I did a Strategies For Success seminar in Plymouth today for the Musicians Union, and I did it along the the theme of the ‘Questions I Keep Getting Asked About Music Online’. I managed to get some of it recorded, which has allowed me to experiment with the fact that Flickr now has video.
Since Flickr only (inexplicably) does up to 90 seconds, here’s a very brief snippet from today’s seminar.
How much should an mp3 cost?
There are some other bits of video that are longer, and if you’re interested, I can post them as well. I really like the look of the Flickr video, and I’ve been reasonably happy with Viddler - but can anyone recommend The Best Video Sharing Site in terms of clean presentation, interface, picture quality and usability? Flickr’s the best I’ve seen so far - but the 90 second limit is unhelpful.
A whole bunch of local blogfriends went off to Austin, Texas this week to attend South By Southwest Interactive - which is kind of the tech end of what is probably the biggest music industry conference and festival on the planet.
I’ve been to some cool places recently, but that didn’t stop me being dead jealous of everyone.
But I like to think that having a bit of distance and perspective on the whole thing stops you from getting carried away with the spirit of the moment - and lets you see the real trends and significant lessons from the whole thing. At least that’s what I’m telling myself.
I’m in Leeuwarden in the north of Holland today to make a keynote presentation at the Lopend Vuur pitch. Lopend Vuur literally means ‘walking fire’. It comes from a Dutch saying about how rumours are spread - in English we’d probably say ‘like wildfire’.
Over a hundred bands from around the Netherlands applied to be in the Lopend Vuur pitch, and five were selected. Those five bands are being individually mentored and coached by new media-inclined industry experts, to help them get a story, a business plan and a strategy together so that they can make a case for investment. I’m not one of those experts - but I get to deal with all of the bands and their experts together.
Today, after my presentation, they get to sit down and finish working up an initial business pitch to a panel from Sony BMG. But they’re not after a major label deal. Sony have agreed to work with the successful band in a partnership arrangement - not as a ’signed act’.
"Music futurist", "Music thought leader", "Music business innovator". Whatever jargon you might want to use to describe Andrew you'll be using the word 'Music' and wanting to know what he has to say about the subject.
