Hi Deano,
Hope to have a preview lined up soon.
As far as your main question - the various labels featured on the frontpage are all sponsors as far as paying for banner ad space and CD Showcases to feature their product.
On occasion, I have indeed been used as an impartial, or non-involved third party (outside the label and artist) to leak or feature new music to create an advance buzz - Promotion is my game, so that happens from time to time.
Sometimes I have printed an exclusive bit of info from a source - not naming who that source is, with the news actually coming from the band
In fact, one cool Journey story....way back in the early days of this site - maybe 2 years into running it - I had already established good terms with Jon Cain (and later on Neal)...talked to them on the phone etc during the time when they were trying to sort out whether Steve Perry would agree to tour or quit the band.
They told me things I kept off the record (as I ALWAYS do if requested) and gained their trust (something I don't take for granted).
Now, I was in regular contact with Jonathan, and happened to catch him on the phone the very day Steve Perry agreed to quit the band and had signed off on the paperwork allowing the band to continue without him.
I said could this be announced and he said not officially (that will follow shortly), but it's true, so you can say something - just not quote the band.
So I was actually still working a full time day job at the time and had used the office phone to call Jon up for an update
I was standing there with the exclusive of a lifetime (at that point) and had to get it online ASAP!
I called my wife, who happened to be at home on a day off and talked her thru adding the HTML and text to my frontpage to announce this news.
It was pretty simple – in large bold letters across the top of the page read:
Journey – Perry Out!
And oh man….did I get some attention from that – and some abuse! I wish I had kept the e-mails from some of the Journey fans that wrote me! As it was not yet announced officially, or anywhere for that matter, I got some real hate mail…some seriously agro messages from upset fans.
Some of it was pleasant, but some was so funny – like “you don’t know what you are talking about you &^%$^& *^$@$ *&%$* etc…” or “you are so full of **^%#%$&*^$$” etc….
But I sat there reading these messages, knowing the info had come straight from Jon and laughing – wishing these people knew exactly where the info came from at the time.
I think it was 3 days later that it was officially announced. I got one or two apologies, but not many more!
But, my site got a substantial boost in traffic from that – I went from 300 hits a day to 1000 a day and that number never declined (now it’s 15,000 a day!)
Ok, that’s about it – hope you enjoyed this never previously told story!!
Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2005 10:36 am
Andrew, do you know any of the local concert promoters over there? You should convince them to get Journey booked to play some Australian dates! 
Are you coming back to the states to catch a show this year?