Music Industry

Canadian company to help British indie acts break through in the UK

Remember how Canada’s Sunrise Records bought what was left of the bankrupt HMV chain in the UK? The next stage of that takeover involved giving British indie bands a chance to show off their stuff.

Sunrise, headquartered in Ancaster, Ontario, believes it can revitalize all those UK HMV stores by once again making them destinations for music fans, a place that becomes part of the fabric of the local music community.

HMV UK has now extended an invitation to unsigned artists to take part in in-store performances. This is what John Hirst, the head of music told the British site Music Week:

“We’re doing a lot more of that,” says HMV head of music John Hirst. “We used to be really good at that back in the day, but we had to move away from it in the wake of the previous administration. We’re really embracing that again, it’s something Sunrise in Canada do an awful lot of. So if somebody wants to come in, play a few songs and flog 20 CDs we’ve got the ability to do that for them now at the weekends.”

So that’s weekends. What about weekdays? Chances to see more established acts and more album release events.

They did 250 such things last year. In 2020, they want to increase that to over a thousand.

(Via Hypebot)

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

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