My god, has it been another year already? 2006 was a year of growth and re-invention for Stereotype. We released two great records (by Ollie Byrd and Amanda Jo Williams), which both outsold everything that came before and got tons of radio and press exposure.

Our ideas about creating a new Utopian vision of a relationship between artist, label, and audience had mixed results. You came and downloaded thousands of free promotional tracks, and some of you actually followed through and bought the CDs and downloaded the rest of the albums from iTunes. Some of you didn't…

This year, we plan to release more records than last, grow our roster, sell more, get more exposure, hopefully place more music in shows and films – in short, we aim to get our artists rewarded for their labors. That's what this is all about: we love every artist on our roster and want to see them noticed by the world. You can help. Tell your friends about us. Send them to our site. Play our artists on your web radio, in your podcasts, on your radio shows. Let us know what we can do to help.

In other news, we're trying to figure out every way we can make Stereotype a greener endeavor. We started in year one by limiting cds to recycled packaging whenever possible and limiting physical distribution (trucks and planes burn diesel to get that record to the local Wal-Mart in Mobile, Alabama, where the record is likely to sit on the shelf a few weeks before getting shipped back to on another truck or plane!). We're looking into switching to servers running on renewable energy. Have any other suggestions? Let us know. We're all ears.

Love,

Stereotype