May 16, 2013 |
I’ve been using Evernote, on and off, for over three years now. And while it seems like a terribly clever thing, it just wasn’t that useful in my life. I take lots of notes, and I write a lot of things, but I have a number of different systems for sorting and filing those and it just didn’t make sense to add another one.
After all, which bit of my system would Evernote fit into or replace?
Turns out the answer was ALL OF IT.
I’ve been reading a few things about Evernote over the past few days, and I thought I’d try and make the most of what is actually a very simple and powerful tool.
The best thing is that Evernote will pretty much take whatever you throw at it – from voice memos to photos, PDFs to single lines of text. I’ve even been forwarding certain project-related information emails there, so that I can find them later. I trust Evernote’s search far more than I do Mail app’s.
You can tag, file and sort everything later, and it’s all incredibly searchable (and therefore findable). For someone who does a lot of writing, being able to locate all of the information you’ve ever bookmarked or saved on a particular subject (and likewise being able to clip it from your browser) is utterly invaluable.
I’ve created Notebooks for all of my different projects and have started organising on that basis. It’s a great way to have all of my research, all of my important documents – all of the papers I need for everything all in one cross-platform, OCR-scanning tool.
My ambition for the next month or so is to slowly go through all of the papers that I keep for one reason or another and scan as many of them as seems reasonable into Evernote and then throw them away. Some documents, of course, need to be kept for various reasons – but not nearly as many as I have in the house or at work.
So – the trick is not to dabble in Evernote – but to use it for EVERYTHING.
This Lifehacker article is worth a read if you’re inclined to give it a go.
Apr 30, 2013 |
I went to Swindon today. It’s not the first time it’s happened, but it doesn’t happen often. I was invited to give a guest lecture to two mixed groups of Music Technology and Media Studies A-level students.
The teacher had been careful to prep me with the curriculum and the kinds of questions the students would be tested on in the exams, but of course, I had slightly different ideas. Not that I told them the wrong sorts of things, but I took a step back from it all and asked them to question the whole premise of their research.
They were looking at the impact of the digital world on the music industry, and had been allocated two case studies and given the freedom to pick a third. The two shared case studies were Beyoncé and Take That. Examples I was given of third choices included Radiohead and Amy Winehouse.
But these case studies aren’t indicative of anything. They’re outliers. Extreme cases. It’s like trying to learn how people go about making a salary by using Bill Gates and the Sultan of Brunei as case studies. It’s like trying to learn about the housing market by examining the White House and the Houses of Parliament.
I introduced the students to a little Media Ecology, explained to them why MySpace was not a digital company but an electric one and other tales.
I think it might be wise for the two groups to compare notes. I seem to recall saying completely different things and telling completely different stories to each. I think the core messages were the same, but it would pay to check.
But it was such a luxury to get two packed, attentive young audiences. I’ve been used to groups of 4 and 5 MA students and individual postgrad supervision tutorials. Between 16 and 19, and still at a point where they’re there because they’ve chosen to be for the first time in their academic lives, there’s an energy and interest that is such a joy to teach.
Plus, I got to tell them things that a) they were interested in; and b) had NO IDEA about. Had a few “wait… but that means… NO!” moments visible on their faces. Lots of fun.
Apr 13, 2011 |
I spent the day today working at home with my colleague Jez Collins and after a lot of planning, writing and brainstorming, we had a Skype meeting with Professor Tim Wall to talk about (among other things) the ongoing development of Masters programmes at Birmingham City University.
I’m already the award leader on an MA in Music Industries, and our first intake was in February. We’re recruiting for the September intake now.
It’s been going really well, and we have a small but really engaged group of music industry postrgrad students who are doing great work in Popular Music as Culture and a module in Enterprise. You can check out the students’ work at their blog.
Today we looked at two new developments for next semester’s intake – one definite, and one likely. The first of those is the MA in Music Radio. As far as I know there is no such Masters degree in the UK, focusing specifically on music radio. It’ll be great to bring some of the elements of music programming into the mix, as well as get the students working on practical projects and academic work in this area.
My colleague Sam Coley and a couple of our third year undergraduate students are shortlsted for a Sony Radio Award for a programme they made about the 30th anniversary of UB40’s Signing Off album, and Sam has been making a series for XFM recently, celebrating the 25th anniversary of classic albums. A great series to listen to… and a great person to have around when you’re delivering a course like this.
The other development – and it’s not finalised, but we’re working on it – is the Distance Learning version of the MA in Music Industries. We’re looking at developing a new module specifically in Online Music Enterprise as part of that distance learning course, and I think I’m right in saying it would be the first Music Industry MA to be delivered online. Given my set of interests, you can probably imagine how pleased I am to be involved in putting that together…
I’ve had feedback from quite a few people saying they’d love to do the MA in Music Industries, but they can’t move to Birmingham to do the course for whatever reason. Well – if all this goes to plan, we may just be within sight of solving that particular problem.
Exciting times…
Jan 30, 2011 |
Photo by YlvaS
I’ve been thinking a great deal about radio over the past few weeks. After having done the conference keynote in Auckland, a number of things have lined up to bring me back into that world, after a good five or so years being only peripherally involved at best.
I’ve been asked to write a book about radio in the digital age, for a kickoff. It’s early stages yet, and there’s no contract – but it looks pretty promising. In fact, it’s probably the book I should have been writing since about 2004. I’ll give myself 18 months to turn that one around.
I’ve also been doing a fair bit more academic work in the radio realm than at any time since I originally left New Zealand… and all of a sudden I’m doing a spot of radio consultancy here and there as well.
I did my usual, weekly four-hour jazz, bossa, rare groove, laid-back funk DJ set at the Hare and Hounds this afternoon, while people ate their Sunday roasts. There’s a playlist here, if you’re interested.
Now, because all this radio stuff is going around in my head, I’m thinking of ways of using that activity as the basis for a radio show of some kind. Since I’m playing records anyway…
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Sep 16, 2010 |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ois98ssvKA0
The first thing you should know about the Product Manager for MySpace Music is that he’s an independent musician. He’s in a band called Big Kid. That’s him playing the drums. He also writes most of the songs. I found that both encouraging and surprising.
Myspace Music Product Manager Steve Clark approached me through my blog to have a chat about what was going on at Myspace, the big changes that they were making, and what they were doing to belatedly address the fact that they have access to (as I put it) every frickin’ band on the planet.
Now, I’ve been critical of Myspace in the past (to say the least). My complaints have been many and varied, but my concerns have been especially with respect to the fact that all of their efforts in the music space have been directed exclusively at major labels – and the fact that as an interface, both for artists and for fans, it’s a pile of crap.
A friend of mine once joked that you can’t polish a turd, but you can roll it in glitter. Basically, Myspace has been rolled in glitter.
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