I gave a keynote presentation at the Fremtidens musikalske entreprenører conference, which was held at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen yesterday.

My topic was ‘Musicians are Media Producers’ and I spoke for about half an hour with about 15 minutes of questions afterwards.

A couple of people asked if my slides would be available, so here they are.

It doesn’t help that they don’t make sense without the speaking that I did (or if you can’t read my handwriting) but the session was recorded, so once that’s available I’ll link to the talk that I did. Hopefully that will help unravel the point of the slides.

For iPad users – yes, I used the Paper app to draw the slides, exported each image to the Photo Library and then imported into the Keynote app. I did the presentation straight off the iPad, which works well for me. Not sure I’ll do the “handwritten” keynote presentation thing again – but I might. Makes a change…

I’m in Madrid today at a conference about the independent music industry in the digital age. I’m doing the keynote speech tomorrow, and I’m here with my colleague Jez Collins (left, above) who’s going to be talking about music, identity and cities.

The first thing we’ve noticed is the heat. It’s around 40 degrees here. Lots of people in Birmingham are complaining on Twitter about the ‘heatwave’. It’s 27 degrees there.

The conference has been organised, in large part, by Ignacio (“Nacho” – also above) who works here at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, but who came and spent a few months working with us in Birmingham last year.

We’ve met some really great and interesting people, eaten some amazing food, seen some incredible art in some of the world’s greatest museums and art galleries, and heard some excellent music.

My brain is slowly frying and I may not be able to make sentences tomorrow – but having a lovely time.

I’m speaking at this event in Dublin in June, and really looking forward to it. I think this will be the first time I’m sharing a stage with Gerd Leonhard.

Gerd’s keynote talk is called:
‘The Future of Music: Mobile, Video, Social… and Paid?’

Mine is called:
‘The Future of the Music Business and other fictions’.

There’s probably a conversation to be had between those two presentations.

Here’s the print flyer and registration in PDF form.

Discussing digital promotion at Symphony Hall

On a day when my laptop’s hard drive died, I’m delighted not to choose the photo of my broken computer for my picture of the day – and even more delighted to be able to post this blog from my MacBook with a fresh new hard drive installed (everything was backed up – so all I lost was time).

The more interesting thing that happened today was that I was asked to chair a panel this evening at Symphony Hall (it was actually in the lobby, rather than in the hall itself). The topic, unsurprisingly, was music and online promotion.

It was an interesting session with some really great speakers. From left to right, Grime artist Ghetts, singer, songwriter and blogger Princess Nyah, club night promoter Felix Splashment, blogger and promoter Amelia Ideh and Birmingham ‘bhangramuffin’ music legend Apache Indian.

Some real diversity of opinion on the panel as well. No arguments – but lots of different points of view…

I’m back from New Zealand, where I had a fantastic time doing all sorts of interesting things. I gave two presentations, did three radio shows, met up with friends and family, attended a couple of industry events, visited several cafes, interviewed half a dozen interesting people – and worked out the structure, treatment, instrumentation and musical personnel for 14 songs.

Here’s video of the speech I gave for The Great Blend;
Here’s the Kim Hill ‘Playing Favourites’ radio interview (mp3);
Here are some photos I took;
Here’s a video stroll through Real Groovy Records;

I’d be more comprehensive, but not only did I not have a single moment to sit down and blog the whole time I was there, now I’m back – I’m rather jetlagged.

Thanks to Mum & Dad for having me stay and the use of their car; Caitlin for the airfare and the chance to work on the album; Russell for the opportunity to share billing with Bruce Sterling and Jasmina Tesanovic; Mark Cubey for inviting me on Kim Hill’s radio programme; Wammo for inviting me on his; Mark Robinson for inviting me on his; Nathan, Blackie, Nick D, Mark Roach, Manual and Danny for the interviews; Brendan for the NZ on Air function invitation; and everyone else for being so nice, friendly, helpful and interesting.

I’ve been trying to find a way to get over to New Zealand in the next few months. I’ve been asked to present a radio documentary about Zane Lowe, and I need to sit down with some people back in New Zealand with a tape recorder rolling.

Of course, there’s no budget, and so I put the call out to a bunch of friends and contacts back in Auckland and Wellington to see if there’s anything going on out that way that may add to the list of reasons to head home, and which may help subsidise the journey.

It’s £1000 return at the moment (summer in NZ, you see…), which is pretty prohibitive.

Anyway, I had an email last night from Russell Brown, asking if I’d take part in a Great Blend event, alongside science fiction author Bruce Sterling and feminist political activist and filmmaker, Jasmina Tešanović.

And of course, I’d love to do that. It’s a huge honour. Unfortunately, as with all such things, the appearance fee doesn’t go terribly far towards covering my travel – but it’s a good start. Here’s the thing though – it’s in just over two weeks time – and I need to find the rest of the money from somewhere.

I went to CMJ in New York late 2007 on donations from New Music Strategies readers, but that was a one-off. First, it was completely relevant to the interests of the site (rather than a documentary about a radio presenter).

