A new global vision for independent minded artists.

The Fading Ways Artist Collective is a return to the original Fading Ways concept of artists helping one another release and promote indie records. 

"Increasingly in today's world", explains Fading Ways founder Neil Leyton, "there is no need for artists to sign complex deals giving up all sorts of rights to their own music, whether that be record or publishing deals. If anything goes wrong, as often is the case, you find yourself at the dead end of a stalled career."

The internet affords artists the opportunity to promote their own self-funded releases, and the FW Artist Collective offers a range of supporting contacts and services that can be tailored to each artist's own plans. The main collective started with the UK-based www.fwmusicstore.co.uk, which operates a world-wide mail-order service.

FROM THE UK FW MUSIC STORE INFO PAGE:

fading ways music store artist collective

The following is an information outline of the brand new FW Artist Collective, which is an extention of both the existing Fading Ways Music Labels (FW Canada, FW UK & FW Finland) as well as the FW Music Store online at www.fwmusicstore.co.uk

The goal of the Artist Collective is to strengthen the careers of independent music artists who are releasing their own cd's and merch without the assistance of labels (or on small labels who want to participate!), and don't have exclusive distribution deals in place.

The FW Artist Collective offers a non-exclusive, world-wide mail-order sales & distribution service that allows your cd's to be sold alongside bigger-label releases whilst becoming publicized via direct marketing to over 1500 FW Music Store subscribers – and that number is rising steadily.

On top of the mail-order sales and basic newsletter promotions, the FW Music Store Artist Collective partnerships also allow for the facilitation of other paid-services, like product manufacturing, PR services in several countries, digital download sales and even possible traditional physical-product distribution to stores in some territories, as well as film & TV licencing; all these opportunities can be discussed on a project-by-project basis.

"The soul of the FW Music Store is the networking opportunities it provides via its online community of subscribers, as well as the access to the Fading Ways street-teams of independent music fans around the world. If you are an artist putting out your own records, you can gain access to a ready-made independent-friendly fanbase, with the understanding that you too will do as much as possible to spread the word on the FW Music Store in order to further increase the numbers of our community of music fans. Sales achievements depend as much on you putting the word out as it does on FW's own efforts, and those of all the other artists involved in the Collective. Together, as an independent community, we have the opportunity to change the world. Er.. or at least the music business as we know it!" - Neil Leyton, July 2006.

fading ways artist collective

Every artist in the collective gets their own webpage on the FW Music Store, as well as an artist photo, link to their website, and the store allows fans to write in their reviews. You can also link your site directly to your product page on the FW Music Store. The secure online ordering accepts credit cards or paypal, and FW can also accept cheques and switch cards (over the phone) from our music fan client base. We ship out FW Artist Collective orders the same day we received them, worldwide. FW Collective Artists set their own price for the sale of their releases via the FW Music Store. Starting in 2007, Fading Ways UK pays the Collective on a monthly basis via Paypal. The partnership between FW Music Store and its Collective Artists is completely non-exclusive. The Fading Ways Music Store Artist Collective Partnerships have an unlimited term but are terminable at any time by the Artist, assuming no moneys are owed to Fading Ways at time of cancellation for extra services.

Fading Ways Music UK pays 70% of all sales to artist; artists / labels simply deliver the CDs to the Fading Ways warehouse in Langley, UK, along with promotional materials and a promotional "blurb"; Fading Ways promotes the release using all the materials provided to its fans/customers, including, but not limited to, prize giveaways, flyering, newsletters, and any other promotional initiatives that we have going on coinciding with the time of release.

Additional Services (contact FW for cost quotes & details):

o PR - either via our UK associate Ya Basta! PR, or other PR companies that we can recommend in different markets, tailored to fit different budgets. Contact Ashlyn at yabastapr@gmail.com for info on Ya Basta!
o Manufacturing Facilitation - via the Fading Ways label's manufacturer, at reduced rates. Professionally manufactured discs & print, or print-only & CDRs depending on your budget. Barcodes included in manufactured units to facilitate future distribution possibilities that may arise via FW label distributors.
o Boutique Label Management - for those who want their releases to be issued under your own label name in conjunction with the FW Music Store, we can help you set up your own label brand name & logo.
o Distribution to Stores (FW label territories only: Canada, UK, Finland). In some situations, it may be possible to distribute your FW Music Store Artist Collective release via some of the FW label distributors. One pre-requisite is a strong PR push in that territory, and a professionally manufactured release.
o Film & TV Licencing - in-house via Fading Ways UK as well as our licensing partners.
o Fading Ways "Choose" co-op promotional series of EP's, licensed under Creative Commons By-Nc-Sa licences, like the Fading Ways label Share series.
o Digital Audio Mastering at MonkeyMan studios. Pro-Tools environment, full range of plug-ins.
o Digital Download sales via our DSP, as well as all their partner stores (yes, iTunes too...)
o Merchandise manufacturing faciliation - contact nleyton@gmail.com.
o Promotional merch (pins, postcards) - contact Ash at fadingwaysmusic@gmail.com
o Other future initiatves (FW will contact the Collective when other new opportunities arise! We've got a highly trained team of monkeys working on new hare-brained schemes all the time! Some have even become so evolved as to discover they actually possess opposable thumbs...)

Collective Artists' Commitments to the Community:

* to continue to promote themselves via recordings, touring and other artist activities, to the best of their skill & ability;
* to assist in the promotion of the FW Music Store and its Collective via the placement of banners and links on all artist pages / sites;
* to inform their own fanbase about the FW Music Store as the primary source for mail-order international sales;
* to encourage their fans to participate in the Community via online FW Music Store reviews, forum postings, and street-team activities;
* to keep FW Music Store updated of its activities on a (minimum) monthly basis, but preferably on a weekly basis;
* to immediately notify Fading Ways of any legal contracts or change of circumstances that may affect its agreement with the FW Music Store (record deals, publishing deals, performance societies' membership, management deals, etc.)
* a signed guarantee / waiver is to be provide by artist or label to Fading Ways UK assuring they have the full rights to enter into the Partnership Agreement of their choice and/or additional service options; including the right to issue their works under Creative Commons if they choose to participate in the "Choice" series; and indemnify the FW Music Store, Fading Ways UK, other FW labels and the Collective community from any third party suits that might arise in this belligerent world of lawyers.

sign up now and join the collective (download the Agreement PDF and mail it in to us) and we can start working together! There is no start-up fee attached to the partnership agreements; it is non-exclusive; we will account to you monthly, and you can cancel anytime if that dreamy big record deal comes along.

www.fadingways.co.uk www.fwmusicstore.co.uk www.fadingwaysmusic.com www.fwfinland.com www.myspace.com/fadingwaysartistcollective