Taylor Swift has written an optimistic article on the music industry for the Wall Street Journal.  Read the article below via Taylor Swift.

Where will the music industry be in 20 years, 30 years, 50 years?

Before I tell you my thoughts on the matter, you should know that you’re reading the opinion of an enthusiastic optimist: one of the few living souls in the music industry who still believes that the music industry is not dying…it’s just coming alive.

There are many (many) people who predict the downfall of music sales and the irrelevancy of the album as an economic entity. I am not one of them. In my opinion, the value of an album is, and will continue to be, based on the amount of heart and soul an artist has bled into a body of work, and the financial value that artists (and their labels) place on their music when it goes out into the marketplace. Piracy, file sharing and streaming have shrunk the numbers of paid album sales drastically, and every artist has handled this blow differently. CONTINUE READING

Buzz Track: At Least I

Singer-songwriter Katie Buchanan just released her new single “At Least I”. The track comes off her forthcoming sophomore EP Go, out August 5th, 2014. Originally from Kansas, Katie explores a vein of subtle guitarpop steeped in Americana and heartbreak. She plays around New York rock clubs, drinks too much whiskey, and combines Midwest honesty with the directness that accompanies living in the city. She spent lots of time learning from producers such as Bob Power (The Roots, D’Angelo), Tony Visconti (David Bowie, T-Rex), Nick Sansano (Sonic Youth), and Joel Hamilton (Sparklehorse, BlakRoc). Amazingly, she self produced and engineered these batch of songs.
Contact: katie@katiebuchanan.com, Natasha@ei-pr.com

Bad Suns who we featured and named a top 8 emerging artist just released a record that debuted at #24 on the Billboard Top 200 Chart. The record was produced by Eric Palmquist (The Mars Volta, Wavves, Trash Talk). Bad Suns have performed their first single, ‘Cardiac Arrest,’ on Conan and the track has cracked Top 13 at Alt Radio, with a weekly audience of almost 5M and building. Watch the Conan performance here.
Contact: bryan@newcommunitymgmt.com

Buzz Track: Up In Smoke

Here is a new single from UK indie/folk outfit Volcanoes, called Up In Smoke. We featured them several months ago and have since released a successful campaign with their previous single When We Melodise, gaining attention from EMI, V2 and Fourteenth Floor Recordings, getting support from BBC 2 and BBC 6 Music, taking part in T4 Orange Unsigned, and having finished in the top 20 of the Glastonbury Emerging Talent contest.
Contact: james@mysticsons.com

Southern California based alternative folk/rock band The Tragic Thrills have signed a record deal with Drive-Thru/Razor & Tie Records to release their debut album. Check out the video for the song Tears. Show dates can be viewed here.
Contact: Ben McLane, Esq.