Win a prize bundle of Believe goodies this Christmas!
You could win:
Crookers TShirt
Bwani Junction Signed Poster
Crookers Vinyl
Gabby Young CD
Bwani Junction CD
Peter and Kerry CD
James Vincent McMorrow CD
Crookers CD
Crookers Beer Holder
To win all of this simply tweet @zimbalamuk who your favourite breakthrough act of this year is!
We also have selected Crookers prizes for 5 more people, winners will be picked and announced Thursday the 22nd so get tweeting!
James Vincent McMorrow
Rough Trade In-Store Ticket Competition (October 18)
New Single: ‘We Don’t Eat’ / ‘Higher Love’ out November 13
“Sounds both fresh and as if they’ve been in your head forever…McMorrow’s debut deserves its success” Q, ****
“The Irish songsmith’s haunting, soulful sound blossoms….he will be unstoppable” Guardian ****
“Vocals, lyrics and arrangements whose restraint and subtlety are totally at odds with the profound impact and resonance of his songs’ Sunday Times Culture
“Dusky vignettes on unseen and wondrous magic…gorgeous” NME
“A captivating debut…An arresting journey from emotional trials to aural pleasure” Uncut, ****
“His high, hoarse timbre is used to magnificent effect” Mojo, ****
James Vincent McMorrow has announced details of an intimate London in-store performance at Rough Trade West, to take place on October 18. This will coincide with the limited vinyl release of ‘We Don’t Eat / Higher Love’, which is available exclusively at Rough Trade in conjunction with the charity Headstrong. ‘We Don’t Eat’ will see a wider release on November 13.
Hey guys,
We’re giving away a mid-week night for two in London… complete with a gig and hotel room.
The only catch is, you’ve got until 1:30pm tomorrow, Wednesday 5th October, 2011 to ‘Like’ our page and enter the competition.
Here’s a link to Laurel Collective’s Sunshine Buddy to put you in the mood.
Happy ‘Liking’
M-m-m-m-Monday.
Monday’s a drag. It hangs over your head all weekend long like a dark cloud, and then when it finally arrives, it lasts forever…
This week on Zimbalam, it’s going to be Monday – every single day! No, we’re not self-loathing kooks – we’re simply making up for how spoilt April made us…
For starter’s we’re bringing back our weekly featured artist blog and SoundCloud Playlist.
But we’re going much bigger than presenting a new Zimbalam Featured Artist every day (this week only), we’re also giving away FREE passes to Liverpool Sound City. That’s right folks, all you need to do is change your Facebook status to “I want Zimbalam UK to send me to Liverpool Sound City”, making sure that you tag our Facebook page for your chance at one of our FREE three-day passes.
And if you think that the new playlists and Sound City tickets were all we had to offer, you’re sorely mistaken my friend. Follow us on Twitter or like us on
Featured Artist & Competition opportunity for your band
WE//ARE//ANIMAL are an alternative rock band from Wales who record on a digital 7 track in houses, fields, woods and old folks homes.
Before they head off to Texas for SXSW they are scheduled to headline Backstage Pass Cloud 9 Music award, in association with Soundcloud & Club Fandango (www.backstagepassmusic.com)
To be in with a chance of supporting them on March 11th at the excellent Bull & Gate in Camden simply upload your best recorded track via soundcloud and get your fans to vote for you. As well as the live slot the band with the most votes will also win a premium soundcloud account, online promotion consultation & 500 of their CDs manufactured.
WE//ARE//ANIMAL are one of our personal favourites here at Zimbalam and they’re doing really well right now with support from Tom Robinson, Huw Stephens & NME to name but a few. Their debut album, Idolise, has been described as a ‘growling, prowling rock beast’ and was shortlisted as one of XFM’s albums of 2010.
WE//ARE//ANIMAL - ‘Idolise’ on iTunes
Check them out on Facebook and Myspace
Follow Zimbalam on SoundCloud for more information on our Featured Artist of The Week, WEAREANIMAL and our compilations here
A weekend pass will give you access to all venues and performances across the weekend, that’s 30 venues and more than 300 bands!
In order to enter this fantastic contest, simply head over to www.zimbalam.co.uk/TGE and enter your email address when prompted.
The closing date for this contest is May 3rd and the winners will be drawn at random on May 4th and will be notified by email.
Please note that The Great Escape festival does not permit camping and winners will be responsible for their own transport to and from the event and accommodation during the festival.
