It’s a manic Monday and the weekend is in the rearview mirror but there’s reasons to be cheerful as we’ve Friday on our minds.

That’s Bandcamp Friday to be precise where for one day a month they kindly waive all their sales revenue for artists who use the platform to sell on.

And to celebrate we will have t-shirts for sale! So from 9am on Friday morning you will be able to grab a tee with our lovely magpie screen-printed on the front and the band name on the sleeve.

Summer may just be gone (in Scotland it was actually around three hours one day back in July) but you can still dress like you’re on your holidays, so note the date and time, grab your tee and fly your Magpie Arc’eteer flag high.

And don’t forget our Anthology download album is still available on a free/pay what you wish basis so grab a copy, download your Bandcamp player app and listen to us on the move. Or gift it to a music loving friend by email for the princely sum of 50p.

Get it here – themagpiearc.bandcamp.com/album/anthology

See you on Friday!

TMA xx 🖤🤍💜

Hi Folks,

We’re going to post this again and probably again and again, as there is a lot of “sponsored” ie. “paid for” noise on social media about how absolutely wonderful streaming services are for artists and what a great job they’re doing providing them with a platform for success!

And also the numpty (Scottish word for pillock) CEO of Spotify publicly said recently that music costs almost nothing to make these days and inferred that artists should be grateful for whatever meagre returns they give them.

So…

The Importance Of Downloads!

Welcome to all our new followers and mailing list subscribers who have joined us in the last few weeks through our free/pay what you want Anthology download album. Hope you’re enjoying our music and hopefully we’ll see you at a gig sometime too.

A lot of people have asked why we have made our collection available for free/pay what you want so….

As everyone knows the folk world is a wonderful community of people committed to music and we are constantly amazed by the number of emails we get or comments on social media we see about how much they love to support artists by actually buying their music on CD’s and vinyl.

However one area that we find many people think is redundant now are downloads.

Artists often hear that fans who only have physical copies of their music and no means to get it onto their mobile devices feel that the only way to listen to it on the move is to stream it via Spotify/Apple etc. and also fans who no longer have CD players or record decks feel that they have no other listening choice at all.

Well the purpose of this post is to say that this isn’t the case and that downloads still have a very important part to play for music lovers who want to support their favourite artists.

Firstly, a wee calculation of what a £10 download album means to artists financially compared to streaming…..

* 291 listens to a ten song album from start to finish on Spotify using their standard streaming royalty rate will earn an artist £10.

* If you listen to the whole album once a day starting on the 1st of January then it would take until the 17th of October for the artist to earn that £10.

* If you listen to the album once a week starting on the 1st of January 2025 then it would take until the 1st of June 2030 for the artist to earn that £10.

* If you buy a download then they get the £10 right now.

Secondly, and this is the one that not everyone knows about, but once you have music downloaded onto one of your devices you can integrate it into all your Spotify/Apple etc. playlists and can listen to it as you normally do on those platforms. Just search how to integrate downloads into Spotify/Apple etc. online and you’ll find out.

And finally for those of you new to downloads the game-changing resource for all artists who use it is the wonderful site Bandcamp.

If you’re a music lover and you’re not aware of it then check it out as it’s a treasure trove of downloadable music from thousands of established and new artists many of whom will offer content exclusive to the site.

Bandcamp has it’s own excellent free app player for phones/iPads where if you don’t want to integrate your music to streaming playlists or you just plain hate Spotify etc. then you can organise and listen to all your downloads in your car or wherever you go via that.

Bandcamp also offer playback quality far above Spotify and Apple so you’re also getting a much better listening experience.

So there you go, there’s the importance of downloads.

Finally, many of you have paid for our music already so we’ve offered the chance for you to get it on download to listen on the move without paying for it again. Or if you’re just discovering us but wary of spending any money then you can listen to it before you buy and then pay something or nothing if you want to and hopefully become a fan.

You can hear and get our Anthology download album at the link below and do check out our Martin, Nancy and Findlay’s pages there too plus all the other amazing artists.

The Magpie Arc – 22 Song Free/Pay What You Wish Anthology Download Compilation Album

Thanks for reading (again)!

TMA xx

Gig week is next week and we’re playing a hometown show in Sheffield on the 14th of August then at the legendary rock venue The Robin in Bilston, near Wolverhampton on the 15th and we would love to see you there.

