Mar 11, 2013 |
I’m back – suitably rested and refreshed. I’m in Birmingham and I start back at work today. Things may resume. I’m realistic enough not to aim for normality, but I’m ready for a bit of routine again. As of today, my research sabbatical is over. I’ve been away from work, and I’ve been travelling a great deal. And while I may have a bit of a tan (see above) – I have certainly been working. More on that in a second.
My first big news is that since I last wrote, I have become a professor. My new job title is Professor of Music Industry Innovation. Obviously that includes a lot of stuff about digital technology in the music industries – but also innovation around enterprise, independent business and alternative culture, and music as a tool for social change. And then there’s all that radio stuff I tend to go on about.
Of course, I couldn’t fit all of that on one business card, so Music Industry Innovation has had to act as shorthand for what it is I study.
In terms of what I’ve been doing, well it’s been a little while, so let me bring you up to speed.
Over the past few months I’ve finished my book Radio in the Digital Age and packed it off to the editor; completed a journal article about European jazz agencies and the internet that’s been accepted for publication; an article about New Zealand jazz for the forthcoming AudioCulture website; and I’ve made a start on a piece for a Latin American journal about radio.
I have a couple of academic conferences coming up, and I’m going to be presenting a paper about Bandcamp and independent music discovery at Severn Pop at the University of Bristol on the 25th of this month. In April, it’s the big conference that brings to a close the wonderful Rhythm Changes European Jazz research project I’ve been involved with for the past few years.
But all that’s just the tip of the iceberg. 2013 looks to be an interesting one, to say the least.
I’ve been in some pre-production meetings for a documentary film I’m going to be making with the guys from Blue Hippo Media, who made the excellent Last Shop Standing. My documentary is about the network of independent music collectives in Brazil – Fora do Eixo.
I’ve been studying them for a couple of years now, and there’s lots more to be done. By connecting live music venues, artists and festivals as well as labels and studios around the country, the collectives have developed a separate economy from that of the mainstream music industry… to the point where they now actually have their own currency. Really. It’s a fascinating story.
More on that on my Brazil research blog.
I was on TV in New Zealand talking about music business and music culture in the digital age. The show’s called Media 3 – and you can watch that here (skip to 18m 30 for my bit).
I’ve also been working on a couple of e-books. Music in the Digital Age has been a work in progress for some time now, but it’s already available for download if you’re interested.
The other book is called The 360 Deal – and all going well, it should be ready and available by the end of the week.
I’ve been keeping it pretty well under wraps just so I could get a head start on it before launching it. It’s essentially an edited collection of very short essays by people in the music industries. I’ve asked a whole bunch of really smart and interesting music people to give, in around 360 words, the best piece of advice they could possibly give someone just starting out on their music career.
The range of advice is astonishing, and the calibre of contributors is quite humbling. Like Music in the Digital Age, The 360 Deal will grow as time goes on. My aim is to end up with 360 pieces of advice by 360 people in 360 words. The book is going to be available for sale for $3.60 (or more, if you prefer) with all proceeds going to Music Basti – a charity in India that brings music workshops to homes for children affected by extreme poverty.
It’s a really good cause – and the book is astonishingly great (I can say this, because I really only compiled it – other people have done the writing). It’s turning out to be an incredible collection of music industry wisdom, practical and pragmatic advice, and completely inspirational writing. I can’t wait to show it to you. With any luck you should be able to see that by Friday.
And finally, I guess, I’ve been having conversations with some really fascinating people in the music and tech sectors and there are some interesting projects in the works. All I can really say about that for now is ‘watch this space’…
It was lovely to be away – but it’s also nice to be back.
Nov 9, 2011 |
Over the past few months, I’ve been doing most of my work standing up. Part of that came about because I was starting to get a bit of a sore back. But I had also seen a couple of articles online about the benefits of standing up to work as opposed to sitting down all day.
Given the amount of time I spend at a computer, I figured it would be a good idea to use a “standing desk” instead of the usual office desk.
In addition, I’ve also recently purchased a “wobble board“. This is essentially just a circle of wood on half a wooden ball. As the name suggests, it wobbles. In doing so, it moves the joints and generally contributes to things like balance, posture and flexibility.
Doing my work standing, I’ve found that I tend to concentrate better, I get more work done, my back feels much better, and with the wobble board (and a bit of music playing) I get to move around a bit as well. Not only that, but now that I’m dictating most of my writing, I’m working at about three times the speed.
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Feb 27, 2011 |
I’ve been talking to people about their dreams and aspirations a lot recently, especially yesterday, when one of the things I did at Unconvention at The Roundhouse in London was a sort of ‘speed networking’ thing, in which people would book 10 minute slots with me (or others, if they preferred), talk about their musical ambitions, and I would feed back with advice designed to get them un-stuck and moving forward toward those objectives.
Anyway, it got me thinking about what my dream job would consist of, and it came to me while I was sitting here at the Hare and Hounds pub in Birmingham, playing jazz records to people eating roast dinners and drinking pints of lovely real ales and glasses of wine, chatting with their families and friends.
I want to do this, more or less. But with a few differences. I love travel, broadcasting, recording music, meeting people, taking photos, record shopping, blogging and writing. You’ll know I’ve got it absolutely bang on when I’m doing all of these things as a matter of course. Which I nearly am – and I’ve been doing many of these things for the past 20 years in some capacity or another… but this would be my ideal world configuration of those things.
