The Shining - Young Again - Stream Audio Tracks

As of Monday 9th September fans who purchase The Shining’s latest single ‘Young Again’ are in for a unique hidden treat. In an unprecedented move the UK’s “next great rock n’ roll band” (NME) have planted their entire debut album ‘True Skies’ on their latest CD single.

Young Again was released on the 2nd September on a 2 x CD formats. Both formats include exclusive tracks and CD2 includes an enhanced video element…. nothing unusual in that. However each CD format has actually been encrypted with an entire album’s worth of music, using the latest in secure download technology, as a thank you to fans.

The encrypted album has been essentially ‘hidden’ on each CD format, and in a bid to avoid being thrown out of the singles chart, the files weren’t activated until this morning – one week after release and the first day of an official chart postion.Hence if you’re reading this, we’ve managed to break the rules and end up in the Singles Chart.The technology is so new that there are no chart rules that cover this in The Official Chart Company rules and hence this is flagrant breach.

Until activated each album track appears as an inert file (when the disc is placed in computer), once activated the fan is directed by an active weblink to a secure website and then has access to every single track on the band’s debut album ‘True Skies’.

Fans with a copy of ‘Young Again’ will be able to hear the album in its entirety twice, a full week before it’s official release. Further information on accessing the tracks is available on the artist site at www.theshiningarehere.com - Channel 45. Zuma (the bands label) carried out a teaser marketing campaign tagging all artwork, posters and point of sale directing fans to Channel 45 of the band’s website where further information could be found.

Way to Blue is the digital marketing company representing The Shining for Zuma Recordings, run by Jazz Summers and Tim Parry. Both have enjoyed huge success with Badly Drawn Boy, The Verve, Lisa Stansfield and Soul II Soul.

Online publicist for The Shining, Anthony Britten, remarked “This is indeed a bold move. It will definitely provoke a reaction from the industry, which is very much in keeping with the ethos of Zuma. The British recording industry is currently pretty evenly split between a conservative faction and innovators like Jazz”

On the implications of this new technology, Jazz Summers said “As soon as The Official Chart Company find out what we’ve done they could move to ensure that Young Again loses its chart eligibility. Their restrictions are typical of the constraints that face our industry at a time when we have to look at new way to market records. This an album that both the band and ourselves are proud of, and utilising this technology was the perfect way to give fans the chance to listen to the album before they have to commit themselves to buying the album.”

This is a similar view held by Britten, who went on to say “While one group is still arguing about the damage done by MP3s, the other is marching on with ideas like this one. Historically, this always happens when new technologies arrive and it’s the traditionalists who usually lose out to the innovators. Either way, its great for music fans because they get to hear the album before they buy it.”

The Shining are Simon Jones and Simon Tong, both formerly of The Verve and Duncan Baxter, Dan Macbean and Mark Heaney.

True Skies is released on the 16th September

Listen to The Shining 'Young Again'

View The Shining Biography

www.theshiningarehere.com