VELVET REVOLVER: 'Set Me Free' Takes Off On Radio, iTunes

VELVET REVOLVER's single "Set Me Free", which is featured on Decca/Universal's soundtrack to "The Hulk", is among the most-requested songs on alternative stations WBCN in Boston and KROQ in Los Angeles, according to Billboard. The group's managers, Dana Millman-DuFine and David Codikow of Immortal Entertainment, pacted with Apple's new iTunes download service to offer the single, and it's already the No. 2 most-downloaded song.

Guitarist Slash (ex-GUNS N' ROSES) said that the band want to focus on writing music and rehearsing before pursuing a record deal.

"In light of the way the music business is right now, you want to put out a record that's going to be cost-effective and distributed properly," he said. "If you're going to make a deal, you want to make the best deal you can possibly make, and if you can afford to do it yourself, it's even better. We're just looking at it from all these different directions ... I've cut my teeth on all different aspects of the wrong way to do it."

The band's management are weighing their options, including the possibility of releasing the group's debut album directly through an Internet company.

"People are talking to us, and in the next 60 days or so we're going to figure it out," Codikow said. "If radio embraces this band the way that we all hope, who's to say that you couldn't drop ship records to record stores and download them — and even if you sold less, from an economic standpoint you'd still make money."

As previously reported, VELVET REVOLVER — whose lineup is completed by fellow ex-Gunners Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum, David Kushner of LOADED/WASTED YOUTH and STONE TEMPLE PILOTS frontman Scott Weiland — will play their first show tonight (June 19) at Los Angeles' El Rey Theatre.