As those who have been keeping up with our Facebook updates will note (if you don’t already ‘like’ us, do not pass go or collect £200!) that yesterday ‘sweat shop conditions’ were incorporated into the Name office.  The only proof of the beautiful day forging on outside these concrete walls were the few rays of sun trickling through the cracks in the blinds only barely glimpsed between feverish typing and glaring into computer screens. Luckily the smoke of overactive brain gears was thoroughly masked by a continuingly less forceful but still present scent of Lavender persisting its office residency, occasionally plucked up and inhaled with the vigour of a veteran homeless glue sniffer. Perhaps the sight of the boss with an old sock pressed firmly to his face for extended periods would perplex the casual observer, but here it barely warrants a glance.

Further interviews for job hopefuls were conducted late into Wednesday night, wearing on all involved but allowing John to finally have some input on the new prospective member at Name.  This time round the applicants, amongst further questions, were asked to draw up press releases based on briefs given to them requiring the use of our computers, an issue that Hugo took to heart by altruistically volunteering a late start on Thursday to allow his computer to be used by the applicant.
Other than that Hugo’s time was spent on various research assignments, updating our website with a ‘Meet the Team’ page and trying to keep on top of an incessant torrent of press coverage. One of the main contributors was the release of a deal signed by Catch Media and Carphone Warehouse launching a new cloud ‘Music Locker Service’. This service essentially allows people to export their entire music collection into the ether at which point it can be accessed by their mobile phone anywhere in the world. Charting new frontiers for music licensing, this service kept us all very much occupied with a hailstorm of enquiries from the LA Times to Bloombergs  not to mention all the local music trade mags and blogs.
In between floral inhalations and threats to join a band Sam professed to be ‘crumbling’ after his first full week in the office and decided a spa package was in order to keep body and soul together, unfortunately his attempts to rally support from his colleagues to go with him met a luke warm reception.
Although a good portion of his week was taken up with the Catch/Carphone Warehouse launch, Sam found himself jumping in the ring with Rdio, yet another streaming service and the first to launch into the potentially lucrative US market. This release met with strong contention though, some believing  the release to have gone off half cocked missing out a deal with the main independent labels around the world, aka Merlin. (That means no The XX, Vampire Weekend, Arcade Fire, or Tiesto).
Nat’s week has been taken up with further sponsorship securing, drawing up Merlin press and combating a nasty computer virus that looked unconquerable, though after nearly 5 hours of software uploads and scans the beast was finally vanquished. Nat 1 – Trojan Virus 0.
The end of the week has found Nat filing a mountain of receipts and currently scouring the web for European Trade press, as well as being taken back to her high school days with the office stereo playing out tunes.
John’s early absence to run off and enjoy Standon Calling was noticed today by the lack of a voice of reason as Sam ran amuck with the credit card actually buying new upgraded office chairs for all. Some may have noticed a touch of cynicism a couple of weeks ago when it was predicted that the chairs would never be bought, may the doubters be corrected.
Whilst Dave’s week was spent mainly with accounts doing the engaging task of crunching numbers and invoicing, a young client of ours The Reclusive Barclay Brothers was plotting how they could buy more fans…see www.newlowformusic.com for more information!
Well that’s a brief update for this week,
Until next week
The Name Team