencies seeks a multi-talented individual to join busy North West London-based team.

Existing clients include global licensing agency Merlin, industry think tank MusicTank, [PIAS] Entertainment Group, the Association of Independent Festivals, the Ibiza International Music Summit, Cooking Vinyl Records, WeGotTickets, Essential Music & Marketing, the Soundwave and Outlook festivals, Soundcrash Promotions and Corsica Studios.

Applicants should possess flair and fluency in written English, and a confident spoken manner. The successful candidate will be able to demonstrate a knowledge of and interest in music business issues and a clear passion for music. Attention to detail, reliability, enthusiasm and creativity are also essential.

This role would be ideally suited to someone with 6 months’ to 2 years’ experience in music, pr or both, who is fully and clearly committed to a career in pr or marketing within the music industry.

The position is full time, with salary offered commensurate with experience, plus company pension and profit share. This is an integral role within a growing organisation, providing on-the-job training and with considerable scope for rapid progression and the opportunity of a stake in the future of the firm.

The closing date for applications is 10am Monday 12th July

Please send CV and covering email to dave@namemusic.co.uk.

Previous sell out ARMY OF YOU gigs have brought performances from artists including The Noisettes, Friendly Fires, We Have Band and The Rumble Strips. Building on War Child’s heritage of working with the most exciting up and coming new acts, this year’s headliners will be Mercury nominated The Invisible, with additional live performances from O.Children and Becoming Real.

These hot live acts will be supported in the main live space at Cargo by special DJ sets from Friendly Fires, Disco 3000 (aka Erol Alkan) and Casper C, as well as acoustic sets in the courtyard from Beans on Toast and Cheatahs.

ARMY OF YOU aims to raise awareness and funds for War Child, an international charity working with children in the world’s most dangerous war zones – Iraq, Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda.

War Child works with children who are hit hardest by war and its consequences including child soldiers, street children and children in prison.

For the second year running WeGotTickets, the UK’s leading independent ticket agency, are working with War Child and will again donate 20% of their booking fee from the event to the charity.

Additionally WeGotTickets have enabled their unique donation module to allow their customers to make a donation to War Child any time they purchase a ticket in the run up to the event. Last year WeGotTickets customers donated over £4500 to War Child in this manner.

Steven Endersby, WeGotTickets Project Coordinator said,  “War Child is a vitally important charity working with some of the most vulnerable people in the world and it is a privilege for us to work with them.

Last year we worked with War Child on several events and ran a hugely successful Christmas campaign with them so it’s great to build upon that success, raise some more money for a very worthy cause and continue to develop our relationship.”

WAR CHILD presents ARMY OF YOU
supported by DJ Hero

www.warchild.org.uk

Thursday 1st July 2010
Cargo, Shoreditch, 83 Rivington Street, London, EC2A 3AY

BBQ 6pm, Doors: 7pm – midnight

The Invisible (Live)
O.Children (Live)
becoming Real (Live)

DJ Sets From: Friendly Fires, Disco 3000 (Erol Alkan), Casper C, Oneman, Solo & Mumdance

Acoustic sets in the courtyard: Beans On Toast, Cheatahs

Advance tickets are available priced £10 plus booking fee from:

www.wegottickets.com

Kudos Records have today launched the Beta version of their new Playdio service. The world’s first fully interactive, on-demand radio service, Playdio (Playlist Radio) allow listeners to enjoy music shows exactly as they were intended - with full-length tracks - and at a time and place of their choosing.

Till now licensing rules have meant that broadcasters have been unable to legally deliver podcasts containing full-length tracks from established artists. To sidestep this Playdio will initially use Spotify to deliver fully licensed and interactive, on-demand radio shows.

Meanwhile talks are ongoing with other streaming platforms and Kudos is keen to ultimately make Playdio platform independent.

The first presenters to produce Playdio shows include Phill Jupitus and Phil Wilding, whose Perfect Ten podcast has racked up over a hundred thousand subscribers – and that’s despite being unable play a single track.

Other inaugural Playdio shows come from the likes of BBC presenters Peter Curran and Mark Webster, Record label Wah Wah 45’s boss Dom Servini, and popular internet broadcasters Jon Verry and Barry Guffy with their The Carriage Clock show.

These initial Playdio shows are Spotify playlists, which combines the spoken word ‘tracks’ recorded by the presenters with the selected music the producer wishes to play in their show. Accessing a Playdio show is as simple as clicking on a link, which opens the playlist Spotify.

As with all Spotify playlists Premium users will be able to cache shows to listen to offline or on the move. And thanks to Spotify’s new social media integrations their shows can be easily distributed through the likes of Twitter and Facebook.

