Hi. How’s it going?
I’ve been getting some emails recently from worried New Music Strategies readers. Some of them asking after my health (there’s nothing wrong with my health – but people assume the worst), and others prompting for a return to the blog so they can read more content.
It’s been a good couple of months since I wrote anything at all here – and longer since I did so with any regularity.
Well, I have some good news, and some other good news.
The good news
The good news is that I’m fine. Very busy, of course, and working on some really interesting stuff that’s taking a lot of my attention at present. There’s the Music As Culture initiative, which we’ve kicked off with a really fantastic project with the band UB40.
I’m also co-writing a textbook about the music industries for undergraduate students. That’s taking a lot of my mental space.
I’m teaching classes, researching stuff and writing articles as I do from time to time. University stuff.
And I’m travelling a lot. Since last I blogged here, I’ve been to Brussels, Berlin (twice), Marseille, Scarborough, Manchester and London doing seminars, consultancies, making radio documentaries, working on Nitin Sawhney’s Aftershock Project, being interviewed, capturing jazz festivals and putting them online and having meetings about all sorts of stuff – some of it interesting.
The other good news
The other good news is that I’ve started blogging about the music industry online again. But I’m doing it in a place where it’s surrounded by other people also blogging about the music industry online.
If you go to Music Think Tank (which I expect you already do – but just in case, here’s a prompt to do so), then you’ll notice that I’ve had a couple of things to say already.
For a start, I said ‘Let’s all ditch MySpace‘ and then I went on to say ‘Everybody’s wrong about filesharing‘. I’m sure I’ll have other things to say there in due course. But chances are it’ll be there, rather than here.
Music Think Tank is great. You’ll like it.
More good news
I still have some plans for New Music Strategies. I haven’t abandoned it completely, and there’s some good stuff on the way soon – not the least of which is an audiobook version of the 20 Things ebook.
There’s also a long toiled-over new ebook on the way. This one updates and addresses the original, and gives a whole new spin on the Things You Must Know About Music Online. And without wanting to give the game away – there aren’t 20 things anymore. There’s just one.
I haven’t finished it – but announcing it here should (theoretically) provide me the incentive and urgency required to get to work on polishing it off. I’m off to India this week, so perhaps some time on a plane will give me the opportunity to address that.
So – changes for New Music Strategies (and more changes to come) – but the important thing to note is that the kind of thing I used to do here on New Music Strategies, I now do at Music Think Tank. I’m surrounded by a group of clever, interesting, insightful and incredibly helpful individuals who do the same, giving a much broader and much more indepth bunch of information and advice than I could ever hope to give on a solo blog.
But of course, we haven’t seen the end of New Music Strategies. It’s just not ready to come out of its cocoon quite yet. In the meantime, I thought I’d pop my head up and say hi.
So yeah… “Hi”.
Places to check for other instances of good news
If you’re interested in my own day-to-day activities and adventures, there’s always my personal blog.
There’s stuff I do with the team at the Interactive Cultures Research Unit, where I work.
There’s the Music As Culture project.
I mentioned Music Think Tank, of course.
I’m always on Twitter.
And I have a Facebook Page.
So it’s not like I’ve fallen completely off the internet.
I’ve just been kind of quiet over here.