COMPANY NEWSLETTER ISSUE 1

Since the launch of Cygnus Music back in 2008 we have achieved so much. We’ve distributed over 16,000 tracks to stores around the world, managed hundreds of PR campaigns and helped make great music even better with our in house mastering services.

We thought it would be a great idea to start a regular newsletter about what's going on behind the scenes, and about our plans to take the company in new and exciting directions!

Thanks for being a part of Cygnus Music! Lewis Sinclair - Company Director

Welcome to the first edition of our newsletter!

Cygnus @ Inno in the Sun

Lloret De Mar, Spain

Last month Callide (Promotions Director) was invited to play at Innovation in the Sun, the world’s biggest Drum and Bass Music Festival! Performing in the main arena ‘Colossus’ on the Thursday night and representing Cygnus Music, he played to hundreds of ravers alongside artists such as Andy C, Cyantific, Netsky, Camo & Krooked, Danny Byrd and TC to name just a few. Whilst he was out there, he also had a number of business meetings and as a result, we have numerous new labels and partnerships with some of the industries biggest & most influential artists!

Pass it on

A big thank you to every one who spreads the word about Cygnus Music. We are committed to becoming the number 1 digital distributor, and each year with your help we grow bigger and bigger. This year alone we’ve distributed music for hundreds of labels all around the world, and 95% of our business arrives through word of mouth. So thank you, big up and salute, from all the team at Cygnus Music!

Customer

Service...

is and always will be one of our highest priorities. We believe that even though we work with elec-tronic music in a digital format, our clients should receive a professional and personal service. Music is individual and varied, and we tailor digital distribution, marketing & mastering services to suit your requirements, and make selling your music online easy.

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Cyantific & Wilkinson Backstage Callide & friend Katie

Quick Contacts Queries: info@cygnusmusic.net

Support: support@cygnusmusic.net Payments: accounts@cygnusmusic.net

Phone: +44 (0) 1452 529323

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Staff Focus

Stephen - Content Manager

Featured Artwork

Bass Music label Circus Maximus bring us this amazing piece of abstract art for their forthcoming EP called The Circus Maximus EP. As any store or magazine will tell you, artwork is an incredibly powerful tool to help sell and promote your release. Here at Cygnus Music we offer a range of design services including 3D logo’s, Tee-shirt Designs, Website Banners, and of course release cover artwork. For information and a quote email promotion@cygnusmusic.net.

MNP - Jaimar Hip Hop

Brain Network Drum & Bass

Bacon Dubs Dubstep

Prime Dub Glitch Hip

Laumm Tech House

All of you at some point would have spoken to or emailed Stephen who manages the content here at Cygnus. One of the friendliest guys you’ll ever meet, let’s find out a bit more about him with a quick Q&A.

Q: What got you in to music? A: My family has always been passionate about music so it has played a big part in my life from a very young age, I grew up listening to a lot of Gospel, Reggae, RnB and Hip Hop leading onto Garage, Grime and Drum and Bass.

Q: What do you listen to now? A: I now mostly listen to Drum and Bass and often have stations like Bassdrive on, however my interests do lie in a variety of different genres of music. I actually still spend a lot of time listening to the music I grew up with as this also holds a large nostalgic value for me....as far as Drum and Bass goes I definitely prefer the more soulful and melodic side although I do enjoy a good bit of Tech from time to time.

Q: What's your favourite film of all time? A: That’s a hard question but It’s got to be ‘Friday’

Q: What do you enjoy most about working at Cygnus Music? A: Most of all I enjoy working with a vast variety of quality music, and a dedicated team all pushing towards a mutual goal.... 2012 has already been a very exciting year for us and with all of the new prospects and projects on the horizon 2013 is set to be even better!

Other great cover art submitted with releases at Cygnus.

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Contact callide@cygnusmusic.net to request design work or even our new promo service guide brochure which covers many areas of promotion to help give your music maximum exposure.

Cygnus @ Fantazia Manchester, UK

We travelled with Old School legend and Cygnus friend Donovan ‘Badboy’ Smith to one of the biggest reunions in the dance industry ‘Fantazia’. Over 8,000 people gathered to witness performances from artists who pioneered and shaped the sound of Dance Music throughout the 80’s and 90’s!

MC Joe Peng Alex - Owner of Fantazia Donovan & friends Donovan & Lewis Dancer

Dread MC Joins Cygnus

One of the biggest personalities in Bass Music & Dubstep joins the PR team here at Cygnus Music. Mikel aka Dread MC, will be offering a range of promotional services using his vast industry knowledge and connections. These services will go live real soon and no doubt you’ll hear from Mikel letting you know what’s on offer.

Featured Promo Services

Cover Artwork £35 3D Logo £65

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Label Focus - 36 Hertz

New Interactive Website

Coming Soon...

