FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ROCK IS RELIGION AND PIMPS & PINUPS GIVES BACK TO BANDS WITH “THIS IS SPINAL CUTS” POP-UP SALON PROGRAM

Call Out for Bands to Participate in the “Rock Is Religion Gives Back” Program: Free Haircuts and Styling for Bands Touring Through New York City

New York, NY – 17th December, 2009 – Rock Is Religion (www.rockisreligion.com), the social media news provider of Digital Media news for the Music Industry announces, “Rock Is Religion Gives Back”, its first charity program to help artists on tour. Partnering with Pimps & Pinups (www.pimpsandpinups.com), the London and New York boutique hair salon which combines classic hairstyling with the latest styles, Rock Is Religion will provide artists with the, “Rock Is Religion and Pimps & Pinups’ This Is Spinal Cuts” – a pop-up salon that offers free haircuts and hair styling for bands that are touring through New York City.

The idea of the Rock Is Religion and Pimps & Pinups’ This Is Spinal Cuts program is to help artists look amazing for their shows after being out on the road for weeks. This Is Spinal Cuts is currently looking for bands and artists on tour through New York, NY, in need of free awesome haircuts or styling generously donated by the staff at New York’s premiere fashionable boutique salon, Pimps & Pinups.

To qualify for This Is Spinal Cuts, artists must be on tour at the time of the date they participate in the program, and routed through New York City (with a show, at the most, two days before or after the date of the free service). Artists (or artists’ representatives) must submit a photo of the artist/band to Rock Is Religion. Haircut and styling services is only available for the performing artist/band members.

Rock Is Religion and Pimps & Pinups will arrange a pop-up salon to be stationed at the show’s venue, or artists may wish to receive their This Is Spinal Cuts service at the Pimps & Pinups salon located in NYC’s Lower East Side.

“The objective of the Rock Is Religion Gives Back program is to partner with lifestyle brands to provide free services and products to help artists and bands on tour.” said Emmy Burns, Founder and President of RockIsReligion.com, “Rock Is Religion is incredibly grateful to the prestigious and ultra glamorous salon, Pimps & Pinups for donating their services to artists on tour for the Rock Is Religion and Pimps & Pinups’ This Is Spinal Cuts pop-up salon”.

“Pimps & Pinups as always had a strong affiliation with music and that’s why we are offering our services.” said John Hoad, General Manager of Pimps & Pinups, “After all, any promising band must have a sharp haircut.”

The This Is Spinal Cuts pop-up salon is available now to artists and bands touring through New York City.

For more information or if you would like to be involved, please contact:
Emmy Burns

Founder & President, Rock Is Religion

@rocklisreligion

emmy@rockisreligion.com

About Rock Is Religion

Rock Is Religion was founded in 2008, on the idea to raise awareness of new digital marketing technologies that could benefit the music industry. Rock Is Religion (www.rockisreligion.com and @rockisreligion) is a social media news service provider of Digital Media news for the Music Industry on Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook. In 2009 Rock Is Religion incorporated the Rock Is Religion Gives Back program to benefit artists on tour.

About Pimps & Pinups

Following the success of its London salon, which has featured in a number of seminal British fashion canons including Vogue UK and Elle, Pimps & Pinups (www.pimpsandpinups.com and @pimpsandpinups) is proud to announce the opening of a second salon in Manhattan’s effortlessly chic Lower East Side at 101 Stanton St, New York, NY 10002.

ReverbNation the leading marketing platform for musicians, launches ‘Sponsored Songs,’ a new online music distribution program that will give music fans access to unlimited free song downloads from 1,000 artists.

Sponsored Songs will be available on www.MySpace.com/Windows for free until September 24, 2009, and will feature music from independent and mainstream Artists in the rock, alternative, hip hop, latin, and electronica genres.

The first brand to sponsor the new program is Microsoft. The program is mutually beneficial to both brands and artists: brands are able to position themselves as tastemakers, and artists are able to monetize from their music.

“By participating in Sponsored Songs we are supporting music artists and their fans,” said Marty Collins, group marketing manager of Windows Consumer Marketing at Microsoft Corp. “We’re excited to be a part of an effort that could transform online music distribution.”

Sponsored Songs is an opt-in program for select Artists that use ReverbNation.com as their online marketing platform. Artists are paid for each qualified download, and are shown the exact advertisement for their approval prior to the campaign launch.

“We treat Artists like we would want to be treated,” says Lou Plaia, vice president of artist relations at ReverbNation.com. “We give them the information to determine if Sponsored Songs is a good fit for them. If it is, we equip them with turnkey tools to promote the song to their fans.”

Involver is a new application for Facebook that turns your Fan Page from generic to dynamic.

The site touts itself as being ”The first complete marketing suite on Facebook”. There is a premium for the service, but some of the individual applications like the RSS Feed, Photo Gallery, You Tube Channel, Twitter, Poll, Coupon, File Sharing, Slides and PDFs are available for free.

Even though the ability to seamlessly enable a Twitter, RSS, You Tube feed into your Fan Page is nothing new, the ability to brand all your individual Tabs with your own logo on your Facebook Fan Page in a neat and professional looking way is.

The Coupon application is nice if you are a band offering a promotion exclusively on Facebook. You can create e-coupons either exclusively for existing Fans of the page, and/or create a different coupon for new fans (to encourage them to become a Fan of the Page).

However, the product description claims to offer a “set it and forget it” feature, which generally goes against the whole point of “social networking”.

As per the site’s instructions, it’s simple to use and promotes engagement and viral sharing, which enables marketers to take one step closer to being able to find a way to successfully monetize the Facebook platform.

Since using a lighter indoors is considered a fire hazard, technology has come to our rescue again, this time in the form of a lighter that can be used to show our appreciation for a rocking ballad.

According to the product description, The Virtual Zippo Lighter opens with a flick of your wrist and lights with a turn of your thumb. The windproof flame sways as you move your iPhone or iPod Touch and reacts when you blow it out. Choose from a variety of Zippo Lighter images and customize a handful selected lighters.

With over 3 million downloads,The Virtual Zippo Lighter still averages about 100,000 new downloads per week… probably to use at concerts.  

COST: Free 

NAME: The Virtual Zippo Lighter

COMPATIBLE WITH: iPhone and iPod Touch (Requires iPhone 2.0 software Update)