Happy anniversary to Hopes and Dreams, Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams [Instrumentals] bonus album is OUT now on Bandcamp, more Patreon rewards are out to celebrate, Jabun's 2nd album is FINISHED (audio & artwork) + more updates!

Hi everyone and hope you've had a great few weeks since the last post! It's been a busy and hectic time here with a lovely post-lockdown (but socially distanced) visit to see family / friends in my hometown a few weekends ago, a moderate muscle strained turned week of mild constant agony from an allergic reaction to medication (thankfully I'm on the road to recovery now, but physical exercise and BTTB stage practice are off the table at the moment...), the release of Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams [Instrumentals] bonus album, as well as finally finishing the master audio for Jabun's upcoming 2nd album / ambient exploration! Lots of updates to share with you today so let's get started!

First of all this week, a happy 1 year anniversary to Better Than The Book's Hopes and Dreams album, and what a year it's been! With a whopping 9/10 tracks featured on the radio worldwide from the USA to UK to Australia including on idobi Radio, BBC Introducing, and The Ska Show with Beefy (the number 2 ska music show in the world), dozens of web blog and zine features, and the subsequent formation of the Better Than The Book LIVE band, Hopes and Dreams was my most successful album to date and made a mark I couldn't have ever imagined when I first launched it! A huge thanks to everyone who helped make all this happen with a huge shout out to Meg, the album's PR extraordinaire, Beefy and Melita for their continued radio support and great vibes, the BTTB live band's Eamon, Sam and Andy for their boundless enthusiasm to take these tunes to the stage, and of course to the patrons who keep my music going with special mention to Nathan, David, and Michael! Thank you all so much!

And to celebrate as you already know, last Sunday I finally released the Hopes and Dreams [Instrumentals] bonus album on Bandcamp too! Hopes and Dreams [Instrumentals], much like I did for Two Years On, is a complete off-vocal version of the album for you to sing along to, make silly mash-ups, or simply listen to when you want some BTTB but without any vocals! Check it out on Bandcamp to explore the full album credits, have a listen, and pick up a copy:​

https://betterthanthebook.bandcamp.com/album/hopes-and-dreams-instrumentals

Of course, my supporters on Patreon don't need to go to Bandcamp to grab a copy! Pick up the full Hopes and Dreams [Instrumentals] bonus album for as little as $1 when you become a supporter on Patreon today! Remember too that you're not just getting this album when you sign up, you'll also be gaining access to all past rewards for you tier too including the full Better Than The Book discography, a tonne of Jabun, many Patreon exclusive downloads and a whole lot more! Hope to see you in the community!

Become a patron & find out more: https://www.patreon.com/NickStanding
Grab the mp3s & Art: https://www.patreon.com/posts/37814855
Grab the mp3s, Art & WAVs: https://www.patreon.com/posts/37814852

The next set of rewards will be on the first Wednesday of August as usual (final Wednesday of July for the $5+ patrons) and we'll be back to the Jabun back catalogue for the final tracks of 2016! Until then I hope you enjoy all the new(ish) music and thanks as always for supporting Better Than The Book, Jabun and my various projects here on Patreon! 

Unfortunately I've been experiencing some problems / delays with the distributor I use for my main global distribution, so it might be a little while until the album appears on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon and all the other major digital distribution services. I will however be uploading the rest of the album, a track a week starting tomorrow to YouTube, Newgrounds, and SoundCloud, and you can of course continue to listen to the tracks on Bandcamp in the mean time! Enjoy! 

Next and lastly in the news for this week, after a few months sitting on it while I sorted the Hopes and Dreams [Instrumentals] album, last week I finally finished, mastered and exported, the audio for the upcoming 2nd Jabun album! The artwork has been finished for some time too which means that the album as a product is well and truly complete! Now just comes the task of sorting out all the admin work and uploading to distributors before I can launch the pre-release and make the big announcement. With the promo period for BTTB's new album ending by the start of October, I'll likely be announcing / launching pre-orders the album properly in November ready to release in December before the end of the year! In the mean time, I have another Jabun album to continue production on which I hope to release in Spring 2021, and there's still another double-album's worth of Jabun material to work on after that (and I'm very much itching to get back to some BTTB writing too)! Lots of music to come, and I'll be trying to pace myself with the releases but it certainly looks to be an exciting year or so to come! More info and updates soon!

And that about wraps things up for this blog post! I'll likely be back to working on the 3rd Jabun album while promoting BTTB's new bonus album and sorting the admin work for Jabun's 2nd album next week, along with some organ practice, and hopefully some Better Than The Book practice if I'm well and healed up enough for it. We shall see but I've no doubt it'll be a busy week to come nonetheless! Until the next post, I hope you enjoy all the new music and have a great week and thanks as always for supporting Jabun, Better Than The Book, JabunAudio and my various projects! Stay safe and sensible, and take care!