Another project our devoted development team have been busy working on, is a new and improved website. Rather than just being a hub for information the new site will be an interactive site encompassing all of our services. We don’t want to say too much quite yet but suffice to say it will be worth the wait!

Each edition we’ll feature a label that's been pushing the musical boundaries, and for the first edition it has to be 36 Hertz.

Headed up by DJ Vapour, this label has covered the airwaves and clubs worldwide with earth shattering basslines like no other. Featured all over Radio 1 and 1Xtra with releases from the likes of DJ Vapour, Bladerunner, Skitty, Lutin, Ricky Force and Jem One, and of course bringing numerous chart topping hits supported by the industries biggest and most established artists! 36 Hertz joined Cygnus Music in 2011 and we have established a great partnership which will no doubt go on for many years! Check out their website for information about the artists, exclusive sample packs, mixes, news and much more. www.36hertz.com

New Label Management System

Coming Soon...

One of our core focuses here at Cygnus has been trying to make the whole experience of distribution as easy and pain free as possible! One of the things that labels had mentioned is that using the metadata can be confusing. As always when you talk, we listen and have over the last 6 months been developing a secure system for labels to submit their content to us. This will greatly cut down the time necessary for labels to get their music to us and will also make the whole experience very easy. We hope that the system will be ready for beta testing in the coming weeks so watch this space.....

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Reggae @ Cygnus

Jamie Irie is a household name having dominated the Dancehall and Reggae charts and taking his distinctive sound across dance floors the world over. Having worked alongside superstars such as Shaggy, Elephantman and Buju Banton, his notorious talents have catapulted him to international stardom and allowed an effortless domina-tion through genres. Not content with this success alone, his previous work with Jamaican producer Sly Dunbar saw releases on the Sonic Sound Label as well as Computer Paul, 7 17 Marshal (Mr Fender) and Don One in New York. Jamie Irie has also collaborated with professional boxer Mike Tyson on his imprint Iron Mike.

He has currently been working with his Reggae band House of Riddim ensuring all areas of music are covered in his vast port-folio. So it comes with no surprise to announce the launch of his brand new label Saysell Music and its amazing first release My Sound Remixes EP, four versions of his track My Sound which features in its original form on track three. With four versions of this compelling track preaching to

younger’s about how his sound

can’t be touched, Jamie Irie has once again covered several genres

with one offering. Drum & Bass, Reggae and Jungle are all taken care

of by this whole EP. With the long awaited first signs of summer fi-

nally beginning to show, the only choice you’ll need to be making

about this magnificent EP is which version of My Sound to include in

your set!

Promoting via

Social Media

At Cygnus we are able to provide you with advice on how to maximise your fan base, and the best ways to keep them informed. Our Social Media Consultant is an expert in her field and can provide you with a business strategy to give your music huge exposure across a range of social networking platforms.

We are also available to provide you with a social media starter pack which includes all the essential including set up, registration and even content management of your social networks.

Examples of social network platforms

Decimal Bass at Cygnus

One of the hottest rising stars in Drum and Bass joins Cygnus Music on Mondays and Tuesdays in the content delivery team. With tracks forthcoming on Playaz, Chronic, Innerground and Radius, Decimal Bass aka Mike brings a great deal of industry knowledge and experience to the company.

Jamie & David Rodigan

Jamie & artists Lithuania

Did you know that if you supply a Press Release with your music, you massively increase the chance of it being picked up by the stores for special features? We contacted a number of the major stores who sell your music to find out why a press release is so important. Here’s what 2 of them said.

Ed - Director of TrackitDown “The importance of sales information about your music helps you to cut above the white noise of new releases and ensure your beats get the full attention from the buying customer that they deserve. If you have spent time and money making great music and getting it released then it makes sense to tell the stores why it’s shit hot! Trackitdown.net writes features for the hottest new tracks. We receive 8000-10,000 tracks EVERY WEEK. That’s a hell of a lot of music that’s competing with yours. If your releases are not by the most well known players or on the most well known label then you got to shout out reasons why it should get attention. That’s what Press Releases are for. Most importantly we need to know where it’s being played and by what headliners. This is the number one thing our customers all over the world want to know. It’s a hassle getting feedback but the com-petitive edge you get by having it makes all the difference to sales and hype. It turns a track that’s just one of a 100 out today into something worth a proper listen. If you’ve put effort into getting your tracks out, go the extra mile and do some proper promotion!”

James - Label Marketing Manager at Juno “Press releases are an important tool for us as a store; they highlight releases and give us some background informa-tion on the label and artist. On average we receive around 1000 new releases per day. It is impossible for us to listen to each and every release. A press release is a quick and easy way for us to sort through the thousands of releases and help us decide which releases can be featured. My advice would be to keep it short, a quick bio of the artist/release, DJ support and some figures (YouTube plays, soundcloud plays, etc). It is also good to see if the label is undertaking its own marketing around the release, newsletter campaign, and social network updates etc.”