Zimbalam have teamed up with Mama Group, the guys behind the awesome Great Escape Festival to give three top-selling artists each year the chance to play at this fantastic event. Brighton’s Great Escape festival is attended by more than 25,000 music industry delegates and music fans and represents a truly fantastic opportunity for any new artist. 
This year’s winners are Gabby Young & Other Animals, who are set to play at Queens Hotel on May 13th, The Draymin, who perform on May 14th and lastly, 29th Chapter are due at Concorde 2 on May 15th. If you’re heading down to the event, be sure to check them out!
Each act was selected ahead of thousands of artists using Zimbalam and were selected after finding themselves among the top-selling Zimbalam acts on the major digital stores. All three acts have subsequently signed extended global distribution deals with Believe Digital, Zimbalam’s parent company. For a chance to win a slot performing at The Great Escape in 2011 yourself, head over to www.zimbalam.com and sign up for a free account.
Not only that, but all users uploading an album before the end of May can benefit from a 50% discount by using the code ESCAPEGREAT when validating their album!
All sales from May 1st will be counted for next year’s competition so don’t wait around…
Zimbalam agrees pan-European partnership with the Emergenza Festival!
In a band? Want to play in the best venues in Europe? With Emergenza and Zimbalam you have the opportunity to do this and more…
Emergenza is the world’s biggest talent-scouting festival, awarding the best emerging artists of all shapes, styles and levels combined. In 2010 the festival is also expanding into the UK, with 65 concerts already planned for the 2010 event, the registered groups will each play a 30 minute set at the gigs, which are taking place in some of the best venues in London and Brighton. The audience pick the best bands, which qualifies them for the next round of the competition where a professional jury will choose the winners.
- If you are one of the top 150 regional finalists, you will be offered a free digital release of your album,
- If you are one of the following 350 regional winners, you will be offered a free digital release of your single.
And the winner is… A special prize from Zimbalam/Believe Digital
If you are an artist distributed by Zimbalam, and you register for the Emergenza festival, you can win the special Zimbalam prize, awarded by a jury of professionals!
The prize allows the winning band to play live at the Emergenza Grand Final, which will take place in Germany in August 2010. The winning band will also sign a digital distribution contract with Believe Digital, which will provide and manage a European web promotion campaign worth 10,000 Euros!
If you want to get involved, visit www.emergenza.net !
Want to play at The Great Escape Festival or rock your local Barfly?
We’ve teamed up with MAMA Group, one of the UK’s foremost music and media companies to offer Zimbalam artists some fantastic exclusive live opportunities!
Artists using Zimbalam to sell their music online will be entered, free of charge, into a rolling, sales-based, contest to win live showcase slots at
the legendary Barfly venues and The Great Escape Festival, Europe’s largest unsigned music event, held annually in Brighton.
Once your release is distributed we will begin tracking your sales and compile them into quarterly and annual charts. Artists selling the most music in any given quarter will be given the opportunity to play at an exclusive ‘Zimbalam Presents’ gig at their local Barfly venue with an established act in the following quarter.
Sales figures will be reset each quarter so artists are all on an ongoing level playing field for the chance to win this incredible live opportunity. We will take care of marketing the events to ensure a good crowd and you just have to worry about turning up and rocking out! Sign up now to get in on the action!
For more information on the Barfly venues, please click here: www.barflyclub.com
Not content with simply giving our artists the chance to rock a legendary venue that has helped to propel the likes of Coldplay, Kaiser Chiefs, Franz Ferdinand, The Strokes, Gossip and many more to global super stardom… We’re also offering three slots at the annual Great Escape Festival in Brighton to artists selling the most music annually so there’s every reason to keep pushing sales as you could take the stage at an event attended by more than 15,000 music industry delegates and fans in 2009!
We will be putting on three acts at the festival, one on each night of the event, and will be promoting the successful acts heavily to capitalise on the success of the festival.
As with the Barfly contest, we will monitor sales until the 31st of March annually, at which point a judging panel made up of experts from The Great Escape, Zimbalam and The Fly magazine will select the winning acts.
Don’t miss out on this fantastic, money-can’t-buy opportunity to play at one of the UK’s most exciting events, sign up now and start selling your music for a chance to win.
For more information on the Great Escape festival including past line-ups and news, please visit: www.escapegreat.com
Check the blog regularly for updates on the contests, including the winning bands, photos for the events, chart information, news and more! The first chart update will be posted at www.blogzimbalam.co.uk on December 1st!
