Finding an artist

When looking for an artist, my class were told we had to find an unsigned artist's music for our video, digipak and magazine advert. The majority of the people in my class knew someone their age which had recorded a few songs ready to send to record labels, or were wanting to pursue a career in the music industry. Unfortunately, I didn't know anyone like this, so was on the hunt for an unsigned music artist. I knew I wanted to have a female singer for the ideas I already had in mind (using inspirations such as Florence and the Machine, Adele, Marina and the Diamonds etc.) Using these ideas I searched the internet and still couldn't find anyone who was the calm acoustic genre I was looking for.

 At this point I thought maybe I should just change my idea completely and approach a rock band, but then I found a band on YouTube called 'Ivy and Gold'. I had heard some of their covers before and found one of their original written songs, 'Home'. I thought the chance of them letting me use their song was very slim because they were already established on YouTube, but decided to email them anyway;

 Hi guys For a media A2 project we've been asked to make a music video with music from a local artist. We've been listening to some of your music and it sounds great! All we need is the mp3 file of one of your original songs and we'll make our own video for it as part of our coursework. No money will be made or anything, it's just for our A2 project. Only thing is it can't be a cover, but we love your song 'home' :) If you wanted any money we'd be able to negotiate (within reason, we're only students haha) Would be great if you could help us out! Thanks, Lucy Kirbyshire :) P.s we love your music!

 Here is their reply: Hey Lucy, Yes that's fine you can use 'Home'. As you're students you don't need to pay anything, just make sure that we are credited wherever you post it ect...... Also if you could buy it off of iTunes for support that would be great :) It should come up if you type in 'emperors home'. This is our old name before we changed it to Ivy and Gold. Be sure to send us the video when you are finished, would love to see what you guys produce. Glad that you love the music! Keep your eyes peeled for the EP :) Thanks, Rachel