Hey everyone! It’s easter break so I thought I’d put some thoughts down before we reopen for the summer run.

First of all I’d like to say thankyou to my crack team of Jedi level moderators for all the support that they’ve given me in the last 12 months, there have been some highs and some terrible lows, and you really supported me I appreciate you.

Secondly our regular readers will notice a slight change in how things are done – the Eclectic Picks was retired last September however we now have the alt picks – the ones that got away, where each team member records their thoughts about a track that caught their ear but missed the listening post. It’s an optional thing for us and is constantly evolving but what I like about it is that it’s not chosen by one person and it truly reflects the nature of our inbox and how truly eclectic the moderator’s taste in music is.

Thirdly, and this one is ambitious – I’m going to bring FOTN into partnership with other media outlets – I’m already part of the team at The Songbird HQ, and I am a guest contributor for Trust The Doc, plus we have ChianaChiana and her site as well as Tony Hardy’s but there will be guest moderators joining the team and more opportunities for our artists to be heard through other platforms. This will be announced in due course.

The first partnership is with Audio Avenue, a media outlet that have an in print magazine too, and we will be featuring our artist of the month with them too. This will be a collective effort decided by the team so it’s not open to the public to decide. Details on that soon!

Lastly going into the summer break, I’d like to ask a favour of those who have been following us for a long time – it seems that likes and reposts are currency on social media – unfortunately if likes and reposts got got us paid we’d all be rich. If you can, tell your friends about what we do to support independent artists and let them come and discover for themselves new music. The team and I will do our bit by tagging people but let’s get this over the line together.

So, what’s left is for me to thank my fellow moderators:

ALAN DREEZER
CHIANA
CHRIS INGRAM
GRUBBY
HUGH GILLAN
JOHN MICHIE
MIA WILKS
NEIL MARCH
NX PANTHER
PAUL KERR
SHARON PEARCE
SHEENA CAMERON
SHERRY SAHAYARAJ
TONY HARDY

They spend a LOT of hours listening to everyone’s submissions and I’m proud of them.

Here’s to the next few weeks.