Unconsultancy in Manchester went well, I think. I certainly had a good time meeting some amazing people. Thanks to Andy from Indielab for organising it, taking me out for dinner, and letting me sleep in his house. Brilliant job all round.

This is a guest post by my friend Dave Haynes, UK Manager of Soundcloud. They’re on the lookout for great people to work with them, and it’s inspired him to write this really useful and quite inspiring post. If this whole lecturing, research and consulting thing doesn’t pan out for me, I might just apply.

We’re currently looking for interns at SoundCloud (for both our Berlin and London offices). Being an exciting new startup at the sweet spot between the music and web industry we’ve had plenty of interest. As an employer, sifting through a lot of applications and CV’s can be quite an arduous process. What really struck me was the wild variance in the standard of applications. Some stick out instantly whilst others don’t even make it past a 30 second skim read.

So I wanted to share some thoughts on what companies like SoundCloud are ‘really’ looking for nowadays and hopefully provide some useful tips on how you can improve your chances if you’re one of the thousands of people looking to make their first steps into the digital music industry.

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My music industry conference calendar highlight of the year is rapidly approaching. It’s a small, affordable, independent and DIY music conference and mini-festival held in Salford. Follow the link below for a 15% discount.

Un-Convention 2009 is a not for profit grassroots led music conference for DIY and Independent music makers and companies. Born in Manchester in 2008 as an alternative to the more mainstream In The City event, it has already inspired Un-Conventions in Belfast and Swansea and future events in Glasgow, London, Barcelona and Reykjavík. This year’s UK national event in Salford will have a range of key musicians, bands and industry personnel in attendance.

This year’s panelists include Marin Elbourne (Glastonbury), Crispin Parry (British Underground), Andrew Dubber (New Music Strategies – that would be me then), Al Farquhar (Modern Art Management), Peter Hook (New Order), Liam Frost, Ashley Beedle (X-Press2), Jo Good (XFM/MTV), Simon Aldridge (BMI) and John Robb – plus many, many more.

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The Auckland War Memorial Museum is one of my favourite places in the world. It’s an amazing building full of everything you’d like a museum to be. Interesting and engaging, but at the same time hushed, marbled and reverent.

And while it’s appropriately austere, it’s also forward-looking. They’ve recently had a major refurbishment, introduced some really clever digital and interactive features, but without turning it into some sort of crass, multimedia theme park.

As far as I’m concerned, they’ve pretty much struck the balance about right – and the last time I was back in NZ, I was delighted to be able to go to whole new sections of the museum in their new extension.

But the reason I’m talking about this here on New Music Strategies is that they’ve done something really clever that I’d love to see replicated in other ways elsewhere. Perhaps you agree.

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