Here we are in June - the "Mid-Summer Month"; hopefully there are a few rays of "sunshine", shining upon you and all your endeavours! From the perspective of Sting and Snow, the company is reaching that stage where our thoughts are starting to focus on this year's new music recording session, in Nashville. Whilst, I am pleased to say that we have a great line-up of new music recording planned, we are still open to "ideas" from anyone out there. To date there have been A LOT of great ideas and suggestions for tunes to records - thanks - but we can always use more! If you haven't yet given us the benefit of your suggestions and can think of a tune that might make a good Square Dance - please let me know!

Last month I wrote about the work done, in Nashville, by United Record Pressings, who press the vinyl for all new Sting and Snow records, as well as for many other top Square Dance labels. Judging from all the responses that I have received, many of you were very interested in this subject. Thanks for all the questions and comments!

If you would like to know more about vinyl pressing and the way that United Record Pressings operate, it's worthwhile visiting their web-site. If you click on this LINK it will take you to a special on-line video presentation, provided by United Record Pressings which shows you around their premises and gives you the chance to hear from some of the people who do the job of "pressing our plastic". The video is about seven minutes long and whilst it is not the "highest quality", it gives a good insight into the process and it's well worth a visit!

If you like looking at holiday pictures, here are a few that Carsten Nielsen took, last year, when he and I visited Nashville in November, these include some shots of the studio session and some pictures from our trip to United Record Pressings, click here for pictures. Don't forget, for my comments on the future of Square Dance vinyl, you could read the Story Of Vinyl that is shown on the information drop-down menu on the home-page.

Distribution of new Square Dance music is an onerous task, it involves a lot of hard work and takes a great deal of time. Although new music sales are, unfortunately, at an all time low - 200 to 300 copies of a tune is the average sales volume - there is still a lot to do to distribute this number of records, CDs or MP3 files. Just imagine, each month, trying to process 300 individual orders - receiving the order, picking the stock, packing the order, shipping the goods, processing the payment (sometimes "reminding" people that money is due) then multiply that by the number of new releases each month and you can start to realise the tremendous amount of labour that surrounds this endeavour.

For Sting and Snow records our Exclusive Master Stocking Distributor is Hanhurst's Tape and Record Service at www.Dosado.com/Sir.htm who deal with the entire wholesale distribution and part of the retail distribution of our output. In addition, there are a large number of other retailers who then sell our product. Okay, part of the price that you pay - per record - covers this work but remember that, as record sales reduce, the income provided by the retailer's "profit margin" also reduces - although their overheads remain the same! I salute everyone involved in the distribution of our product and eagerly anticipate a return to larger sales volumes.

Remember there are an estimated 4,000 callers out there who could purchase new recordings and most of those will be influenced by personal recommendations, so if you've recently bought a record that you feel would be a good addition to any caller's collection, please mention it to those callers that you meet. If we can get the unit sales of new records to increase, this will have several beneficial effects: it will safeguard future record production, help to prevent prices rising any further and - possibly - (if the increase in sales is large enough) lead to lower retail prices!

THIS MONTH'S NEW MUSIC:
During June we will be releasing six pieces of music - some of which would have been released, last month but ran into "pressing problems". These releases comprise: three brand new vinyl releases and three new MP3 versions - of tunes from our back catalogue that have been previously released in vinyl.

The first of our vinyl new releases is: "Me And My Shadow" (on STING - SIR 112) - this is based on the Robbie Williams' version and has a great full musical sound, it was recorded in our Nashville session of 2002 and features Stefan Sidholm from Sweden on the vocal. The second of our vinyl new releases is: "If I Said You Had A Beautiful Body, Would You Hold It Against Me?" (on STING - SIR 1102) - this is the Bellamy Brothers tune; recorded in a style very similar to the original and features Anders Blom from Sweden on the vocal. The third release is "She used To Be Somebody's Baby" (on SNOW - SNW 2003) - a Gatlin Brothers tune, with a driving beat; the vocal for this tune is provided by Special Guest Caller Philipp Kamm, from Germany.

For more information about recording as a "Special Guest Caller" on SNOW, visit the SNOW RECORDS link

The other three releases are the MP3 files of "Sweet 'n' Sour / Lemondrops" (on SNOW), which is a double instrumental Hoedown/Patter record in our usual "traditional (on one side) / modern (on the other side)" style. "Peaceful Easy Feeling" (on STING) with Stefan Sidholm on the vocal and "Only A Woman Knows" (on STING) featuring Jack Borgström on the called track. All of these tunes have previously only been available in vinyl but as we now have the MP3 licences, we can offer them to you via www.Dosado.com/Sir.htm in the MP3 format.

All of our new music, in either vinyl or MP3 format can be purchased on-line from our Exclusive Master Stocking Distributor Hanhurst's Tape and Record Service at www.Dosado.com/Sir.htm

FUTURE RELEASES:
As mentioned last month, we are now able to provide streaming audio samples of the future releases on the Future Releases link. There has already been a lot of interest in these links; when you have a moment, listen to the new tunes that are "on their way". Many other new songs will soon be available - keep an eye on that page! If you hear something that you like and want to be sure or receiving a copy - as soon as it becomes available - check out our Standing Order Offer.

RECENT RELEASES: (Full details on the Latest Releases link)
Although there were no new vinyl releases, last month, we did release five new MP3s and - while we have no sales figures for these, yet, I know that they did pretty well. Recently, Bill Heyman (from Hanhurst's Tape and Record Service) took the time to tell me that, of all the labels, we have sold the highest number of MP3 files. This is due, in part - no doubt, to the fact that we have released more MP3s than anyone else - but it's still nice to know!

We now enjoy the "100% available" status on the web-site at www.Dosado.com/Sir.htm - all of our old tunes are listed there, for you to listen to. When you have a chance, check out all of our recent releases on the Latest Releases link. To buy all of our music and to hear the older tunes try the Buy The Music and Listen To The Music links.

FESTIVAL UP-DATES: (For full details of all events see the Festivals link)
From Friday 4th to Sunday 6th June 2004 courtesy of The Hayling Mudlarks S.D.C. you can dance at Sting U.K. in Hayling Island in the Southern part of Great Britain to the calling of the three U.K. members of the Sting recording staff.

In 2005 the Pader Jumpers in Paderborn, Germany who are organising a special Sting Festival to take place from Friday 7th to Sunday 9th October 2005 will host Sting Records. For accommodation details and to register - visit the Pader Jumpers web-site.

OTHER NEWS:
We now have dates booked for the studio, this year, in Nashville, It looks as though myself and Carsten Nielsen will be making the trip, although there is just a chance that one or two of the other staff callers from STING and SNOW will be able to join us. Remember, if you have ideas for new tunes that could or should be recorded, Contact Us - we would love to hear from you.

Go Squareful! - Paul Bristow (Owner and Producer Sting and Snow Records)