Having had some experience of recording for established labels, which she admits that she didn’t really enjoy, Kate found herself in living in Brighton without a deal and in a situation where she was keen to release something on her own terms where she could retain 100% control of the project.

Kate Walsh

Tim’s House was made with producer Tim Bidwell in his home studio, hence the album’s name.  “He lives just down the road from me so I was able to write a song, call Tim up, and then immediately go and record it if he was at home.  We recorded about half the album this way.  It felt totally natural and uncontrived.  Everything was put down very quickly and as a result I think it sounds really fresh.”

Jonathan Morley, Kate manager, has over seven years experience in music.  “Finding Kate was a happy accident.  I was given her CD at a gig in Brighton and was inspired from the first note.  We had a meeting where we talked about what she wanted to achieve.  I basically said, ‘Here’s my experience, all I need is your trust’ and we were off.”

Jonathan used his contacts in promotion, press and distribution to build a team around Kate and set up her own label, Blueberry Pie.  Tim’s House was then released on iTunes using independent aggregator Artists Without A Label, and things really took off when Jonathan bumped into a senior content manager for iTunes USA at the MIDEM music business convention in Cannes last January.

Internet content managers are the online equivalent of A&R and if they like your band it can really help your profile.  “iTunes loved what we gave them and featured one of Kate’s songs as their indie spotlight track in America.  Then Kate went over to play a slot on the South By South West festival and the album took off after that.  She was number 5 on American iTunes folk album chart within a couple of weeks.”

Any artist who can sell a thousand albums is a candidate for the UK iTunes Top 10

“We decided to release the album at a discount price in the UK,” Jonathan explained.  “That kind of thing is much easy to do if you run your own label, because you set your own prices.  It helped to spread Kate’s name around and build sales by word of mouth, and as a result she went straight at number 1 in the UK iTunes album chart.”

“What’s great is that all of this has been based purely on online sales and word of mouth.  We have no promotion at all apart from a small press agent who we employ at a discount fee.  That is all the money we have spent, apart from manufacturing a few copies of the CD for the physical release.  We have no marketing, no posters and absolutely no advertising.  The music is doing all the talking, which is very rare this day and age.”

Any artist who can sell a thousand albums is a candidate for the UK iTunes Top 10, and Jonathan is understandably bullish about the power of the internet to kick start a career.  “On iTunes you can listen to 30 seconds of any song for free and that is the basis on which people have decided to buy Kate’s music.  It is nothing to do with TV advertising or expensive promotion, it is because of word of mouth.  The public can finally decide on which artists they want to succeed, which has to be a great thing.”
 
Listen to Kate Walsh’s number 1 album at: www.myspace.com/katewalsh

How it works: Artists Without A Label - www.awal.co.uk

Denzyl Feigelson is the founder of AWAL, the UK-based iTunes aggregator that specializes in helping artists like Kate Walsh to sell their albums online. 

“At the heart of AWAL is a unique and revolutionary concept: a non-exclusive online distribution agreement.  It is an extremely artist friendly contract that can be downloaded from our web site and used to get your music online pretty much straight away.  Then later if you happen to sign to major label and want to leave the deal, you are free to go.”

Arctic Monkeys, Tina Dico, Royksopp and The Klaxons are just some of the hundreds of artists who have used AWAL as a way to get their music onto iTunes and other legal download sites.  “iTunes only does contracts with bona fide established labels, so to put an unsigned band on there you have to use an aggregator like us.  We link seamlessly into the site and allow all kinds of people to market their music online.”

There are three reasons why Kate was so successful:  “First, she made an inspired album; second, she scored the single of the week; finally she released the download at a reduced price.  But the single most important fact is that people liked her music and bought into the story behind it - that she made the album at home for £250 and doesn’t even own an iPod!”

“People are really into discovering new music, and there is more music being sold, bought, traded and given away for free today than there ever has before in history.  The music industry is supposed to be in a depression, but actually we are on the cusp of a new music revolution where artists can sell their music directly to consumers, and that has to be a good thing!”


Top 5 Tips for online promotion:

1. Make sure you have the best music you can make
2. Find you own unique way of marketing your music to a new audience
3. Use your fans to spread word of mouth
4. Give tracks away, particularly any unusual songs or recording you have
5. Be prolific.  Don’t just sit at home thinking something is going to come to you, and get out there and busk if you have to!