<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"Nicola Roberts has admitted that she was scared about having her debut solo single being made available using the On Air, On Sale release strategy. The system sees tracks being made available for legal download as soon as they are released to radio for airplay. Jessie J benefited from the scheme when her second single &amp;#039;Price Tag&amp;#039; debuted at number one. The Girls Aloud star revealed that she had been surprised to discover the Top 10 midweek chart position for &amp;#039;Beat of My Drum&amp;#039; - just days after it was released. &amp;quot;Four weeks ahead of actual release and with hardly any plays on the radio or any promotion. I couldn&amp;#039;t believe it!&amp;quot; she wrote on her website. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s funny how Universal Records put out music now, they let it be available to download as soon as it goes to radio. &amp;quot;So potentially you chart without any promotion and then let your record build. The last record I put out with the girls, our label didn&amp;#039;t work like this at all so it was extra scary for me! It&amp;#039;s better in terms of illegal downloads but scarier for the artist!&amp;quot; Roberts confessed that premiering the song on BBC Radio 1 last week had been &amp;quot;scary, scary, scary&amp;quot;.  &amp;quot;It was strange because I just had the track sitting on my laptop for eight months and then to finally hear it on the radio was weird,&amp;quot; she explained. &amp;quot;The reviews for my single have been amazing! I took a risk with my sound for this first song and stood by my guns in wanting to do something different.  &amp;quot;Music is moving faster than ever and I think it&amp;#039;s important to stretch yourself and not always sit in your comfort zone, however comfortable it is.&amp;quot; &amp;#039;Beat of My Drum&amp;#039; is out now, while Roberts&amp;#039;s debut album Cinderella&amp;#039;s Eyes will follow later in the year.  &amp;gt; Nicola Roberts: &amp;#039;I&amp;#039;ll be sad if Girls Aloud don&amp;#039;t reunite&amp;#039; Watch the Nicola Roberts &amp;#039;Beat of My Drum&amp;#039; video below:  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/music/news/a323832/nicola-roberts-on-air-on-sale-single-release-is-scary/>