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

Everyone loves a recommendation eh? Well today is “New Fans Friday” and the day to give a shout out to artists you want other people to check out so do join in the fun and rattle off some names round your music circle by email/social media/pigeon/whatever for everyone to explore.

Never underestimate the power of a like or a share or a retweet for an artist as who knows where it might lead for them.

Our recommendations…..?

Ben Nicholls – “Go to” bass player for some of the UK’s finest artists has a great solo album called “Duets” out now which features our Martin Simpson plus Seth lakeman, Cara Dillon, Nadine Shah, Kris Drever, Jon Boden and many others.

Click here for Ben Nicholls – Duets

Jack Badcock – Founder member of banging folk band Dallahan has his debut solo album, Cosmography, out this week and it’s a corker. Jack is a singer/songwriter that you’ll soon hear a lot about and he’s also on tour to support it right now so if he’s anywhere near you then don’t miss him.

Click here for Jack Badcock – Cosmography

We’ve also put our “Let Me Introduce You To The Family” download album of TMA band-members and their nearest and dearest’s on a special offer “pay what you want” deal today to add to the fun so have a listen to it at our Bandcamp page and why not send it by email as a gift to someone you love music with?

Click here for The Magpie Arc – Let Me Introduce You To The Family

Happy listening everyone!

TMA xx

Just a little heads up about the music site Bandcamp, why we regularly mention it and why it is vitally important for the thousands of independent artists who use it.

Bandcamp is a platform that allows it’s users to sell download copies of their music plus also physical merchandise (CDs, vinyl, t-shirts, anything really) direct to fans worldwide for a very small commission.

It is a superb artist alternative to streaming and “expensive to sell on” shopping sites for those wonderful fans who wish to support us directly and many, many artists offer exclusive or limited edition content there. Plus with downloaded music you can integrate it into your streaming playlists so still have the ease of the Spotify, Apple Music etc. interfaces.

It is also a very social place where you can comment and send us messages and you can preview all the music, so “try before you buy”.

On the first Friday of each month Bandcamp have what they call “Bandcamp Friday” where for one day they waive their share of all sales revenue and it is the perfect day to buy stuff as we get to keep all the proceeds.

Today is Bandcamp Friday for May so if you are in the market for discovering new music then do have a search around where you will find a treasure-trove of amazing things.

We’re on there with our “free/pay what you want” download compilation album and our family/friends download album and so are band-members Nancy, Martin and Findlay with their music along with lots of our folksome friends.

So there you go. It is a wonderful resource, which frankly was a lifeline to many artists during COVID, so do have a rummage around there and see what you can find.

Here’s all our links…

The Magpie Arc – https://themagpiearc.bandcamp.com/

Nancy Kerr – https://nancykerr.bandcamp.com/

Martin Simpson – https://martinsimpson.bandcamp.com/

Findlay Napier – https://findlaynapier.bandcamp.com/

Happy hunting!

TMA xx

Our Martin Simpson’s superb new album “Skydancers” is an Amazon number one bestseller and our Anthology download collection is a Bandcamp bestseller too!

If you haven’t heard it already then do check out Martin’s album which is being hailed by reviewers as possibly his best ever, it really is that good.

Click here for Martin Simpson – Skydancers

And do check out our Anthology compilation which is available on a “pay what you want/pay what you can afford/pay nothing” basis, it’s entirely up to you, all we ask is that you do share The Magpie Arc news by telling someone about us. Or better still you can email the album to someone that you love music with for the princely sum of 50p.

Click here for The Magpie Arc – Anthology

Finally, if you prefer to use streaming for your music listening did you know that you can integrate music downloads that you purchase into your Spotify, Apple etc. playlists so you can support artists by buying directly but still have the convenience of using those platforms?

Here’s a couple of articles which show you how….

How to import music downloads to Spotify

How to import music downloads to Apple Music

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

TMA xx 🖤🤍💜

We’re delighted to be playing another summer night gig in Sheffield this year on Wednesday the 14th of August at our spiritual home Yellow Arch Studios and tickets are now on sale so click on the link below to buy yours…

The Magpie Arc Live At Yellow Arch Studios

Anybody who was at our gig there last year will tell you what a lovely setting it is with loads of excellent food places nearby, outside drinks in the secluded venue courtyard and then indoors for some rocking folk!

Also, what a fantastic response to our #NewFansFriday “pay what you want” offer on our Anthology download album this weekend. You’ve helped make it a Bandcamp bestseller and we’ve had loads of new CD and vinyl sales plus mailing list sign-ups.

Fan power indeed!

The “pay nothing/pay something” offer is open till midnight tonight so do share the album link below with anyone who you think should hear us and ask them to check it and us out…

The Magpie Arc 22-Song Anthology Download Album

Thank you everyone and we look forward to seeing you out at a gig somewhere soon.

TMA xx