‘Dream Trader’, one of the songs from James Cooper’s debut album ‘Second Season’, is featured at the moment on the ABC Online’s Australian music website, OzTrax.

You can listen to the song in RealAudio or Windows Media format, and learn a little about why and where James wrote the song.

Let us know what you think of it!

A 2006 UK Digital Music Survey by Entertainment Media Research reports that social networking sites (such as MySpace) play a big part in the music habits of teenagers. Fifty seven percent said networking sites had an impact on which music they purchase, 31 percent have bought downloads or CDs of music they found online and 12 percent regularly download free music. Forty-nine percent regularly recommend artists to others and 57 percent have discovered music they say they love. The research report is available online in PDF format here. The conclusion: creating and maintaining an online presence on MySpace, Bebo, etc is not just a fun thing to try if you’re an indie artist, it’s becoming an essential marketing tool for all artists. When the Snocap/MySpace venture starts selling music directly from MySpace artists to MySpace’s audience, we may yet see Apple’s iTunes Store challenged for the position of #5 worldwide in music retailing (Steve Jobs announced today they were #5 and on track to overtake Amazon at #4 by the end of the year.)

Check out this indie music video for James Cooper’s single, ‘Love In London’ from a crowd calling themselves the Dalkey Island Community Basketballers. Dalkey Island is somewhere Dublin, as near as I can tell… expect the unexpected!

Great review of James Cooper’s recent Sydney album launch from Hotsource!

“(James Cooper) is without doubt an original and dynamic singer/songwriter who weaves lyrics and melodies with such beauty that you can’t help but lose yourself in his songs. Everything I read about James Cooper’s influences was spot on; the proof is in the music and in Cooper’s vocal style. From the heady late night reprise of a reflective Tim Freedman to a campfire Paul Kelly and the punchy western roots of Ryan Adams, this is a super collection of indie pop that will have you going back for more”

Read the rest of the review on www.hotsource.com.au

Karma County’s Brendan Gallagher has released his first solo album, and today he featured as ‘house band’ on James Valentine’s afternoon show on Sydney’s 2BL 702. Listen in to this recording of the show (requires QuickTime). It’s kinda long, sorry, but skip some of the traffic reports and interviews and you’ll find several songs from Brendan, some great saxophone from James, and a lot of witty patter.

New section of the site launched today where we’ll post tips on the untold story of how to sell your music online thru iTunes. Check it out.

If you were listening to 2BL 702 in Sydney yesterday afternoon, you may have heard “Love In London” played on James Valentine’s afternoon show. Last week you would have heard James interviewed on ABC RADIO AUSTRALIA from their Melbourne Studios, where James performed “Never Know Why” live and gave a 15 Minute interview (available for Podcast on www.james-cooper.com). The program has a reach of 2 billion listeners all over Australia and Asia. Also, youth station FBI Radio have been playing James’s Album on rotation. Check out the studio pics on the Gallery page. It’s also had a few plays on NOVA FM Sydney. You can keep requesting “Everything to Everyone” on NOVA FM Sydney here.

It was a huge night on Wednesday as young local singer/songwriter/piano/guitarplayer James Cooper showed us how much latent support he has in his home town, filling Newtown’s Vanguard to capacity with friends and fans. With nearly 600 friends signed up to his MySpace page and his own mailing list from his www.james-cooper.com website, it was a great case-study for the pulling power of the internet, because the only other marketing we’d done for the launch was one small black and white ad in one local street press mag. CD sales at the gig were strong and the crowd enthusiastically received James’ live performance, as almost everyone in the room had heard samples from the album online, but nobody had yet seen James perform in Sydney. With a five piece band James impressed us with his professionalism, giving the set moments of light and shade, from big rock moments to small, intimate solo spots on the piano. James is up next at Sydney University’s Manning Bar and the Vic On The Park in Sept and Oct. You owe it to yourself to see this guy play before he starts packing out larger venues.