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May 9, 2010 |
This, believe it or not, is a pile of work that was waiting for me when I returned home from Macclesfield this afternoon. There’s a lot to process here, but I have to say – as far as work goes, I can think of far worse ways to spend my time…
May 27, 2009 |
Monday was a bank holiday, and I’ve taken this rest of this week off work. Teaching came to an end last week, and I felt I was overdue a bit of a break.
Besides, Jake has his GCSE exams on at the moment, but he gets this week as a study break, so I thought I might be able to hang out with him, give him a bit of a hand and make sure he did some revision. At my instigation, he’s mindmapping his entire year’s coursework for each subject, and we’re working in 45 mins on, 15 mins off blocks of time.
I have a few other things on, and so far, I’m managing to fit them all in. Here’s how it’s shaping up:
MA Music Industries
I’m writing a couple of modules for next year’s MA degree in Music Industries that I’m going to be leading. I know that, strictly speaking, this counts as work and shouldn’t even show up on the radar during a holiday – but it’s something that needs to get done in time for course validation, and ‘getting away from it all’ has provided me with the space to give it the attention it deserves.
More Canals
I’ve been helping my friends Craig and Jim with a business venture – a new online music PR and branding company called More Canals, and although we haven’t officially ‘launched’ yet, we’ve already been approached to pitch to a couple of large corporations that are keen to work with the independent music sector, which is something we’re going to be specialising in. I’m writing the overview document and working on the agency’s website today. I’m meeting with Jim tonight in preparation for his presentation tomorrow – our first pitch.
Consultancy
I have a couple of Skype consultancies this week – just an hour here and there with musicians and music businesses that want a bit of an outside perspective on what they’re doing, and some idea generation. Increasingly, it seems to be mostly Americans that I’m working with at the moment, but I have one Australian and one British client this week.
Online meetings
I’m on the advisory board for a startup in California, and we have an online meeting this week. They’re a really interesting new outfit that I can’t really say too much about at this stage. But it’s music, it’s interactive and it has to do with physical spaces, rather than online consumption per se, which makes a nice change.
Jura
Clutch and I spent the weekend as guests of Whyte and Mackay at the isle of Jura, and we had many whisky-related adventures while we were there (as well as some non-whisky-related adventures on the way back home). We’ve been editing and posting video, composing blog posts and uploading photographs, but there’s still so much more to do and say. It really was a fabulous trip and we want to capture as much of that as possible, so I have more video editing to do over the next few days for the Dubber and Clutch website.
Meeting with Channel 4
Stef and I are meeting with a couple of commissioning editors from 4IP this week to discuss some online project ideas we’re developing. Essentially it’s a brainstorming meeting, and we’re hoping that they’ll like some of the concepts we come up with.
Voice work
Every now and then, I get scripts emailed to me. I’m the guy who puts you in a priority queue when you phone certain insurance companies in New Zealand. I had one turn up yesterday, which I recorded last night at Clutch’s home studio – and another turned up this morning, so I may have to ask his indulgence again. To repeat this message, press 9.
Writing a book
I’ve started initial work on a book about popular music culture and how that can be threatened when music is considered to be purely commerce, particularly at the level of government policy and especially in the context of new technology. It’s called Deleting Music, and at the moment, I’m interviewing people and collecting stories about music going out of circulation; copyright stifling the creation of new works; archives and scholars hamstrung by industry protectionism; and social, cultural experience being outlawed.
Writing another book
This one’s a longer-term project and may end up taking many years. It’s about the ways in which human beings are evolving in response to technology. It started life as my original MA thesis, but it was stuck in a drawer when I began to realise that it was much bigger than the 40,000 words I was allowed to complete that – so I opted for something about digital radio instead. I’ve decided to revisit it, and I’m collecting source material, writing bits and pieces as I get time. It’s called Now We Are Different – and I’m determined to get some work done on that this week, since I’m on holiday and everything.
Writing yet another book
I’m the co-author of a forthcoming undergraduate textbook called Understanding the Music Industries. I have one or two chapters to write, and although the deadline keeps shifting, I do need to get on with it. Thankfully, it seems that everyone else has just as much on as I do. I’m taking the opportunity this week to get a bit of work done on this project.
Writing a presentation
I’ve been invited to come and speak at a music industry conference in Paris next week, and I like to go into these things prepared. I’m also speaking at Un-Convention in Manchester next week, and I’m hosting a discussion about Music As Culture (which relates nicely to the Deleting Music book) and should really make some notes. I’m ditching the London music conference that happens on Wednesday next week. Too many things happening at once.
Choosing music for my audiobook
A company has made a professional audiobook version of my 20 Things e-book, and they’ve asked me to for music to put in between the chapters. I put the call out a couple of weeks back for people to submit tracks, and I’ll be going through those this week, selecting tunes 20 pieces of music from that selection.
Submitting an academic conference paper
Just had a call from Tim Wall who alerted me to the fact that there’s a jazz conference at Salford University in November, we’ve each been asked to put a paper in for it – and the deadline is today. Tim’s going to knock something together, and we’ll put that in by the end of the day – but we’re discussing and bashing that one into shape over the phone this morning.
Relaxing
While it sounds like I’m doing a lot this week, I am doing it fairly slowly and taking it easy (at least, by my usual standards). I’m determined to take the odd nap from time to time and just hang out.
I’d better go get on with it.
