EVER WANTED TO hear your name in a song? Do you listen to Layla, Valerieand Roxanneblasting out of the radio and feel just a little tinge of envy? Well, congratulations writes Kevin Courtney

You now have a good reason to be vain, because this song is definitely about you. That's right, the new single by Scottish band Attic Lights (pictured below) is named after you; if your name is Rachel, Lucy, Hannah, Ted or Martin, you can proudly join the elite group of people whose names have been immortalised in song.

But why has a new, relatively unknown rock band chosen you as the subject of their new single? After all, they hardly know you. Well, it's all part of a novel promotional campaign designed to get the band on first-name terms with their potential audience. The original song is entitled Wendy, but, with a little imagination a and lot of technical wizardry, the band have created 55 different versions of the song, each one featuring a different Christian name. All you have to do is visit the band's website, www.yournameinasong.com, choose your own name from a drop-down menu, and hey presto! You are the star of a catchy song called Dave, Cheryl, Billy, Lauren, Sam or whoever. Once you've listened to a free sample of your song, you can download the full tune from 7digital.com for 99p - a small price to pay for pop glory.

If your name is Aoife, Seamus, Keith, Sharon or Tracy, however, then you'll just have to wait for someone else to write a song about you - none of those names are included.

The Attic Lights' gimmick is a clever move to catch attention in a landscape littered with unsold singles. The demise of the format means that bands must now consider singles as loss leaders, a musical calling-card to attract new fans to purchase their full-length CD. With record labels reluctant to splash out the moolah to promote an unproven act, it's up to bands to find new ways to promote their music and reach a wider audience.

For their 2006 single, Here It Goes Again, Chicago band OK Go choreographed their own "treadmill dance", put it up on the web, and watched as the video notched up 21 million hits on YouTube. Irish band Super Jimenez also used the internet to create a buzz for their single, Faye, setting up a "FayeSpace" page and inviting anyone named Faye to post their picture on the site. The pictures were then made into a collage and used as the cover of the single. According to the band, the site attracted about 3,000 "friends" and received submissions from 1,000 "Fayes" — not bad for a band who previously hadn't been known outside the confines of the local gig scene.

At the recent In The City music biz conference in Manchester, Franz Ferdinand's manager Cerne Canning sounded a sombre note for the future of recorded music. He revealed signings by major labels have dropped by almost 90 per cent in the past year. Normally, big labels sign up to 100 new acts a year. This year 15 bands are lucky if they get to sign on the dotted line.

Those chosen few are expected to deliver the goods, and Attic Lights are one of the lucky ones. The five-piece from Glasgow are signed to Universal, and their debut album, Friday Night Lights, was released last Friday.

If Wendy (or Laura, Helen, Claire and Andy)becomes a hit, then the band will have made a new connection with the music-buying public.