A bit of good news as the Watford Observer finds itself at the forefront of a national experiment to promote hyper-local music charts.

To cut a very long story short we have been chosen to pilot a scheme allowing artists to upload tracks directly to our website, completely free of charge.

From here our more than 80,000 readers can listen to and vote for their favourites, with the results compiled in a monthly chart and the ‘winners’ interviewed and featured in the WO.

Eventually our American paymasters hope to roll this out nationwide but reckon Watford’s a good a place to start as any – something about a thriving local scene, well-read local newspaper etc etc.

Sound Advice columnist Neil Skinner explained: “We’ve got dozens of really talented acts in our readership area, many of whom struggle to get noticed.

“They’ve nearly all got Myspace pages where people can access their music but that’s the problem – so too does every other band in the world. They find themselves lost in the crowd, which is a real shame.

“We want to help these guys out by promoting them in their home communities. We want as many people as possible to get to know and love their music – even if they hardly ever go to gigs.”

The plan is that if this trial proves successful the scheme will be rolled out to every major town and city in the UK – all of whom can sample each other’s pool of talent.

Naturally, however, we need you help. We aim to go live with this in the next few weeks so need as many of you to send in the following: an MP3 recording of ONE track and brief biog to nskinner@london.newsquest.co.uk .