MusicWorks, and The Man
Well, 2 weeks since the last blog, I knew it could never ast. I've been kinda busy writing about extreme ironing to worry about the little matter of music... (really).
So in summary; MusicWorks - very corporate, less indie types and even record company people there than last time, and more suits - lawyers interested in Digital Rights and composers wanting to get into film soundtracking. Well, I assume that's who they were. Never actually spoke to any of them. Dieter Meier (of Yello) was supposed to do a keynote on Music and Marketing but it turned into a chat about his life, which was fine by me. The other Keynote was from the main man at Kazaa, who amusingly tried to claim that the file sharing network was going legit. Other highlights: Jah Wobble almost coming to blows with a Peter Mandelson lookalike from the BPI, and the look of embarassment from Emma Delgado when her phone went off while she was on a panel.
I was also up at the NEMIS 'breakout' sessions at the CCA -where some journalists advised some hopeful students on how to get into journalism (advice: "don't" ; subtext: "as there'll be less work for us")
And a demo panel where representatives from the industry i.e. promoters and whatnot advised the young bands present to always put a phone number on their CD, just in case The Man wanted to call them up.
Back at the main event, the Phil Kay-hosted quiz was a drunken laugh, especially when the contestants all voted to eradicate Steve Harley's duet from Sarah Brightman from the history books.
Gigs: few and far between, I saw a grand total of one band, namely Pupkin, whose new harder sound sounded good though perhaps they're less chart-friendly now than before (not that they got in the charts, so this may be no great loss to them).
So in summary; MusicWorks - very corporate, less indie types and even record company people there than last time, and more suits - lawyers interested in Digital Rights and composers wanting to get into film soundtracking. Well, I assume that's who they were. Never actually spoke to any of them. Dieter Meier (of Yello) was supposed to do a keynote on Music and Marketing but it turned into a chat about his life, which was fine by me. The other Keynote was from the main man at Kazaa, who amusingly tried to claim that the file sharing network was going legit. Other highlights: Jah Wobble almost coming to blows with a Peter Mandelson lookalike from the BPI, and the look of embarassment from Emma Delgado when her phone went off while she was on a panel.
I was also up at the NEMIS 'breakout' sessions at the CCA -where some journalists advised some hopeful students on how to get into journalism (advice: "don't" ; subtext: "as there'll be less work for us")
And a demo panel where representatives from the industry i.e. promoters and whatnot advised the young bands present to always put a phone number on their CD, just in case The Man wanted to call them up.
Back at the main event, the Phil Kay-hosted quiz was a drunken laugh, especially when the contestants all voted to eradicate Steve Harley's duet from Sarah Brightman from the history books.
Gigs: few and far between, I saw a grand total of one band, namely Pupkin, whose new harder sound sounded good though perhaps they're less chart-friendly now than before (not that they got in the charts, so this may be no great loss to them).
