Welcome back
For the past couple of years, New Music Strategies has been operating largely behind the scenes and below the radar. We’ve been engaged in a series of major music innovation projects working with government institutions, European funding agencies, national academies and international communities of innovators and artists – and we’ve come away with some incredible insights and connections.
Taking the lessons from these initiatives, NMS is creating all new materials, new projects, new opportunities and all-new music strategies for independent artists and music companies.
The new phase of the NMS journey is about to take off, and we invite you to join us for that.
A lifetime in online music
Launched in 2005, New Music Strategies was the original source for insight and advice for the independent music sector as it came of age in the digital realm.
Over a decade ago, the site spawned The 20 Things You Must Know About Music Online, a free ebook that became a seminal text in the digital music world.
It was translated into 11 languages, sent as required reading to over 50,000 members of CD Baby, downloaded by over half a million musicians and music entrepreneurs worldwide, and used as a touchstone in the creation of Bandcamp.
Music in the Digital Age followed, which developed the ideas further and became the fastest selling ebook about independent music online in history. The 360 Deal was an edited collection to raise money for charity, and brought together key advice from hundreds of music professionals for people just getting started in the industry.
Other projects have included:
- The philosophical extended essay Toward a 6th Media Age, which laid out the roadmap for the future of media technology and the ways in which the changing media environment affects and informs everything we do as human beings – and especially the ways in which we create and express ourselves;
- The pragmatic and hands-on Monkey On The Roof project, which recorded an album of music by Indian children in extreme poverty to raise money for the charitable organisation that brought them music workshops;
- The tongue-in-cheek (and unexpectedly successful) record label Any and All Records that will sign absolutely anyone so that people can stop using the terrible and stigmatised term ‘unsigned’. Today, Any and All is the fastest-growing record label in the world with an average of 12-15 new signings every week.
Along the way, the NMS team has developed public projects to promote More Music, By More People, In More Places – and has branched into coaching, consultancy, knowledge events and online seminars.
Thirteen years is an incredibly long time in the digital realm, and the world has changed dramatically since the project began.
New Music Strategies founder and editor Andrew Dubber became Professor of Music Industry Innovation at Birmingham City University where he led research projects and ran innovative online postgraduate programmes – before leaving the world of academia to become the Director of the global festival of music ideas Music Tech Fest in 2014.
The all new New Music Strategies
Over the past couple of years, New Music Strategies has been working with individual clients and public organisations across Europe, preparing reports and contributing to curriculum in universities across Europe.
In 2019, NMS will expand and relaunch to a much wider public with brand new strategies and renewed energy.
NMS is renewing its focus on the original mission:
To research, uncover and develop new strategies for independent music success;
To put those tools in the hands of artists, creators, independent music organisations and public institutions worldwide; and
To promote the use of music and music tech as a force for good in the world.
NMS will create and distribute tools, knowledge and insight to help you make the most of everything we’ve learned along the way. We’ll also create new projects that connect artists with technologists, with audiences, with performance and innovation opportunities, with national institutions and programmes, and with other artists.
If you’d like to be part of that journey, sign up to be first to get the news the moment we open a new programme, publish new strategies or open a new call for participation.
By way of thanks, we’ll give you a free ebook that outlines the core principles, concepts and ideas behind the New Music Strategies approach to understanding the changing nature of our digital age (the 5th Media Age), and how to keep one step ahead as it evolves Toward a 6th Media Age.
Welcome back
For the past couple of years, New Music Strategies has been operating largely behind the scenes and below the radar. We’ve been engaged in a series of major music innovation projects working with government institutions, European funding agencies, national academies and international communities of innovators and artists – and we’ve come away with some incredible insights and connections.
Taking the lessons from these initiatives, NMS is creating all new materials, new projects, new opportunities and all-new music strategies for independent artists and music companies.
The new phase of the NMS journey is about to take off, and we invite you to join us for that.
A lifetime in online music
Launched in 2005, New Music Strategies was the original source for insight and advice for the independent music sector as it came of age in the digital realm.
Over a decade ago, the site spawned The 20 Things You Must Know About Music Online, a free ebook that became a seminal text in the digital music world.
It was translated into 11 languages, sent as required reading to over 50,000 members of CD Baby, downloaded by over half a million musicians and music entrepreneurs worldwide, and used as a touchstone in the creation of Bandcamp.
Music in the Digital Age followed, which developed the ideas further and became the fastest selling ebook about independent music online in history. The 360 Deal was an edited collection to raise money for charity, and brought together key advice from hundreds of music professionals for people just getting started in the industry.
Other projects have included:
- The philosophical extended essay Toward a 6th Media Age, which laid out the roadmap for the future of media technology and the ways in which the changing media environment affects and informs everything we do as human beings – and especially the ways in which we create and express ourselves;
- The pragmatic and hands-on Monkey On The Roof project, which recorded an album of music by Indian children in extreme poverty to raise money for the charitable organisation that brought them music workshops;
- The tongue-in-cheek (and unexpectedly successful) record label Any and All Records that will sign absolutely anyone so that people can stop using the terrible and stigmatised term ‘unsigned’. Today, Any and All is the fastest-growing record label in the world with an average of 12-15 new signings every week.
Along the way, the NMS team has developed public projects to promote More Music, By More People, In More Places – and has branched into coaching, consultancy, knowledge events and online seminars.
Thirteen years is an incredibly long time in the digital realm, and the world has changed dramatically since the project began.
New Music Strategies founder and editor Andrew Dubber became Professor of Music Industry Innovation at Birmingham City University where he led research projects and ran innovative online postgraduate programmes – before leaving the world of academia to become the Director of the global festival of music ideas Music Tech Fest in 2014.
The all new New Music Strategies
Over the past couple of years, New Music Strategies has been working with individual clients and public organisations across Europe, preparing reports and contributing to curriculum in universities across Europe.
In 2019, NMS will expand and relaunch to a much wider public with brand new strategies and renewed energy.
NMS is renewing its focus on the original mission:
To research, uncover and develop new strategies for independent music success;
To put those tools in the hands of artists, creators, independent music organisations and public institutions worldwide; and
To promote the use of music and music tech as a force for good in the world.
NMS will create and distribute tools, knowledge and insight to help you make the most of everything we’ve learned along the way. We’ll also create new projects that connect artists with technologists, with audiences, with performance and innovation opportunities, with national institutions and programmes, and with other artists.
If you’d like to be part of that journey, sign up to be first to get the news the moment we open a new programme, publish new strategies or open a new call for participation.
By way of thanks, we’ll give you a free ebook that outlines the core principles, concepts and ideas behind the New Music Strategies approach to understanding the changing nature of our digital age (the 5th Media Age), and how to keep one step ahead as it evolves Toward a 6th Media Age.
International Sound Awards deadline
The deadline for the International Sound Awards has been extended to 26 May 2023. That means there’s three weeks left to submit projects. Here’s the link to apply. I can recommend entering this if you have an interesting sound or music project that fits one of their...
#MTFLabs: Blockchain
Blockchain technology has received a great deal of media attention recently. It's a technology that's been at the core of new and innovative startups, and has been championed by Imogen Heap, Benji Rogers and others as a way to make the music business more fair,...
Music Beyond the Digital Age
I was in Stockholm today presenting at a course run by SOM - the Swedish association for independent music. A group of record label owners had been assigned my book to read, and I was invited to come and talk to them for a couple of hours. By all accounts, not only...