Simple and brilliant

Simplify Media actually manages to achieve what most music consumers have always wanted: a chance to connect to and enjoy each other’s music without the usual problems associated with that. Simplify Media is a new plugin for iTunes on PC and Mac platforms (with...

On the streets of your town

I’m involved in a research project that will see me going to 13 British cities in 18 days. Maybe we could have a chat. Having just returned from a week away attending a conference in Lincoln, conducting workshops in Wolverhampton and giving seminars in...

Freedom, equality and open wifi

A couple of weeks ago, I received an email out of the blue from a man who claimed to have a globally accessible online professional quality recording facility on his kitchen table. The setup had cost him US$20. Pardon? I have to say, this piqued my interest. As an...

Your mother and I are very worried

You don’t write, you don’t call… I signed up to your mailing list weeks ago. Months even. And I haven’t had a single message from you. Not a thanks for coming to the gig, or a here’s what we’ve been up to — not even a come and...

The networked world

This afternoon, I’m heading to a meeting of the Birmingham Music Network. This is a forum within which local representatives of different sectors of the music industry have a say about what they’ve been up to, the various difficulties they’ve been...