After several months of pacing, I've decided to pull the trigger on my own promotions venture: a monthly new music showcase entitled 'Most Rated'. Four hot-tipped acts, booked from a local scene, paid and promoted at top venues, chosen by you, the listening audience.

The idea stemmed from my own experience gigging on the London circuit, widely regarded as being up there with Graceland and Nashville as the places to be if you are a musician, and seeing how many poorly promoted gigs there were; either with terrible acts playing to their gimmacing friends, or brilliant acts playing to an empty room. All too often, bands end up paying to play in London, before considering the cost of purchasing equipment and hiring rehearsal studios. The cost of transport alone makes regular gigging expensive. On top of that, its more common than not that little hidden costs make their way into the equation, with promotors charging for back-lines, promotion materials or even door-money if the band doesn't bring in their quota. Surely we don't have to beg our friends and family to create a live music scene in London?

So as with most problems I face in life I began making a website. I wanted to create a decent, unified, non-corporate space where the music on my local scene can be heard, in the form of a local radio station. Artists who are actively gigging on the scene, could upload new material, which would be selected at random to be played down the wire to fans. By all sharing in the same listening experience, our comments and feedback, through the advanced social tools at our disposal, would result in much better promotion than when we listen in an isolated, insular way.

To ensure the quality of the music, a voting mechanism could be applied- so that the most rated artists would be played more often. To my amazement, the domain was free, so Most Rated was born.

The idea can work equally for all new music, whether its the garageband breaking onto the scene or the indie-label artist putting out their new material. So long as the content is new, and can be seen live at a local venue, we can organise the radio station to target the music directly at the fans who are most likely to turn-out for the events, which is the surest revenue for artists. This is reflected in the line-up from our opening show, which is a mixture of experience and signed/un-signed acts.

With a locally-tuned audience based around the website, I intend to convert the limitless enthusiasm there is for new music into real results for artists, who are at the centre of this adventure. Every artist who plays Most Rated gets paid. At the opening show, artist's are bagging £80 each to cover their expenses, and hopefully walk-out a few quid up. On top of that, the increasing prestige of playing at our events, with recorded audio and video available on the website, they'll get the attention that is deserved and build on their success.

As the night becomes more worthwhile for the artists, so will it become more worthwhile for the fans, and this virtuous circle can only lead to bigger and better things. I intend to branch-out into other cities with the idea, providing plenty of potential then to bring the most rated artists from one scene to another, helping artists break-out of their home-grown audiences.

Right now, the live aspect of Most Rated is well and truly underway with our first event being held at the Rhythm Factory in Whitechapel, on Thursday, 24th March. Ahead of the website launch, I need to get my promoter credentials growing, moving towards a good weekend slot, which will bring in the most punters. Until the voting aspect is ready, I've lined up some local quality acts to play, with the stop-press scoop of grabbing Bristolian creative-genius S.J. Esau to add prestige to the proceedings.

The technical part of the website is under construction, but within the next few weeks I'll be needed bands and listeners to sign-up to test things out, in a 'beta' launch. After that, it's ready to battle-test in the real world... so please follow-up, spread the word and keep loving new music!