Storm The Charts names first songs chosen by public vote
News: 4th May 2010 by Louise Dodgson under Record Labels, Selling & Distributing Your Music
The Unsigned Guide ran an article on the Storm the Charts project in its early days in January. Click here to read.
Since then the group - which is aiming to take as many artists as possible with independent labels, or otherwise unsigned, into the charts in late June - has gathered applications from 570 hopefuls, and voting on the songs to make their list of 40 has begun. Now they're asking you which music you'd like to see them champion.
You don't need to be on Facebook to vote, although the Storm the Charts group there has picked up an impressive 29,000 members so far (and they ask you to invite your friends).
Whether you're in the group or not, all you need to do is visit http://stormthecharts.com, where you'll be given links to 5 songs to listen to. You choose your favourite and you've done your bit.
Anyone who enjoys that, and wants to vote again, can get another 5 random songs - and you can vote in as many polls as you like, completely free of charge. Each Sunday night two winners are named by public vote and two are chosen by the project's panel (which is the former Glastonbury Festival Unsigned Competition panel).
The group has also started inviting guest panelists to pick songs from their shortlist, and this week's guest panelist was Tracy Morter. Along with her husband Jon, Tracy founded the group which took Rage Against the Machine to number 1 at Christmas time, as well as spearheading the current campaign to save BBC 6 Music. The songs Tracy picked were by Woodpigeon and Zoey van Goey.
The full list of artists named so far is Emily Barker, Alex Dingley, Heavy Load, Stephen Langstaff, The Lovedays, Shrag, Woodpigeon and Zoey van Goey. For links and videos click here
There are lots of songs to listen to and vote on, and at least four weblogs have already been set up by people independently making their way through the music bit by bit. If you'd like to keep a record too, Kate Wellham is organising a hub for Storm the Charts blogs - you can email her if you'd like yours to be included.
Finally, if you're in a band that would like to be considered next time, the organisers urge you to get on board now and help them make this attempt work so they can do it again. A email request to [email protected] will get you on the list to contact for next time.
Related Links
http://stormthecharts.wordpress.com/poll.php
http://stormthecharts.wordpress.com
http://twitter.com/stormthecharts
Tags
storm the charts, music sales, unsigned bands, unsigned artists, independent bands, independent artists