I’ve been asked by Johnny Beirne (DownloadMusic.ie) to take part in a judging panel alongside 2FM’s Rick O’Shea, Today FM’s Alison Curtis and Ray Foley, Noel Taylor, Aoife Lanigan (Good Seed PR), Elvera Butler (Reekus Records), Roddy Cleere (WLR), Julie Feeney, Ron Healy (Irish Unsigned) and one or two more.

The purpose of the panel is to decide a shortlist of 10 tracks from the DownloadMusic.ie catalog of independent artists, from a long list of 50 acts.

Selected artists will pay €50 towards the cost of the album. The album, which will be released as a USB Key will be available for sale on DownloadMusic.ie at a cost of €14.99 with copies of the album being sent to key media personnel around the country. USB albums are counted by ChartTrack so if there are enough sales, the album could enter the Irish Album Chart. Not bad going at all.

Over 90 acts so far have expressed their interest in submitting tracks to the album. We’ll be given 50 or so tracks to listen to and review before nailing a final 10. Have to say, I’m really looking forward to it.

Onward!