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Podcast Pick: Motive Unknown
I’m a keen podcast consumer. Scrolling through my subscriptions for music industry inspiration I want to feature some of my favourite shows over the coming weeks. At the top of the list is the Motive Unknown podcast. Featuring a range of gin talk and industry banter in a flowing, unedited format driven by Darren Hemmings…
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NY:LON Connect and Music Startup Positivity. – The New Wave of Inventive Music Startups
A couple of weeks ago I was on a panel discussing investment in music startups as part of MusicAlly’s NY:LON Connect event as Reed Smith in London. A few months before at the BBC Future of Music conference Rorri Keflan-Jones painted a picture of a startups disappearing left right and venture. This panel took a…
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Speaking at NY:LON Thanks to MusicAlly and the Music Business Association
Early next week I’ve been invited to speak at NY:LON. An event connection the US and UK music industry. My panel is around investment and digital innovation in music. My outlook on the UK early stage startup scene has been a little pessimistic of late. But with the upcoming announcement of Techstars Music in the…
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BBC Future Music Conference 2016 – The End of Innovation in Digital Music
Is digital innovation dead? The question posed to myself, Sammy Andrews and Gregor Pryor last month at the BBC Future of Music Conference (previously BBC on the Beat). With Rorri Keflan-Jones hosting it was clear we were all supportive of supporting the digital music startup ecosystem. Offering up ideas that perhaps a variation in business…
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Working with OneFest – Introducing Young People to the Live Music Industry
It’s hard starting out in the music industry. In a “who you know” world, how do you get that first introduction? That first project? There are some really great organisations helping young people get a leg up in music. And it was through one (The Young Guns Network) that I heard of the other –…
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The Japanese Music Market and Tokyo Dance Music Event
This month I’ve been exploring Tokyo. The neon city is more different from London, New York or LA than I ever could have imagined. The language, the customs, the music industry. Wandering the streets of Shibuya in the west of the city I came across a glowing monument to CDs. Long since the preserve of…
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Moving On From Chew
It started back in 2011. I was sitting in the Google office, just off Tottenham Court Road, getting a briefing on the upcoming changes to YouTube. Searching through a bunch of names and URLs, I registered chew.fm — a broader name for eatbass.com – the site I started earlier that year to feed its users a “tasty…
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Where are the best places to live and work around the world? – 25 Years. 25 Cities.
Travel is the only expense that makes you richer. – Anonymous Travel is so often that wish. The delayed gratification. Something to wait for next year. Next summer. Over the last year I’ve been lucky enough to travel to some great cities building my company Chew. Because of the nature of my trips I’ve…
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Speaking at Next Radio Conference: How the Radio Audience Became Broadcasters
After I landed from my Chewhiker trip at the beginning of the year I sat down with Matt Deegan at Fix 126 – one of my favourite coffee shops to take time out of the office. We began talking about the NextRadio conference and I noted what I’d begun to notice while speaking to users…
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BEC Conference – Stream Work Makes the Dream Work
This week I was invited to speak at the inaugural Beats Evolution conference. One of a few recent upstart events. BEC focusses on the Drum and Bass industry. Coming a few months after Beatport announced that drum and bass as a genre had recently moved four points to the fifth most popular genre on the…