we7 Presents the Best in Home Grown Talent

LONDON -

- Online Music Service Launches Exclusive New Channel to Support New Artists

Online music service we7 today launches its brand new showcase for unsigned talent - we7 Presents. Featuring five new unsigned artists every two months, the showcase on we7.com is an exclusive new feature designed to give up and coming acts the chance to reach a mass audience and earn money for the music they play. Artists are hand-picked by some of the most notable tastemakers in the industry including NME, Music Week, the Guardian and Ditto Music.

For users fed up of only hearing the same manufactured pop music the new feature gives them easy access to tracks directly from the grassroots of British music. Simply visit the we7 site and click on the play button; there’s no software to download and no compulsory registration process. Best of all, playing tracks puts money straight into the artists’ pockets - every play means a payment that goes directly to the band itself.

The new feature comes at a crucial time for British music. Research commissioned by we7 in preparation for the launch revealed that 70% of Brits are tired of manufactured pop bands. 50% of respondents think that music has become ’samey’, with 35% going so far as to say that they feel the rise of manufactured bands is actively destroying genuine music talent in the UK.

One of the biggest challenges for new acts in the competitive music industry is finding a way to reach the mainstream audience and make some money from the music they love. Without a label to back them the challenge is often insurmountable - and with the phenomenal popularity of shows like X-Factor and Britain’s Got Talent, it’s never been harder to break into the eyes of the music business.

To address this industry-wide issue we7 Presents has been designed to give unsigned artists a chance to get exposure and recognition from the site’s 2.5 million monthly users, an audience which they could only have dreamed of beforehand. Each act receives homepage coverage, onsite advertising, inclusion in the we7 newsletter which reaches 60,000 subscribers. They will also receivededicated support on the affiliated seventeen-thousand strong Facebook group, Twitter feed and MySpace page. With we7’s sharing capabilities, artists can create their own viral campaigns by emailing, twittering and filling we7’s widgets with their tracks to fans worldwide. Most importantly, every time their song is streamed or downloaded, the cash arrives directly into their PayPal account

Steve Purdham, CEO and founding investor of we7, says of the launch: “we7 has always supported new music and we believe that signed or unsigned, the best up and coming artists should get the exposure they deserve and should be paid for providing us with great music. we7 presents will give our users access to the newest grassroots music as well as giving new artists the chance to shine before a mass audience.”

we7 Presents’ launch week features the following five acts. Their music will be promoted on the site for the next ten weeks:

Namalee (www.we7.com/#/artist/Namalee!artistId=295440&m=0)

A visual and aural sensation based on her own universe.

The Federals (www.we7.com/#/artist/The-Federals!artistId=294160&m=0)

This York based garage rock trio pump out a hurricane of fuzzed-up guitar, battered-to-death drums and a howling vocal that would put the Baskervilles pooch to shame!

The deBretts (www.we7.com/#/artist/The-deBretts!artistId=294761&m=0)

A female fronted, four-piece post punk-pop band with an infectious blend of Blondie / Siouxie Sioux cool, Sex Pistols urgency and Yeah Yeah Yeahs credibility. They’ve already toured with the likes of the Noisettes, The Futureheads, The Holloways and The Mystery Jets and have just completed their own sell out tour in Japan.

Breaking the Illusion (www.we7.com/artist/Breaking-The-Illusion?artistId=295398&m=0)

Described as a fusion of hip hop, rock, reggae and soul, it’s difficult to pigeon hole this music as it could quite happily sit in any hip hop/rock lovers CD collection. Breaking The Illusion a.k.a. Thomas Stewart, is a Leeds based musician/rapper who has been self releasing his own material for several years.

Hitchcock (www.we7.com/#/artist/Hitchcock!artistId=294383&m=0)

Hitchcock are set to explode onto the scene with an uproarious mix of bombastic, eccentric, theatrical electronics and histrionics. Like their namesake, they are truly masters of their art, dark, twisted yet utterly addictive.

Source: We7

Hotwire PR on +44(0)20-7608-2500 or we7 at hotwirepr.com