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It hasn’t even been a month, and I already MUST send another newsletter out because of all the great things that have been happening here! There are a number of very important notes that all members and prospective members must check out in this newsletter. I’ll cut right to the chase with the top stories:

*Band Additions: The following bands have been added to the catalog: Project Alcazar, Defyance, Alchemy-X, Endangered Species, and Cerafim! Also, in various stages of joining, are Singularity, Wayde Cooper, Vince Vrbancic, Rod Laschanzky, Frankenshred, Broderick Gray, and Goocher! We couldn’t be more pleased about the interest and enthusiasm that all of the bands have offered!

*A&R Reps: Fossil Records will now be aided by the efforts of Jim Reindel and Jon Yarger in the area of A&R (artist and repetoire) representation. They will be finding new talent for Fossil Records and making sure that prospective members fall into the necessary categories (eg. genre). If you know of a band that would be interested in working with us, please contact Jim (jimreindel@aol.com) with their name, website address, and email (if you have it). Jon, founder of the Progressive Rock Radio Network, will be offering Fossil’s services to bands that fall under his pervue.

*NMA Rep: Fossil Records has enlisted the help of Chris Carrington in the area of NMA representation at MP3.com. All members of Fossil Records and MP3.com are encouraged to list Chris as their NMA representative. To do this, log into your artist section on MP3.com, go to Admin, Promotion Tools, Promote Your Band, and then enter Dagba@worldspy.net as your NMA representative.

*New Internet Coordinator: Fossil Records has enlisted the help of John Green who has agreed to become our Internet coordinator. Effective immediately, the address http://www.fossilrecords.net will point to our website. You are still able to use the old address (fossil.homepage.com), but we do encourage you to use the new address.

*New License Agreement Format: For those members who have struggled through the two different licenses and the addendum to those license, I salute you – but I’ve done it again. We have rewritten the agreement for a number of reasons. Those reasons being:
                    -we combined the License and Distribution agreements into one form
                    -artists no longer have to wait for Fossil to mail a signed copy
                    -the form is downloadable in .pdf format
Current members that have sent in a signed form need to do nothing as there has been no significant change to the language of the agreements. However, prospective members may now take it upon themselves to download the file (24k), print it out, sign it, and send it in with their CDs or other materials. You can find this file on the Services page under the “license” hyperlinks.

*Webpage Updated: Sure, we update the webpage every couple of days, but these updates need to be advertised. First off, we have put more information on the Services page related to who pays for what and when. These areas have been a constant problem because, honestly, I originally did a poor job describing it. I feel that I’ve got it down in English now, instead of legalese, but I ask that everyone take a look and let me know if the language is still confusing.

*The Forum: We have gotten the Forum up and running and we ask that everyone uses it to ask questions, exchange ideas and experiences, trade band equipment, trade bandmates… ;-) etc. This Forum is open to everyone and will never be limited to members.

*Compilation CDs: We have finally gotten enough people to start working on compilation CDs. We will have an instrumental CD, entitled “Axcavation”, which will feature instrumental songs from all of our artists. We will also have a progressive CD, entitled “UnEarthed”, which will feature progressive rock and metal songs. We will be asking for input from each member when we have an idea of which songs we would like to use. Of course, inclusion is voluntary and we won’t use any artists’ work without their permission.

*Viewing Your Account: Since we keep track of everyone’s account information using Microsoft Excel 2000, we have placed the Excel Viewer on the Resources page under “Essential Tools For Fossil Members.” You only need the tool if you don’t have Excel 2000 (Office 2000) and you must have a PC running Win95 or better. If you have a Mac, let me know and I will try to find an alternative for you. I will be sending a personal email to each member letting them know the exact address of their account.

*Miscellaneous: As always, I thank everyone for their interest and patience as we get Fossil up to speed. If you ever feel that there is a problem that needs to be addressed, don’t hesitate to contact me directly. If you have any suggestions that will make Fossil a better organization, please let us know. If I fail to get to your email messages within a couple of days please send them again. I always try to wade through them every day (and there are a lot of them) and you can never know when my mail server will collapse from exhaustion. Recent members need to send in their CDs as we will be sending material out for review soon. If you are still only a “prospective” member and would like to become a member (and you are on this mailing list) then please go to the Join page on the website, follow the directions, and… welcome aboard!!

Sincerely,

Gary W. Franklin
Managing Partner
Fossil Records (Madison County, IL)
http://www.fossilrecords.net