Editor's Letter: Welcome to Spinner UK

Welcome to Spinner UK. We really hope you like what you see.

Music's a broad church. Too often barriers are built up -- someone, somewhere makes the decision that if you like British Sea Power you won't like Toots and the Maytals, or if you're into Blur and Oasis you've given up on listening to new stuff, and won't be interested in the wealth of new bands emerging. We don't, because that's not how we feel about music.

I'm looking at my music collection as I type this. There's the Brit-Asian melting pot of Cornershop sitting next to the acid-fried Japanese genius Cornelius, the long-lost classic Kiwi pop of the Chills and the Clean side-by-side with alt-country pioneers Uncle Tupelo and the bewitching Gothic folk of Joker's Daughter.

I'm sure all of this gives my iTunes Genius button a few sleepless nights, but I can't help it. I love music and I don't subscribe to sitting in one genre, sticking my fingers in my ears in case I hear something that doesn't quite fit.

I spend probably too many nights in bars, clubs and venues around London, sometimes swapping my critical eye for a photographic one, and I'm the kind of person who thinks nothing of combining a trip to somewhere I've never been to see a band I love.

And Spinner is aimed at people with this kind of attitude.

Spinner.com launched in 2007 with one simple idea - that it was all about the music. Since then, it's become one of the most popular music sites in the US, and has launched international editions in Spain, Poland and Canada. Now it's the UK's turn.

I'm pleased to say Spinner's attitude hasn't changed since it launched. If it's celebrity gossip you want about people who occasionally wander into a recording studio, there are plenty of other options.You're not going to find it here. We wish you luck.

But we think there's lots to keep you coming back: new MP3s, new videos, interviews with the great and the good and the hotly-tipped of the music world, exclusive news from our writers across the planet. Our UK coverage will come from local scribes passionate about music, supported by a wealth of material beamed in from our sister sites in the US, Canada and elsewhere.

And, above all, we want to hear from you. We want to know about the records you can't get out of your head, the band you've just seen you think the whole world should know about, the song that's stayed with you year after year, the classic album that you'd brave a burning building to retrieve. Hey, we're all in this together.

Stephen Dowling
Spinner UK editor