Cygnus Music Page 6

Getting Your Music Featured

Cygnus Press Release Advice

Here’s the essentials needed to make a press release:

Write up - Between 250 to 350 words describing and hyping up your release. Why should people listen to it, what is it about, why is it special...

Appearance - It is essential that it looks smart, professional and visually appealing. The use of cover artwork, colour and graphics should be used to draw the reader in.

DJ Support - With over 10,000 releases per week being released in music stores across the industry if you don’t have DJ support, your release could get overlooked.

Audio Links & Supporting Info - Label links, soundcloud, artist links, cat number, release date. If you need a professional write up for your press release our qualified journalist is at hand. contact callide@cygnusmsuic.net for a quote

Singer, Songwriter or MC?

We’ve recently set up a number of labels headed up and managed by vocalists. Often vocalists feature on dance music tracks, but setting up your own imprint gives you full creative control and the ability to establish your own musical movement!

Competition time, we’re giving away tee shirts to 3 lucky winners who post our Facebook Timeline Art to their Facebook pages and send the link to competitions@cygnusmusic.net. Download the banner here: http://s1069.photobucket.com/albums/u461/callide/?action=view&current=CYGNUSTIMELINEBANNER.jpg

Banners should be up for a week or more The competition closes Friday 3rd Aug, and

3 winners will be selected. Boost your chances by getting friends involved!

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Win a Cygnus Music Tee Shirt

Did you know?

We also design, print and deliver Tee Shirts.

Contact promotion@cygnusmusic.net for a quote, and to order your personalised tee shirts.

Navigator

In anticipation of “The Evolution of a London MC“ documentary, BeatCulture.net in collaboration with ODTMuzik have issued video and audio teasers to pre-empt the forthcoming drop of part 1 (of the doc) on 14th July 2012 and full accompanying soundtrack. Navigator is highly regarded as a true pioneer of em-ceeing in the UK. From early beginnings in the sound system era of the 1980's, through an instrumental contribution to the jungle scene in the early 1990's and onto a wealth of successful projects that have included award wins, chart successes and a following across multiple genres and a worldwide appreciation and fan-base!

He’ll also be launching his new imprint ‘On Dis Ting Musik’ showcasing the biggest and best in Reggae, Dancehall, Drum and Bass, Hip Hop, Grime and Dubstep right here at Cygnus Music. 2012 is the year of the Navigator, ODT!

Cygnus Music at Rinseout in Exeter

Our Stats...

96% of phone calls in to the office are answered within 3 rings (in working hours) 98% of emails to staff are replied to within 2 working days 95% of labels join us through word of mouth or via recommendation 100% of label payments have been made on the first day of each month

Our Service to You

We are at hand to provide you with advice on any matters concerning distribution, mastering and promotion, along with helping you to maximise sales and build your imprint.

We aim to be the biggest and best music distributor in the dance industry and beyond, and will reward our customers as we grow, watch this space!

We will always aim to respond to your emails within 2 working days. We will always aim to answer your phone calls within working hours, or if your an overseas

customer, arrange a time to suit you.

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Mastering

Expert mastering by Luke Fletcher

For over 20 years Luke has been involved in the music industry on all sides, starting out writing and performing with successful bands and engineering live sound from rock to classical. Without name-dropping, Luke has recorded, engineered and produced many bands and artists within the professional music industry. He has worked with record labels and publishers in-cluding Creation Records, Cooking Vinyl, BMG & BMC and has contributed to Sound on Sound. Luke has also been involved with creating and delivering music management & production modules for universities and colleges for over 8 years. If Luke is not satisfied with the audio that he hears then he can explain why in incredible detail, covering all creative and technical aspects, and that's why we employ Luke at Cygnus. Price £20 per track for more than 10 tracks, ask for a quote.

Quick Contacts Queries: Lewis@cygnusmusic.net

Mastering & Payments: Lewis@cygnusmusic.net Content: Stephen@cygnusmusic.net

Promotion: Callide@cygnusmusic.net Release Dates: Distribution@cygnusmusic.net

Phone: +44 1452 529323

The Team

Lewis - Company Director Dan - Promotions Director Stephen - Content Manager Luke - Head Mastering Engineer Sam - Programme & Web Development Mikel - PR Executive Joanna - Press Daryl - Content Admin Kristina - PR Executive Kevin - Content Support Mike - Technical Support Greg - Music Videos Toby - Graphic Designer Jamie - Support

Interested in

setting up a

label?

We can take care of everything, even if you’d like to move an existing label to us. Contact any member of staff to join one of the fastest grow-ing companies in the music industry!