(March 24, 2016) Today I’m proud to announce that SWEET SOUL RECORDS and URBAN UNION, the only organization actively promoting soul and R&B music in Taiwan, have begun a mission to spread real music in their young country.
Talks of a collaboration begun in early 2015 but only found some direction the latter part of the year, and finally getting off the ground the first couple of months of 2016. Here at SWEET SOUL were are looking forward to working closely with Brien John (URBAN UNION Director and Founder) and the other members of URBAN UNION team on music distribution and promotions, content creation and management, artist recommendations, and event bookings.
It began back in 2013 when I received an inquiry from Brien about purchasing Nao Yoshioka’s debut album. Fortunately enough he was planning a trip to Japan so we decided to meet up and talk about music and the environment in Taiwan relating to soul and R&B music. Over drinks we discussed a wide-range of topics which lead me to believe that he was genuine in his mission to introduce soul and R&B in Taiwan. It took us a while but through numerous calls and discussions we never wavered on our dream to partner up someday to help boost his efforts and to offer our artists more opportunities here in Asia. Now that our partnership has been realized, I have no doubt that all independent soul and R&B artists will benefit from these efforts.
URBAN UNION: Brief Introduction
Urban Union is not an official record label, it’s just several friends gathering together with the same passion and love for R&B and soul music. Established in June 2013, URBAN UNION is the only organization in Taiwan that specializes in R&B and soul music promotions. The founders include the admins of the forum RnB_Soul of ptt.cc (the biggest forum in Taiwan) and long-time music fans.
In the past 10 years, we have established a large R&B fan base, while organizing many events throughout Taiwan. Due to the power of social media, our focus has now shifted to Facebook presence and further building our own website. We aim to continue to build the foundation of R&B music in Taiwan through abundant content, a vast fan base, an extensive database, and more outstanding events.
Up to the end of 2015, URBAN UNION have published more than 500 professional articles and accumulated more nearly 200,000 clicks on our website. Our collaborators include many local music labels, media, and record stores.
URBAN UNION: Socials
Website: urbanunion.tw
Facebook FanPage: facebook.com/UrbanUnion.tw
Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/urbanunion
The Collaboration: What the future holds
Through this collaboration we are looking to introduce new music to the Taiwanese soul and R&B music lovers by releasing the most talented artists from around the world and promoting their music, with the aim being to build a loyal fan base for these artists and hopefully in the near future, move into touring Asia.
Working to spread this special music in territories that are unfamiliar is never an easy task, so partnering with some talented and passionate guys like URBAN UNION will make the adventure very much worthwhile.
We’ll keep you posted on any major developments and progress in general.
Michael Harris
Senior Manager,
SWEET SOUL Team
