Fed up with Simon Cowell telling you what to listen to? Consider yourself to be a fan of ‘real music’ and thoroughly depressed by the so called ‘talent shows’ on TV, and everywhere else in the media? Manchester, we have the perfect antidote for you. The Source is a new TV show, a talent show with a difference, that will air daily on SKY 203 from 12th September, showcasing some of the best raw, unsigned talent in the UK. With a prize of £10,000 and a co-operative record deal which will split profits with the artist 50:50 up for grabs, The Source aims to give back to the artists in a climate that has become ever more controlled and manipulated by promoters, management and labels.

Unsigned bands of all genres can submit up to three videos onto The Source website. All entrants will be whittled down to a total of 120 finalists through a free public vote on the website and those finalists will go on to appear on The Source television show, with the eventual winner being decided by a paid for phone and text vote, the bands taking a split of all the profits from voting and ticket sales. Now you don’t get that with The X Factor.

The weekly show will be filmed in FAC251, The Factory, Peter Hook’s new club, initially taking the form of a music video chart show and, in the latter stages, with the finalists performing live in front of the cameras. The Source website has gone live this week and already hosts a number of bands’ videos, handily split into genres. We had a quick look through to see what was going down and stumbled upon an interesting variety - folk with its roots in the south of Brittany, via Dublin:



Electro dance from The Get Along Gang:



And even a decent bit of metal:



There’s plenty more on there so go and have a look and get voting for your favourite ones. Bands can submit their videos on The Source website up until the end of August.