Playdio stands to benefit everyone. Show producers are finally free to create (and get paid for) the shows that they want, unencumbered by the tyranny of the playlist. Producers are paid per stream for their spoken word tracks in exactly the same way as the music’s rights holders.

Rights holders stand to gain from the monetisation of a new revenue stream, and like Spotify itself they will benefit from anything that encourages Spotify users to upgrade to premium accounts.

Finally and most importantly, consumers get the benefit of shows produced by true music lovers which, for the first time, are truly interactive allowing them to skip back and forth across tracks and with one click find out more about the artists whose music is being played.

Welcome to 21st Century music radio.

Said Danny Ryan, Managing Director, Kudos Records “We are delighted to declare Playdio open for business and very proud to be able offer such a fine selection of opening shows from the likes of Phill Jupitas and Phil Wilding, Mark Webster., Dom Servini,and Peter Curran.

On demand, interactive radio seems like such a natural idea. As much as people have embraced services like Spotify it’s also clear that in a world of unlimited musical choices we still need people with passion, knowledge and experience to help us pick our way through the music maze.”

http://www.playdio.com/

Graphite will assist in delivering W Hotels as an iconic brand  on the edge of  the newest and  coolest music and to further its commitment to artist relationships. The first part of this deal will be an association with the Ibiza International Music Summit, the industry conference-cum-festival of which Graphite founder Ben Turner is a partner alongside Pete Tong.

The partnership kicks off with a press launch at the opening party of the new poolside Wet Deck at the fabulous W Barcelona hotel. Heralding the start of this year’s International Music Summit in Ibiza the following day, W Barcelona welcomes dance music legends Pete Tong (an IMS partner) and Tom Middleton to kick-start the party, spinning one of the first sets of the summer.

W hotels Global Music Director Michelangelo L’ Acqua, will present at IMS Ibiza 2010 (May 26-28), to a delegation of leaders in electronic music and supporting brands, under the banner: “Lifestyle hotel music direction and programming to global jetset”.

The W Hotels brand is focused on music, design, architecture, fashion and entertainment as key “passion points”. These touch points regularly come to life within spectacular W Happenings – insider events charged by the brand’s passion for creating credible and unique links to leaders within these creative fields, which take place throughout their 36 global hotels.

Ben Turner, Graphite founder and partner in IMS said: “This is a dream association for Graphite and IMS. Graphite and its clients represent the sophisticated end of electronic music, so to work with W Hotels so closely is a really inspiring scenario for me and my team. Electronic music has taken our scene to every corner of the globe, and hotels like W are an intrinsic part of our enjoyed experience. So much networking, creative thinking and socialising takes place in W Hotels, so we look forward to dreaming up unique music partnerships that complement both their hotel experience and our global industry.”

Robyn Pratt, Vice President for Design and Luxury Brands for Starwood EAMEl said: We are delighted to work with IMS and Graphite on our Wet Deck opening event at W Barcelona to launch what will be the hot spot  over the summer season and playing host to a range of legendary figures in dance music.

About Graphite
Graphite is a management and music brand partnerships company, founded and owned by music industry pioneer Ben Turner. Formed in London in 2001, Graphite is a stamp of authority and quality in the music, brand and lifestyle world. It operates globally, managing artists and brand relationships worldwide. Turner has 20 years experience in music across all media, events and brand partnerships. Graphite have managed the career of Rob da Bank from his early days as a teaboy at Muzik Magazine, a publication Turner co-founded and edited. Graphite work across all his projects, including being directors of both Bestival and Camp Bestival, and also the Sunday Best Record label. Graphite also manage Tom Middleton and represent Richie Hawtin / Plastikman. Graphite are experts in the curation and delivery of brand and music partnerships, having worked closely with Smirnoff Experience, Orange, Sony Ericsson, Sony Playstation, Budweiser, Jack Daniels, Vauxhall Corsa and many others. Graphite are also partners in leading under-age brand Let’s Go Crazy, and the International Musc Summit in Ibiza.

About W Hotels Worldwide®
W Hotels is an innovative, contemporary, design-led lifestyle brand and the hotel category buster with 36 hotels and retreats in the most vibrant cities and exotic destinations around the world. Inspiring, iconic, innovative and influential, W Hotels provides the ultimate in insider access to a world of “Wow.” Each hotel offers a unique mix of innovative design and passions around fashion, music and entertainment.  W Hotels offers a holistic lifestyle experience that is integrated into the brand’s sensibility through contemporary restaurant concepts, glamorous nightlife experiences, stylish retail concepts and signature spas.  With more than 10 years of proven success, W Hotels is on track to more than double its footprint by 2011. W Hotels and W Retreats have been announced for Downtown New York, London, Paris, St. Petersburg, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Bali, Vieques Island, Koh Samui, and Verbier, among other international destinations. For more information, visit www.whotels.com