Category: Music

There’s nothing like having something really built up, only for you to be let down at the last moment. I feel a bit of a heel for saying this, but that’s a reasonably accurate reflection of me earlier this evening. I was at the evening do for the Radio Academy’s Production ’07 conference. After a…

A couple of really interesting stories to come out of America recently regarding the state of the music industry. First up was the report that in the US, CD sales dropped by 20% in the last year. That’s an awful lot. In real money, it’s a decline from 112 million CDs to 89 millions. A…

I missed the Cowboy Junkies when they visited in January, so I had to catch this very acoustic set at the Union Chapel in Islington earlier this evening. The Union Chapel itself is an octagonal auditorium dominated by a massive pulpit and is still used as a church. As the event was unreserved seating, and…

So the “exciting” news today is that The Police, who recently reformed for the Grammys, are touring the UK this autumn. I have no real desire to either see them or not see them, but I am very interested in their ticket prices. First of all, I understand that tickets at Twickenham will cost £107…

It must be awfully difficult being an up and coming band. Sure, making the records and touring must be hard work, but maintaining your online presence is truly daunting. Since taking an advantage of an offer on the Virgin Radio site for a free track from the band Ghosts, I’ve ended up on their mailing…

Wrote this last week, but I forgot to put it live, so better late than never. And there’s yet more original research in this! I hate the Brits. I hate hate hate hate hate hate them. I really don’t like them at all. Now this is completely irrational, and I can’t exactly explain why. I…

No, not the band. But the current obsession with bands whose names begin “The —-.” It can’t just be me, but there seem to be evermore of them – particularly in the indie/rock genre that my employer plays. It’s certainly true that there have always been bands with names that start “The”. Most obviously bands…

Steve Jobs has posted a long piece on the future of DRM in music. It seems that he can see the writing on the wall, and he ends the piece effectively arguing for the abolition of DRM (“It wasn’t out idea guv! The record companies insisted on it.”). There’s a certain amount of self-interest here.…

Baggy Trousers was one of the first pop songs that really made an impact on me back in 1980 or so. I learnt all the words from Smash Hits (or maybe Number One). But I don’t think I’ve seen Madness live before… until last night. Wembley Arena was a heaving throng (far fewer seats than…

I wrote at length about the Gower Review the other day, and in particular the section related to music copyright extension. Towards the end I noted that an advert had been published in the FT listing the names of 3,500 – 4,000 people who were in favour of the extension. If you don’t read Boing…

This week has finally seen the publication of the Gowers Review of Intellectual Property conducted on behalf of the Treasury, and the departments of Trade and Industry, and Cutlure, Sport and Media. All the press reports have been about the need to protect intellectual property rights more rigorously from pirating and counterfeiting. There are also…

Some of the best news recently has got to be that the UK is not going to extend the copyright on music beyond the current 50 years to a proposed 95 years. The rather random seeming 95 years is because that’s what it is in America. As I’ve mentioned before, record companies are seemingly unable…