Tickets are selling fast and you can get further information from our live page here….

themagpiearc.com/live/

And our 22-song Anthology download album is also still available on a free/pay what you want basis so get it or share it or e-gift it to a music loving friend who you think should hear about us from the link here and spread The Magpie Arc word…

themagpiearc.bandcamp.com/album/anthology

One post, one tweet or one recommendation can make all the difference for an artist and lead to a great opportunity or a sale so never underestimate what you can do!

See you out there soon.

TMA xx

As many people will know The Magpie Arc extended family are some of the finest folk artists in the UK and as a summer treat and for a limited time only our “Let Me Introduce You To The Family” download compilation album featuring ten superb folk tracks from us and our “nearests and dearests” is available to download for free or “pay what you want” from Bandcamp now, so fill your folk boots everyone and get it, share it or e-gift it around your folk loving friends/family from the link here….

The Magpie Arc – Let Me Introduce You To The Family

And our 22-song Anthology download album is also still available on a free/pay what you want basis so get it/share it/e-gift it from the link here…

The Magpie Arc – 22-Song Anthology Album

Finally, our summer gigs are coming up so if you fancy our hometown gig in Sheffield on the 14th of August or our gig at the legendary rock venue The Robin in Wolverhampton on the 15th be quick as tickets are selling fast. You can get the links with further information from here….

The Magpie Arc – Live Gigs

Hope you’re having a lovely summer of music everyone and do spread our band word. One post, one tweet or one recommendation can make all the difference for an artist and lead to a great opportunity or a sale so never underestimate them!

TMA xx

Thanks to everyone for the incredibly generous response to our Martin Simpson’s wonderful wife Kit Bailey’s “100 Skips a Day” Cancer UK fundraiser in June which raised £360 for Cancer Research from purchases of our Ae Fond Kiss download single.

We know you can’t support every cause that comes your way but we’re going to keep it going for Cancer Research so if anyone would still like to join in or if you’ve already bought it but would like to to share it around music loving pals then here’s the link…

Ae Fond Kiss single for Cancer Research

You or your friends can also grab a copy of our 22-song Anthology compilation download album on a “free/pay what you want basis” so share that about too or send it as an email gift to anyone for as little as 50p.

Here’s the link for that too…

Anthology 22-song download album

And just to say, it may look like it but Paypal is not the only buying option, all you have to do is click on the Visa or Mastercard option and you can pay by card.

Thanks again everyone!

TMA xx 🖤🤍💜

Tickets are available for our two upcoming mid-week gigs at Yellow Arch Studios in Sheffield on the 14th of August and at The Robin in Bilston, Wolverhampton on the 15th of August so do get yourselves along, it would be wonderful to see you there for some belting summer folk rock and a drink or several.

Click here for more gig information and the ticket links.

And thank you to the lovely folks who have been in touch to ask for an Amazon sales option for our special offer “Anthology” CD bundle of Glamour In The Grey and The First Three EP’s so you can use gift vouchers.

Or if you just like Amazon!

Your wish is our command so click here for the “Anthology” Amazon sales page.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful music-filled summer so far and thank you as ever for your wonderful support.

Oh, and there’s also new music a-happening so keep an eye out for album related news soon!

TMA

Our Martin Simpson’s wonderful wife Kit Bailey is coming to the end of her “100 Skips A Day In June” challenge in aid of Cancer Research UK and to support her fantastic effort (just try jumping up and down five times and you’ll understand!) we have been giving all the June proceeds from the sales of our single of Robert Burns Ae Fond Kiss, which is sung beautifully by singer/songwriter Adam Holmes, to her fundraiser.

There are three days left to go and you can download it from Bandcamp for only £1………or you can pay a bit extra if you want to, just follow the link below…

themagpiearc.bandcamp.com/track/ae-fond-kiss-featuring-adam-holmes-cancer-research-uk-charity-single

This is a very personal cause for Kit and Martin and your support has been wonderful so let’s just finish off with a flourish!

Also you can download our 22-song Anthology compilation download album for free/pay what you want if you don’t have it or if you have already bought our music on CD/vinyl but would like to have it on the move, so why not buy the single for Kit and treat yourself to the album on us?