Second, I’m reluctant to ask people who read my website (largely poor musicians and struggling independent music businesses) for donations to get me to New Zealand in summer – seems a bit rich, right?

And third, I actually think there must be some value in this for somebody who’d find this sort of cash down the back of the couch. I’m talking corporate sponsorship.

Whether UK Trade and Industry want to load me up with products and brochures; some brand wants me to represent them globally; New Zealand On Air want to send me back to the UK with press kits and CD samplers for the UK market; Air New Zealand want me saying nice things about the high standard of their business class on my blog; a distillery company can think of a use for an online whisky taster to sample their delightful products in an antipodean environment; or somebody wants me to wear their t-shirt at the prestigious Great Blend event – I’m pretty much up for sale.

I just want to get to New Zealand and back. Accommodation’s all sorted (right, Mum?)

Here’s the trick though: just over 12 hours ago, I told Russell that I would let him know whether I’d be attending within 48 hours. So – I’m looking for ideas, and I’m looking for them quickly. Thoughts? Contacts?

If you could send this to people you think may be able to find other people who may be able to help, I’d really appreciate it. The Zane Lowe documentary (and the Great Blend event – not to mention NZ itself!) is very personal to me, and I’d really love this opportunity to do it justice.

If you’ve been sent here and are wondering who I am, what I do, and how I might be helpful… have a look at these links:

My bio on New Music Strategies
A bit about me personally
Whisky tasting on Dubber and Clutch

Thanks in advance for any help you can be. It’s much appreciated.

Yep, that slide really says ‘Better Blogger Workflow’…

So… the conference. I went to Chicago for a conference, not just to go to jazz gigs, wander around and look at public art, travel on the local rail (it’s called the ‘L’ train because it’s short for ‘Elevated’ – who knew?), drink in bars and buy records.

From an outsider’s perspective, this was about as geeky as it’s possible to get. A room full of bloggers, discussing blogging, all of them with their laptops open, all of them learning how to blog in such a way that they don’t have to do anything else in order to make a living. Just blog.

Yes – this was Biz School for Bloggers.

Some amazing speakers, and some speakers that stretched my tolerance threshold for motivational, emotion-laden, ‘you can do it – we can all do it!’ rhetoric. I must be more British than I thought.

But there were some really amazingly practical and useful tips for anyone who wants to do anything on the internet. I’ve told everyone concerned that my plan was to steal their ideas, change a couple of words, and then pass it off to musicians as my own knowledge.

And I have pages and pages of notes – some of it brain-bending stuff, and hardly any of it remotely geeky.

Apparently, in order to be able to blog effectively – you have to go outside and experience the world so you have something worth talking about. How counter-intuitive is that?

Technorati Tags: internet, blog, conference, chicago

Birthday cake, modelled on the dimensions of a competition pool table

Turning 40 has been brought to you by Veronica Holdings, radio and television broadcasters, and publishers of the Netherland’s most popular magazine.

My birthday in Amsterdam was pretty much spectacular. Everything had been arranged in advance by phone and email, but I really had no specific idea of what I was in for. I was a guest speaker at something called the Networking and Knowledge Event, which was sufficiently vague a title for me not to know what to expect.

My host was Guido van Nispen, director of Veronica Holdings, and his team.

I had been prepared for a broadcast-style interview, because I had been sent various bits of correspondence from Carsten, the programme’s producer, but I was also aware that this was a conference of some sort, and I wasn’t quite sure how those two things worked together.

We arrived at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam around 10.30am, where we met our driver, who took us to Hilversum, about 40 minutes away, one of the most tree-lined towns you’re ever likely to find. We arrived at Veronica, where we were met by Guido and the team.

Bobbie and I were shown around the building, which serves a number of functions. There’s a film school and a radio school, a media centre, and an archival history project about Veronica, which started life as a pirate radio station.

They’re engaged in an extensive project to source, digitise, archive and make available as much of the broadcasts and the history of Veronica as they can, and they are flooded with tape recordings from over the decades donated by audience members who also share their own recollections. They’re really proud of their history and there’s amazing research to be done there.

(New Zealand readers: can you imagine another ex-pirate radio station investing in a massive public digital archive and in radio education? If only…)

A VIP lunch was put on the rooftop balcony with a range of guests, including Jeroen Bouwman, the new Head of Digital for Universal (with whom I had to agree to disagree on quite a bit), Gabe McIntyre, who runs Xolo.tv and is one of the leading lights in video blogging, and Hans Veldhuizen, the founder of Novatunes — a new online record label which will be launching soon, with the support of some very big names in popular music (and which turns out to have some really great ideas).

There were some rather famous people there too — DJs and presenters (at least, I’m guessing they’re famous in Dutch-speaking circles) — as well as the Veronica top brass.

We spent a large part of the afternoon, just hanging out, talking about music online, being presented with CDs of classic Radio Veronica jingles, meeting people who were uniformly delightful, and looking forward to the networking event (even though I still really wasn’t sure what was going on).

Between 2 and 3pm, about a hundred or so media professionals gathered for champagne and snacks. Around 140 were expected, but there had been a major traffic incident in Amsterdam, and some of the attendees had given up. As it was some people had driven for two and a half hours to get to the event.

