SIRIUS, the only satellite radio service broadcasting uncompromised coast-to-coast music and entertainment for your car and home, has formatted a new unsigned recording artist program, WAGS Recordings (Working Artist Group at SIRIUS). The program is designed to nurture unsigned artists, expose emerging artists to listeners nationwide with airplay on SIRIUS and create CDs featuring a variety of this new music.
As part of the new WAGS program, SIRIUS will record and produce unsigned artists in its state-of-the-art recording studios located in the heart of New York City. Select songs from these sessions will go into rotation on SIRIUS and CDs featuring these artists will be made available through http://www.sirius.com/, making SIRIUS a leading source for cutting-edge music.
"This program will benefit the record labels, artists and our listeners. It reduces the financial risk associated with releasing new artists and gives the artists themselves a chance to demonstrate some traction in the marketplace. And our subscribers reap the benefits of hearing new music first on SIRIUS," said Larry Rebich, vice president, Programming & Market Development.
"The biggest hurdles for an artist today are studio time and getting airplay. Now, with our WAGS program, SIRIUS can provide both," said SIRIUS' in-house composer/producer and architect of the program, Teddy Zambetti. "Our Stream Designers already have their fingers on the pulse of the music scene and are well-positioned to discover new musical talent and bring that new music to our listeners."
The mechanics of the program, from the discovery to distribution, will all take place under the umbrella of SIRIUS. That's because SIRIUS and its Stream Designers create all of the 60 commercial-free music streams on SIRIUS in-house. These Stream Designers are music experts and in many cases, recording artists, not traditional radio program directors. Working with the appropriate SIRIUS Stream Designer, the artist will record a CD in SIRIUS' studios. Additionally, a section of www.SIRIUS.com will be dedicated to WAGS with artist info, photos, song lyrics, musician credits and purchasing information. Every other week, record labels and music publishers will be kept up-to-date on these artists through SIRIUS Notes, the company's industry newsletter.
The company will locate the talent through a multitude of sources including music producers, musicians, the club circuit, music conventions, and Sirius-created contests.
