Astral Records & Music / DEAD Famous Signs (3) Year Non-Exclusive Label and Distribution Deal with Blue Pie Productions

Australian based boutique label Astral Records & Music / DEAD Famous signs (3) year non exclusive label and dsistribution deal with Blue Pie Productions for the digital release of its artist catalogue. This deal will see the labels current catalogue positioned with over 150 plus retail outlets across the world.

Melbourne, Australia (PRWEB) October 31, 2006 -- Astral Records & Music / DEAD Famous Artists are proud to announce that a global label and distribution deal was signed in Sydney, Australia today between Blue Pie Productions CEO (Damien Reilly) and Astral CEO (Michael A Puskas) The three year non exclusive deal was signed to support a growing and popular trend that music delivered in a simple digital interface is the very essence and foundation of the music business of today and tomorrow. "It's not about putting CD's on shelves with the likes of Tower in the US and Virgin in the UK anymore. It's about cost effective delivery to a mass audience that wants ready access to quality content at an affordable price in a shop at home and simple online environment" said Mike Puskas CEO of Astral Records when inking the deal".

The arrangement will give both business's a massive boost to the scope of its combined catalogues as the content is sold as either single track downloads or full album downloads to over 150 plus retail outlets across the globe. In addition Astral's already successful licensing arm into the lucrative US, UK & European film and television markets was further strengthened by Mr Puskas being appointed as the, Strategic International Licensing Manager for the Blue Pie Group worldwide and will act as an active consultant for the further development and assignment of the licensed rights that Blue Pie holds with its artists into an existing and further expanding international licensing platform. Michael will be responsible for the provision of both Astrals and Blue Pie's content into a wide range of feature film, television series and advertising opportunities as part of an established platform of seasoned professional music supervisors and music placement agency's around the world.

All royalty collection wherever applicable will be effectively monitored and carefully administered by our new partners, Fintage House based in the Netherlands and with a global network of offices in the UK, US, Europe and Australasia. In addition the deal will see both entity's video content ingested and available online through some 70 plus online media outlets throughout Europe. While Astral continues to create video output opportunities with its many associates in the US with AOL, MTV, VH1 and Much Music in Canada. Last year in October 95 Astral's publishing arm, Astral Music along with its partner Flashpoint Productions in the UK licensed some 194 original tracks into the worldwide broadcast platform for MTV / VH1 and into such mainstay shows as, Punkd, Room Raiders, Made, The Real World, Dismissed, Meet The Barkers etc

From the first week of November 2006 artists that have a finished and packaged album or quality EP will be able to present their product to the professional A&R and Licensing team at the Astral / DEAD Famous label and its subsidiaries, Clockwork and Shogun Records for immediate positioning into the new platform with the bulk of the revenue coming directly back to the artists. This is the all important mandate on which this deal was founded on. A generally better overall non exclusive deal for the Artist, which will only act as further stimulus for them to act as global ambassadors to the growing artist community in which they operate everyday. It's artist word of mouth that creates the all important credibility to see the platform further expanded across the many genres of music available in today's market place.

The deal should see approximately 300 plus titles ingested into the platform and released worldwide in the next 12 months along with a range of viral based campaigns targeting Rewards Programs, SMS, MMS, Competitions and digital mobile content delivery. To date the following artists have happily seen the value of the deal and have signed off accordingly and are now awaiting for both their music and video content to be ingested into the established platform.

1. Kitsch (UK)
http://www.kitsch-music.com
2. Hiding Place (UK)
http://www.myspace.com/hidingplace
3. Ethol Red (US)
http://www.myspace.com/etholred
4. The Red Tie Affair (US)
http://www.theredtieaffair.com
5. Andra Suchy (US)
http://www.andrasuchy.com
6. Kristin Cothron (US)
http://www.myspace.com/kristincothron
7. Dark Shift (US)
http://www.darkshift.com
8. New Self High (US)
http://www.myspace.com/newselfhigh
9. Existend (UK)
http://www.myspace.com/existend
10. Renee Lapira (Aust)
http://www.myspace.com/kslmusic

It was also agreed that Michael would be solely responsible for the maintaining of the Burnlounge platform in the US which he successfully used to build the DEAD Famous Compilation brand over a short 5 month period and which is seeing a consistent level of single track sales across the wide range of artists featured on the compilation series. There are (7) of these to date in a series of (12) to be delivered to the Company by April 2007. The popularity of this series has been so great that the label has enlisted the support of its friends at Sonicbids to help streamline the submission process. Astral Label Manager in the US, James Lucente will be responsible for the coordination of this end of the DEAD Famous / Burnlounge online retail platform for its artists. Under the new deal Astral will handle all Blue Pie content inclusion for its artists (500 plus) to the Burnlounge platform and its affiliates and effectively maintain a strong promotional position with the Company for all artists featured under this new deal on this highly popular site.

"HOT NEWS FLASH"
A deal has been penned in the UK with Ian Humphries and Nigel Roberts owners of both Total Impact Records (Sheffield UK) and Exteme Radio for the output of the high end of the Astral / DEAD Famous artist roster in the UK. The radio entity broadcasts 24/7 and has a current listenership of over 150,000 a month. This means that once a band gains a foothold with their release in the UK that we now have a radio station dedicated to the active promotion of the artists release and their coinciding tour plans to promote the said release. The main focus will be on DEAD Famous Artist, Hiding Place (Scotland) and their pending album release, "Secrets & Passersby". In return Astral Records will sign a label deal with Total Impact Records and distribute their signed roster through the Astral / Blue Pie digital foot print. This will garner greater exposure worldwide for their bands and this will be reciprocated by doing the same for our artists in the UK along with a reasonable commitment to tour support.

For more visit the website links below.

1. Blue Pie Productions: http://www.bluepie.com.au
2. Astral Records & Music: http://www.astralrecordsandmusic.com/news.html
3. Extreme Radio UK: http://www.extremeradio.co.uk
4. Total Impact Records: http://www.totalimpactrecords.com
5. Astral My Space: http://www.myspace.com/astralrecords
6. DEAD Famous My Space: http://www.myspace.com/deadfamousartists

###