There were two stages. On one, there was a radio interview setup, with a DJ off to one side (Dr. Ska – ‘our black music specialist’). On the other, a stage for a music performance by a singer/songwriter by the name of Charlie Dee.

We sat around till 4pm, discussing ideas about music and the internet – and Jeroen and I found a few more things to politely disagree about (though, in fairness, he was quite quick to admit that the major record labels had behaved appallingly until now) and while he didn’t see any major changes over the next 24 months, he was quite certain that things would turn around in the long run.

It became clear that what was happening was a radio-style interview with several of the key delegates, on stage in front of an audience. Because Jeroen was not allowed to speak on a live broadcast (they’re a fearful lot, those major label types), the event was recorded for a podcast that will be released in conjunction with Kink FM, Veronica’s alternative brand).

I was up first, and was asked a few questions about the future of FM radio, and what I thought about the music business. It was interspersed with a song and some radio-style jingles, and the whole thing was over in about 20 minutes — about ten of which was me talking, five was music, and the other five was me being presented with the largest cake I’ve ever seen, which was then divided up for all of the delegates in attendance.

My God, they made a fuss of my birthday. In Holland, they don’t say ‘happy birthday’, they congratulate you. And, it turns out, everyone else connected with you. Bobbie was congratulated on my birthday — and had my parents been there, they would have been congratulated as well.

Congratulations, Mum and Dad, from the people of the Hilversum media industry.

And then there were the other interviews. People far more important than me spoke in Dutch for the next hour and a half, and there was live music and entertainment.

Then followed the party. There was amazing food — noodles and stir fry cooked on the premises and served in cardboard boxes with chopsticks (the prawn was fantastic) — and Bobbie and I spoke mostly to Gabe, who is one of the nicest and smartest people you could hope to meet.

We were treated like absolute royalty for the whole day, and around 8pm we were presented with a bottle of wine each, before our driver arrived to take us back to the hotel, where we had been put up in a ‘Superior Room’ at the Gresham Memphis — a large and rather fancy hotel room beyond our means and expectations.

We had been given strict instructions to order whatever we wanted from the hotel bar, and that food and extras would all be picked up by Veronica. So, naturally, I had a very nice glass of whisky before retiring for the evening.

And today, I’m just enjoying Amsterdam. Bobbie and I wandered around and had a coffee, I bought a Bobby Hutcherson record from Record Palace on Weteringschans (whenever in Amsterdam, always visit the Record Palace), and then we went our separate ways around lunchtime so she could meet with friends here, and I could go off and have a pre-arranged lunch meeting with someone who’s doing some really exciting things with music online… Nothing I can actually discuss as yet, but I am so very excited about it’s potential.

I have heard about three completely game-changing and revolutionary online music ventures just getting off the ground, about which I am allowed to say nothing, but it’s fair to say that whatever you think the future of the music business is, you’re either wrong, or you have underestimated how radically it’s about to change. Man, I love clever people with good ideas.

So now, I’m sitting in a cafe on Prinsengracht, sipping a beer and eating a sandwich consisting of handmade bread, fresh mozzarella, sundried tomatoes and a variety of lettuce I’ve not encountered before, using the free internet connection, and just enjoying every minute of being 40.

I have no right to expect it gets better than this — but I’ve had some conversations in the past 24 hours that lead me to believe that actually, it just might. Again… watch this space.

I’m so grateful to Guido for bringing me over — and to everyone who has made my time here so absolutely joyful. It may be back to work on Monday with a whole bunch of new students (which, actually, is pretty cool), but for now, I’m as happy as I can remember ever having been.

Happy birthday, me.

I’ve been invited to come and give an interview about the future of radio and music in Hilversum tomorrow, just outside of Amsterdam. It’s something to do with Radio Veronica – an ex-pirate station, as I understand it. To be honest, I’m a little hazy on the details, but it sounds really interesting. And boy, they’re being nice about me coming over.

When Guido phoned me a couple of months back to invite me, he said they’d happily pay for flights and everything.

“When is it?”

“September 14th.”

“Oh, that’s my birthday…” I said, almost to myself.

“Really?!” said Guido, suddenly excited. “In that case…”

And then it began. Over the course of the next few weeks, the conversation played out like this:

“…we’ll take you out to dinner, and put you up in a hotel – a really nice one. There’s a 4-star one right by the Oosterpark.”

“Gosh, well in that case, I’d like to bring my wife over with me. Let me know the details of flights and everything, and I’ll book her onto the same flight, and sort out an upgrade to a double room…”

“Leave it to me – we’ll sort the flights and accommodation for you both. And the dinner, of course. The event is on the Friday — would you like to stay the whole weekend? I’ll take you around and meet some people…”

“Wow. Sure.”

So tomorrow morning we leave to get pampered and catered for in Amsterdam for three days. We’re being picked up by a driver from Schipol to take us to Hilversum — all arranged — and then later back to the hotel. I’m pretty much being treated like royalty from start to finish, and while it’s a little bit weird and unfamiliar – it’s very cool…

I just hope what I have to say proves worth all the fuss.