Here’s the link…

https://themagpiearc.bandcamp.com/album/anthology

TMA xx

themagpiearc.bandcamp.com/track/ae-fond-kiss-featuring-adam-holmes-cancer-research-uk-charity-single

TMA xx

Welcome to all our new subscribers who have joined us in the last few weeks through our free/pay what you want Anthology download album. Hope you’re enjoying our music and hopefully we’ll see you at a gig sometime too.

A lot of people have asked why we have made our collection available for free/pay what you want so here’s a rather lengthy response, or you can just scroll to the last couple of paragraphs below where it’s summarised in a few lines!   

As everyone knows the folk world is a wonderful community of people committed to music and we are constantly amazed by the number of emails we get or comments on social media we see about how much they love to support artists by actually buying their music on CD’s and vinyl.

However one area that we find many people think is redundant now are downloads and we wanted to address that.  

Artists often hear that fans who only have physical copies of their music and no means to get it onto their mobile devices feel that the only way to listen to it on the move is to stream it via Spotify/Apple etc. and also fans who no longer have CD players or record decks at all feel that they have no other listening choice at all.

Well the purpose of this post is to quickly let you know that this isn’t the case and that downloads still have a very important part to play for music lovers who want to support their favourite artists.

Firstly, a wee calculation of what a £10 download album means to artists financially compared to streaming…..

* 291 listens to a ten song album from start to finish on Spotify using their standard streaming royalty rate will earn an artist £10. 

* If you listen to the whole album once a day starting on the 1st of January then it would take until the 17th of October for the artist to earn that £10.

* If you listen to the album once a week starting on the 1st of January 2024 then it would take until the 1st of June 2029 for the artist to earn that £10.

* If you buy a download then they get the £10 right now.

Secondly, and this is the one that not everyone knows about, but once you have music downloaded onto one of your devices you can integrate it into all your Spotify/Apple etc. playlists and can listen to it as you normally do on those platforms. 

Here’s how….

How to import music downloads to Spotify

How to import music downloads to Apple Music  

And finally for those of you new to downloads the game-changing resource for all artists who use it is the wonderful site Bandcamp.

If you’re a music lover and you’re not aware of it then prepare to be dazzled as Bart Simpson says as it’s a treasure trove of downloadable music from thousands of established and new artists many of whom will offer content exclusive to the site.  

Bandcamp has it’s own excellent free app player for phones/iPads where if you don’t want to integrate your music to streaming playlists or you just plain hate Spotify etc. then you can organise and listen to all your downloads wherever you go via that.

Also Bandcamp offers exceptional playback quality high above almost all streaming sites so users get a much better listening experience.

So there you go, there’s the importance of downloads.

And the quick answer – Many of you have paid for our music already so we’ve offered the chance for you to get it on download to listen on the move without paying for it again. Or if you’re just discovering us but wary of spending any money then you can listen to it before you buy and then pay something or nothing if you want to.

You can hear and buy our Anthology download album at – https://themagpiearc.bandcamp.com/

But do check out all the other amazing artists on there too.

Thanks for reading!

TMA xx

We keep getting asked by lovely fans who have previously supported us by buying CD’s and vinyl but who don’t use streaming services if there’s a way of getting our music on to their devices so that they can listen to it on the move without having to buy it again?

Why yes, there is!

We have just made ALL our music available FREE to download on Bandcamp now so you can get your previous purchases to play on your phone, iPad, laptop or wherever using either their own player or you can integrate it into whatever system you use.      

Here are our two albums individually or you can download them in one go with our Anthology compilation…..

Click here for The First Three EP’s

Click here for Glamour In The Grey

Click here for The Magpie Arc – Anthology Compilation

All you have to do when you checkout is enter £0 for the totally free option or you can pay what you like/want/afford and add any amount as a contribution if you feel so inclined.

Also all CD and vinyl purchases on Bandcamp come with a free download of the equivalent album as well and so new buyers will get that at checkout straight away.  

And don’t be shy! We’ll be delighted if you forward this post or the links to your music loving friends and they can discover us too, so let’s get a bit of a “shareathon” going and make it a Magpie Friday!

Maybe all we’d ask is that they/you sign up to our mailing list by leaving your email address at our homepage and we’ll keep you all posted of band news as and when something happens.

Thank you for your continued support everyone, it’s hugely appreciated.

See you live at one of our summer gigs maybe. 

TMA xx